Developing clean and abundant photocatalyst and photocathode for water splitting and $CO_2$ conversion

Abstract

The atmospheric $CO_2$ concentration in 2015 permanently move above 400 ppm. 400 ppm of $CO_2$ concentration has been considered as psychological threshold in order to keep the incensement of average temperature below $2 ^\circ C$ than industrialization. Therefore, the human race is facing the need to suppress the $CO_2$ concentration and develop a new clean energy. To address this issue, photocatalytic/photoelectrochemical using sunlight $H_2$ generation and $CO_2$ conversion can be a solution. For developing photocatalyst/photoelectrode, the toxicity, price, bandgap energy, and abundance of semiconductor material should be essentially considered. Silicon and copper oxide are one of the candidate, which can satisfy all factors mentioned above. In this dissertation, development of clean and abundant silicon and copper oxide based photocatalyst/photoelectrode for photocatalytic $H_2$ evolution and photoelectrochemical $CO_2$ conversion has been studied.