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Solar Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production: Current Status and Future Challenges

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Book cover Materials and Processes for Solar Fuel Production

Part of the book series: Nanostructure Science and Technology ((NST,volume 174))

Abstract

Due to the increase of the worldwide demand for energy along with the global warming and the increasing level of atmospheric CO2, solar hydrogen has been proposed as an optimal fuel as it can be produced from water using solar energy which emerges as the most promising energy source in terms of abundance and sustainability. So far the main commercial process for producing hydrogen is steam reforming of hydrocarbons which is connected with a CO2 emission disadvantage. Carbon free hydrogen production can be achieved by water splitting through an electrolyser powered by photovoltaics, but a potentially more cost effective route is to perform direct photocatalytic water splitting using semiconductor photocatalysts. Herein, the authors will present the principles of this process, the current progress in the field, and future challenges.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support from the BMBF (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung) within the project HyCats (Grant No. 01RC1012C) and from the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University of Hanover within the WiF II project No. 60420974 is gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank Dr. R. Dillert for the stimulating discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Photocatalysis and Nanotechnology Research Unit, Institute of Technical Chemistry, Leibniz University of Hannover, Callinstrasse 3, 30167, Hannover, Germany

    Jenny Schneider & Detlef W. Bahnemann

  2. Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Sohag University, Sohag, 82524, Egypt

    Tarek A. Kandiel

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  1. Jenny Schneider
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Correspondence to Tarek A. Kandiel .

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  1. National Centre for Catalysis Research, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India

    Balasubramanian Viswanathan

  2. Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada, USA

    Vaidyanathan (Ravi) Subramanian

  3. Pohang University of Science & Tech., Pohang, Korea, Republic of (South Korea)

    Jae Sung Lee

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Schneider, J., Kandiel, T.A., Bahnemann, D.W. (2014). Solar Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production: Current Status and Future Challenges. In: Viswanathan, B., Subramanian, V., Lee, J. (eds) Materials and Processes for Solar Fuel Production. Nanostructure Science and Technology, vol 174. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1628-3_3

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