Nanomaterials for Functional ApplicatioNs in Clean energY generation (FANCY)

The overall water splitting process, eventually boosted by sunlight, can generate hydrogen and oxygen from water and is considered as one of the most promising approaches to face the global energy crisis with no harmful effect on human health or environment. Unfortunately, the availability of cheap, efficient and active material platforms to promote this process is still relatively limited, underscoring the urgent need of additional research efforts in this field. Therefore, the main aim of this proposal is to acquire knowledge in the design, production and validation of novel nanoscale catalysts suitable for sustainable hydrogen production by (photo)electrochemical water splitting processes. To this regard, we focus our attention on the preparation of three different kinds of systems: a) nanocomposites of NiO and graphitic carbon nitride (gCN), whose coupling can efficiently separate photoinduced charge carriers, resulting thus in improved functional performances; b) the preparation of composite material derived from the combination of single phase Mn and Fe oxides or the use of a Mn-Fe ternary oxide; c) the preparation of CuFe2O4/gCN, NiFe2O4/gCN, and Fe2O3/gCN systems.