COMPOSITE PHOTOCATALYTIC MATERIALS FOR SOLAR ENERGY CONVERSION AND ENVIRONMENTAL APPLICATIONS

The PhD project focused on the synthesis, characterisation and testing of metal modified TiO2 powders and thin WO3 films for solar energy conversion and photocatalytic oxidation reactions. In the first part, two industrial processes, i.e. Flame Spray Pyrolysis and Magnetron Sputtering, were employed to modify TiO2 powders with Cu and/or Pt nanoparticles. These photocatalysts were tested in the methanol photosteam reforming reaction for hydrogen production. The most promising materials were further tested in the same reaction at different temperatures to observe the effect of heat over photoactivity and selectivity. In addition, ME-XAS analyses were performed to better understand the behaviour of metal nanoparticles over TiO2 under operando conditions. In the second part, WO3 films were synthesised by sputtering techniques and the effect of several deposition parameters, such as total pressure, O2 partial pressure, applied power, number of deposited layers, were investigated by means of photo-electrochemical techniques.