Photoelectrochemistry, Photocatalysis, Solar hydrogen, Waste water treatment, Solid liquid interface, Nanoparticles, Solid state, hydrogen generation, materials characterization
Bora DK, Braun A, Erat S, Safonova O, Graule T, Constable EC (2012), Evolution of structural properties of iron oxide nano particles during temperature treatment from 250 degrees C-900 degrees C: X-ray diffraction and Fe K-shell pre-edge X-ray absorption study, in
CURRENT APPLIED PHYSICS, 12(3), 817-825.
Bora DK, Rozhkova EA, Schrantz K, Wyss PP, Braun A, Graule T, Constable EC (2012), Functionalization of Nanostructured Hematite Thin-Film Electrodes with the Light-Harvesting Membrane Protein C-Phycocyanin Yields an Enhanced Photocurrent, in
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS, 22(3), 490-502.
Bora DK, Braun A, Erni R, Fortunato G, Graule T, Constable EC (2011), Hydrothermal Treatment of a Hematite Film Leads to Highly Oriented Faceted Nanostructures with Enhanced Photocurrents, in
CHEMISTRY OF MATERIALS, 23(8), 2051-2061.
Bora DK, Braun A, Erat S, Ariffin AK, Lohnert R, Sivula K, Topfer J, Gratzel M, Manzke R, Graule T, Constable EC (2011), Evolution of an Oxygen Near-Edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure Transition in the Upper Hubbard Band in alpha-Fe2O3 upon Electrochemical Oxidation, in
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C, 115(13), 5619-5625.
Bora Debajeet K., Braun Artur, Constable Edwin C. (2013), "in rust we trust". Hematite-the prospective inorganic backbone for artificial photosynthesis, in
Energy and Environmental Science, 6(2), 407-425.
Bora Debajeet K., Braun Artur, Erni Rolf P., Müller Ulrich R., Döbeli Max, Constable Edwin C. (2013), Hematite-NiO/α-Ni(OH)2 heterostructure photoanodes with high electrocatalytic current density and charge storage capacity, in
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 15(30), 12648-12659.
Gajda-Schrantz Krisztina, Tymen Simon, Boudoire Florent, Toth Rita, Bora Debajeet K., Calvet Wolfram, Grätzel Michaël, Constable Edwin C., Braun Artur (2013), Formation of an electron hole doped film in the α-Fe 2O3 photoanode upon electrochemical oxidation, in
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 15(5), 1443-1451.
Bora Debajeet K., Hu Yelin, Thieß Sebastian, Erat Selma, Feng Xuefei, Mukherjee Sumanta, Fortunato Giuseppino, Gaillard Nicolas, Toth Rita, Gajda-Schrantz Krisztina, Drube Wolfgang, Grätzel Michaël, Guo Jinghua, Zhu Junfa, Constable Edwin C., Sarma D. D., Wang Hongxin, Braun Artur (2013), Between photocatalysis and photosynthesis: Synchrotron spectroscopy methods on molecules and materials for solar hydrogen generation, in
Journal of Electron Spectroscopy and Related Phenomena, 190(Part ), 93-105.
Hu Yelin, Bora Debajeet K., Boudoire Florent, Häussler Florian, Gräetzel Michael, Constable Edwin C., Braun Artur (2013), A dip coating process for large area silicon-doped high performance hematite photoanodes, in
Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, 5(4), 043109-1-043109-9.
Braun Artur, Chen Qianli, Flak Dorota, Fortunato Giuseppino, Gajda-Schrantz Krisztina, Grätzel Michaël, Graule Thomas, Guo Jinghua, Huang TzuWen, Liu Zhi, Popelo Anastasiya V., Sivula Kevin, Wadati Hiroki, Wyss Pradeep P., Zhang Liang, Zhu JunFa (2012), Iron resonant photoemission spectroscopy on anodized hematite points to electron hole doping during anodization, in
ChemPhysChem, 13(12), 2937-2944.
Bora Debajeet K., Rozhkova Elena A., Schrantz Krisztina, Wyss Pradeep P., Braun Artur, Graule Thomas J., Constable Edwin C. (2012), Functionalization of nanostructured hematite thin-film electrodes with the light-harvesting membrane protein C-phycocyanin yields an enhanced photocurrent, in
Advanced Functional Materials, 22(3), 490-502.
Braun Artur, Sivula Kevin, Bora Debajeet K., Zhu JunFa, Zhang Liang, Grätzel Michaël, Guo Jinghua, Constable Edwin C. (2012), Direct observation of two electron holes in a hematite photoanode during photoelectrochemical water splitting, in
Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 116(32), 16870-16875.
Bora Debajeet K., Braun Artur, Erni Rolf P., Fortunato Giuseppino, Graule Thomas J., Constable Edwin C. (2011), Hydrothermal treatment of a hematite film leads to highly oriented faceted nanostructures with enhanced photocurrents, in
Chemistry of Materials, 23(8), 2051-2061.
Solarska Renata, Alexander Bruce D., Braun Artur, Jurczakowski Rafał, Fortunato Giuseppino, Stiefel M., Graule Thomas J., Augustyński Jan W. (2010), Tailoring the morphology of WO3 films with substitutional cation doping: Effect on the photoelectrochemical properties, in
Electrochimica Acta, 55(26), 7780-7787.
Regonini D., Teloeken A. C., Alves Annelise Kopp, Berutti Felipe Amorim, Gajda-Schrantz Krisztina, Bergmann Carlos Pérez, Graule Thomas J., Clemens Frank Jörg (2013), Electrospun TiO2 Fiber Composite Photoelectrodes for Water Splitting, in
ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 5(22), 11747-11755.
G. Faccio K. Schrantz J. Ihssen F. Boudoire Y. Hu B.S. Mun D.K. Bora L. Thöny-Meyer A. Braun (2015), Charge transfer between photosynthetic proteins and hematite in bio-hybrid photoelectrodes for solar water splitting cells, in
Nano Convergence (Springer), 2(9), 1-11.
D.K. Bora A. Braun (2014), Solution Processed Transparent Nanoparticulate ZnO Thin Film Electrode for Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation, in
RSC Advances, 4, 23562-2357.
F. Boudoire R. Toth J. Heier A. Braun E. C. Constable (2014), Photonic light trapping in self-organized all-oxide microspheroids impacts photoelectrochemical water splitting, in
Energy Environ. Sci., 7, 2680-2688.
Ihssen Julian, Braun Artur, Faccio Greta, Gajda-Schrantz Krisztina, Thöny-Meyer Linda (2014), Light harvesting proteins for solar fuel generation in bioengineered photoelectrochemical cells., in
Current protein & peptide science, 15(4), 374-84.
Scholder Olivier (2013), Helium focused ion beam fabricated plasmonic antennas with sub-5 nm gaps, in
Nanotechnology, 24(39), 5301.
Tisserant Jean-Nicolas (2014),
ORDERING ORGANIC THIN FILMS FOR APPLICATIONS IN ELECTRONICS AND PHOTONICS.
D. Regonini1 A. K. Alves2 F. A. Berutti2 and F. Clemens1 (2014), Effect of Aging Time and Film Thickness on the Photoelectrochemical Properties of TiO2 Sol-Gel Photoanodes, in
International Journal of Photoenergy, 2104, 472539.
We want to purchase several scientific instruments necessary as basic equipment for the func-tional characterization of ceramic materials relevant for photocatalytical (PC) and photoelectro-chemical (PEC) research studies.
EMPA conducts a research program for sustainable and CO2 neutral energy economy. Its Labo-ratory for High Performance Ceramics (Hochleistungskeramik – HLK, in the Department for Ad-vanced Materials and Surfaces) serves this goal with a project on photoelectrochemical hydro-gen production by solar water splitting, which counts towards Switzerland’s responsibilities in Annex 26 in the International Energy Agency’s Hydrogen Implementation Agreement for 2008, and which is embedded in the mission of PEC house, administered by EPFL. In addition, HLK has active projects on photocatalysis to address the societies’ needs for clean water and hygi-enic surfaces.
Our HLK is on a successful move from work on structural ceramics to research on functional ceramic materials. Photocatalysis has emerged as a very promising activity since some four years ago, beginning with one PhD thesis project that was successfully finished in early 2007. During the last three years, we have published 6-8 scientific papers on nanoparticle synthesis with application to photocatalysis. Currently we have two more PhD students, one postdoctoral student and several diploma students working on PC and PEC, and two scientists devote a ma-jor share of their efforts to these topics as well. HLK is looking forward to continue with the training of PhD students who will work on a joint basis to 50% at EMPA and the other time at their home universities in Poland. Our international research network on PC and PEC extends across Europe to Japan and the USA, and we are organizers of a PC/PEC symposium at the MRS 2009 Spring Meeting.
While HLK’s traditional strength is in ceramic material synthesis, its new mission of research on functional ceramics is being impeded by the lack of basic analytical equipment for the functional characterization and performance assessment of photoactive ceramic materi-als. To better comply with our new mission, we need the instruments listed below which enable us to quantitatively determine solar-functional characteristics of our materials, and hence ad-vance to a true scientific laboratory.
The costs of the six instruments amount to approximately 192,000 CHF. HLK will pay 66,228 CHF. The board of Directors at EMPA is requested to contribute with a 30,000 CHF. Together with another 96,227 CHF from SNF, we will be able to acquire a well suited set of laboratory equipment. The Swiss Federal Office of Energy endorses particularly our solar hydrogen activities and supports this project with an earnest money 18,000 CHF towards the salary for the installation of the equipment.