Carbon Dots in Solar-to-Hydrogen Conversion

H. Luo, Q. Guo, P. Szilagyi, A. Belen Jorge, M. Titirici, Trends in Chemistry 2020. 

Solar hydrogen production from catalytic water splitting is one of the many options available to help generate clean power and alleviate the threatening environmental concerns stemming from the use of fossil fuels. During the past decade, carbon dots (CDs) have shown great potential in their application for solar-driven hydrogen production owing to their exceptional photophysical and electrical properties derived from their sp²/sp³ hybridized core structure and rich surface functionality. In this review, we correlate the structural features of CDs with their optical and electronic properties and evaluate key properties for efficient solar energy-conversion applications with an emphasis on photocatalysis and photoelectrocatalysis, to shed some light on designing high performance CD-based photosystems.

Congratulations to Gengyu who has recently passes his 18 month viva! Well done!

It was great to catch up with some colleagues since maternity leave and lockdown.

Slowly getting back to work a bit after having Macs. Here a picture of our first virtual group meeting.

Great UK Redox Flow Battery Network Annual Meeting hosted by Dr. Kathryn Toghill and her group at Lancaster University. There were lots of great talks and collaborations to push forward the research in redox flow batteries in the UK. Looking forward to the next meeting!

Ana has just been promoted to Senior Lecturer! So happy!

Below some pics of the group enjoying a sunny afternoon in Victoria Park in London, making the most of the last sunny days of the year! 🙂

Ana was invited to give a talk at the STFC Battery Annual Meeting held in the Cosener’s House in Abingdon. It was great to share with my colleagues our recent results in redox flow batteries.

Great week at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and Tsinghua University within the framework of an EPSRC UK-China Project “Sustainable Processing of Energy Materials from Waste” between ICL, UCL, QMUL, CAS and TU. Below some pictures of the workshop!

Thanks to all participants of the London Energy Materials and Devices Hub meeting! Great event with fantastic talks and posters! Thanks also to the Royal Society of Chemistry and the STFC Batteries and UCL Chemical Engineering Department for supporting this event.

Below some pictures of the event. Looking forward to the next meeting!