2013 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
次世代自然エネルギーのための高比表面積フォトニック結晶構造創製と酸化チタン形成
| Project/Area Number |
13F03803
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| Research Institution | National Institute for Materials Science |
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Principal Investigator |
細田 奈麻絵 独立行政法人物質・材料研究機構, ハイブリッド材料ユニット, グループリーダー
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
HORVATH E. 独立行政法人物質・材料研究機構, ハイブリッド材料ユニット, 外国人特別研究員
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| Keywords | solar energy / photo-chemical water splitting / artificial photonic crystal structures / bioispired structure |
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| Research Abstract |
The efficient utilization of solar energy is a major goal to modern society and engineering, considering global warming and fossil fuel depletion. Researchers are intensively investigating photochemical water splitting as a means of converting solar to chemical energy in the form of fuels. Water decomposition technology with photocatalysts consisting of titanium oxide (TiO_2) nanoparticles has great potential to produce low priced and environmentally friendly hydrogen in the future. The TiO_2 coated high specific surface photonic crystals (PhC) are potential solution for next generation green energy. The originality of the proposal consist in the development of energy converter device (photo electrochemical cell -PEC cell) with special electrode using solar energy based water splitting, which may improve the efficiency of producing hydrogen. In particular for photocatalytic applications it may be very advantageous to use surfaces with complex micro-and nanoarchitectures which can increase significantly the area of effective contact of the catalytic surface with water. Certain natural living organism has PhC type complex micro- and nanoarchitectures in their scales as butterflies or beetles. The natural PhC type structures have the ability to absorb the sunlight selectively. TiO_2 coated PhC structure can be realized by combining the photocatalytic characteristics of TiO_2 with properties of biological (butterfly wings) and artificial templates. The final goal of proposed research work is the fabrication of photo electrode of large area TiO_2 coated artificial structure used for water splitting by solar energy.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
Experimental works : artificial butterfly wing structure was fabricated by electron beam lithography. Characterization of artificial structure scaffold was carried out by optical microscopy and SEM. The light absorption ability of skeleton material for artificial photonic crystal structure was investigated by depositing of several metallic thin films covered with TiO_2.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Experimental works : deposition of TiO_2 crystals by low-temperature atomic layer deposition (ALD) method onto wings butterflies and artificial structure. Characterization of coated and annealed samples by optical microscopy, SEM and fiber optic UV-Vis spectroscopy. Photocatalytic activity measurements of as prepared samples by degradation of methylene blue in aqueous solution under illumination of solar simulator. Theoretical work : simulation on artificial photonic structures to get the relationship between the desired colour and artificial PhC structure.
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