Institute of Solid State Physics

Project coordinator: Prof. E.A. Kotomin

Duration: 2019-2022

Currently, climate changes and energy shortage are one of the major challenges, for which science and technology are expected to provide effective solutions. In spite of enormous free energy supply from sun, the majority of world energy consumption (87%) comes from fossil fuels, which are firstly limited and secondly, emit excessive CO₂, causing global warming. Intensive scientific efforts are going on in different fields to increase the solar share from currently less than 1% of total energy consumption to higher values. One of the viable approach is to use solar light together with photocatalysts for driving of chemical reactions. Sunlight-driven water splitting is regarded as one of the most attainable and sustainable strategy for production of hydrogen, storable pollution-free, energy source.
In this project, the latest knowledge in density functional theory (DFT) calculations (Riga team), particle engineering (Slovenian team) and reactor design (Taiwan team) are combined to enhance the understanding of chemical and physical properties in photocatalytic process and to design the effective photocatalysts based on perovskites crystallites.