Development of transition metal oxynitride photocatalysts for water splitting operable under wide range of visible light

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24560953
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Catalyst/Resource chemical process
• Research Institution: National Institute for Materials Science
• Principal Investigator: TAKATA Tsuyoshi 独立行政法人物質・材料研究機構, ナノ材料科学環境拠点, NIMS特別研究員 (80334499)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 光触媒 / 水分解 / 水素製造 / 太陽光利用 / 酸窒化物 / 助触媒 / 表面被覆

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To develop water-splitting photocatalysts to efficiently convert solar energy, novel narrower-gap photocatalysts for overall water splitting were studied.
Most of the photocatalysts for overall water splitting developed to date are the wide-gap oxide requiring UV light excitation, and a few photocatalysts based on oxynitride materials can decompose water to H2 and O2. However, in any photocatalysts, the longest usable wavelength has been limited to 500nm. For further extending the usable wavelength region, new-type transition metal oxinitrides were examined, targeting the overall water splitting operable at up to 600nm. Based on the two effective approaches, a bandgap-tuning of semiconductor materials and a novel surface modification method, overall water splitting on some new transition metal oxynitride photocatalysts was achieved, which enabled the 100nm-extension of usable wavelength region.

Free Research Field

光触媒