What is the best solar-to-fuel carbon dioxide reduction catalyst reported to date? During the summer holidays, Atsayan, Lathusan and Brian completed a literaturebased project with Professor Reinhard Maurer from the University of Warwick.
Although graphene is indeed a great conductor; it is not very good at collecting the electrical current produced inside the solar cell. Hence, researchers are looking for appropriate ways to modify graphene for this purpose.
They attended a number of online meetings through Teams with Professor Maurer to understand how to write a literature-based report, discuss their progress, and to try understand the difficult concepts they were required to write about in their report. Their literature-based project was on ‘what is the best solar-to-fuel carbon dioxide reduction catalyst reported to date?’. They discussed what made a good catalyst material for carbon dioxide reduction and evaluated what was the best product into which carbon dioxide should be transformed.
While graphene-based solar cells are not currently commercially available, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), India's largest power generation equipment manufacturer, have suggested that 10% of all shipments will be graphene based solar panels, this implies that graphene is going to become much more prevalent in the future.
In summary, graphene-based photocatalysts, especially when combined with TiO 2, are the best photocatalysts for solar-to-fuel CO 2 reduction. This is because graphene’s features make it an optimal photocatalyst, such as a large surface area, high flexibility, and good conductivity. TiO2 combines the best with graphene, due to its high surface area, and enhanced photocatalytic properties.
The group thoroughly enjoyed the experience and wrote a detailed report. Professor Maurer said they should be very pleased with their efforts and their report was equivalent to a 2.1 for a third year undergraduate student. 17
