Nanodesigned electrochemical reactors for H2 production

The main goal of this project is the development of an artificial device capable of splitting water to produce hydrogen at ambient temperature.

As shown in the figure, the device will consist of three main parts:

an anodic electrode exposed to sunlight carrying a water splitting catalyst: synthetic clusters to be attached to an electrical conducting membrane are being explored which can bring about light-driven directional charge separation, thus mimicking the natural photosynthetic reaction centre (Photosystem II), and use the oxidising potential of the “hole” to split water.
a membrane enabling transport of both electrons and protons via carbon nanotubes (CNT) or TiO2 and ion-exchange resins like Nafion, respectively. The membrane will have to be tailored to provide the minimum transfer resistance so as to achieve maximum conversion efficiencies. Nafion can play a role both as catalyst support and as solvated proton conductor (like in PEM fuel cells). This offer the opportunity to design a system that can readily catch the protons where they are generated and drive them by diffusion towards the cathodic electrode where H2 will form, due to the injection of excited electrons derived from the photoactivated water splitting reaction.
a cathodic electrode that carry an artificial hydrogenase catalyst in order to recombine protons and electrons into molecular hydrogen: the goal is to synthesize a catalytic site mimicking hydrogenase activity in order to produce hydrogen gas.

This research line is carried out in combination with a fundamental research laboratory (Biosolar Lab) just opened at Polito’s site in Alessandria and led for the next three years by one of the most reputed scientists in the field (Prof. James Barber, formerly at the Imperial College London, ENI Italgas prize in 2005 for his high-precision understanding of the above mentioned Photosystem II). In this perspective the IIT Node host any prototype or pre-prototype testing bench to complement the fundamental research facilities hosted at the Biosolar Lab and to bridge the gap between the basic science achievements and the exploitation of the technology.

Solar energy conversion device capable of converting sunlight into hydrogen (and oxygen).
Scheme of the SOLHYDROMICS device concept, based on the original idea by Dutton & Moser (personal communication to J. Barber).