Fabrication and characterization of catalytic materials for CO2 reduction

A reduction of the amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere would be desirable, in order to reduce the greenhouse effect, limiting global warming. One possibility to realize this goal is to transform the CO2 that is emitted by different processes into other chemical species, such as methane, which can then be re-used by the industry. The first step in this reaction scheme is the reduction of CO2 into CO, a process demanding vast amounts of energy. Currently, the process is realized via different catalytic materials, allowing for an electrical conversion or photoconversion of the CO2.

In this internship you will be synthesizing materials that can be used as electrocatalysts or photocatalysts for the electrochemical reduction of CO2 into CO. The first task will be to deposit different metals that will subsequently be selenized or sulfurized. Multiple physical characterization techniques, such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission-reflection measurements will be used to characterize the material. The material composition will be optimized with respect to the requested parameters.

Once the material is optimized from a physical point of view, photocatalytic and electrocatalytic reduction experiments will be performed in collaboration with the University of Antwerp.