Topic of Research Seminar: Aerosol-Assisted Facile Fabrication of Metal Oxide Thin Films for Photoelectrochemical Studies
Abstract: Sustainable society is only viable in clean environment where renewable energy is playing key role by reducing our dependency over fossil fuels and making an effort towards zero emission. Therefore, developing green energy production and storage systems are the utmost need of current time, so, we can leave clean environment for our next generations. Hydrogen (H2) production is a latent feasibility of renewable clean energy. The industrial H2 production is obtained from reforming of natural gas, which consumes a large amount of non-renewable energy and simultaneously produces greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Therefore, the utilization of green energy systems to reduce overall energy consumption is more important for H2 production. Hydrogen production from water splitting by photo/photoelectron-catalytic process is a promising route to solve both fossil fuel depletion and environmental pollution at the same time. There is an increasing demand for new materials and cost-effective methods of depositing materials while minimizing environmental impact, to align with the current rapid growth of industries. Consequently, fabrication of efficient photo-electrode is crucial to achieve high performance PEC cells. Solution based CVD processes, such as aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition (AACVD) is discussed as a promising fabrication method for the materialization of thin films in terms of their homogeneity and uniformity which relies on the solubility rather than volatility, of the precursor. The process is scalable, allows for the formation of multi-component materials and the simplification of the precursor delivery stage potentially reduces the cost of the deposition process. In addition, AACVD offers extra means to control film morphology and concurrently the properties of the deposited materials. Here, we have developed several transition metal oxide based photo-electrode materials in the form of thin films on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) coated conducting glass substrate. In our studies, the resulted semiconducting materials were characterized of the optical, electrical and photo-electrochemical properties. Based on the studies, the as-synthesized materials exhibited different surface morphologies and enhanced photoelectrochemical properties due to tuned material features. We can hope, with the incessant efforts that are being devoted to this field, water splitting driven by green energy systems will make a significant contribution to large-scale practical applications of clean energy systems in the near future.
Subject Field of Topic: Materials Chemistry, Solar Cells
Name of Speaker: Dr Khadija Munawar, University of Malaya, Malaysia
Professorial Rank of Speaker: Assistant Professor
University Email of Speaker: [email protected]
Affiliation of Speaker: University of Malaya, Malaysia
Date of Seminar: February 24th, 2022
Venue: CR # 202, NUST School of Natural Sciences (SNS) New Building, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad