1. Hematite nanostructures: An old material for a new story. Simultaneous photoelectrochemical oxidation of benzylamine and hydrogen production through Ti doping
- Author
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Mirco Natali, Raffaello Mazzaro, Giacomo Bergamini, Paola Ceroni, Alberto Vomiero, Vittorio Morandi, Sara Boscolo Bibi, Mazzaro R., Boscolo Bibi S., Natali M., Bergamini G., Morandi V., Ceroni P., and Vomiero A.
- Subjects
Hematite, Photoelectrochemistry, Photoanode, Benzylamine, Hydrogen ,Photoelectrochemical oxidation ,Materials science ,Hydrogen ,Settore ING-IND/22 - Scienza e Tecnologia dei Materiali ,Photoelectrochemistry ,Benzylamine ,Hematite ,Photoanode ,chemistry.chemical_element ,02 engineering and technology ,010402 general chemistry ,Heterogeneous catalysis ,7. Clean energy ,01 natural sciences ,General Materials Science ,Electrical and Electronic Engineering ,Hydrogen production ,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment ,Oxygen evolution ,Ambientale ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,0104 chemical sciences ,Chemical engineering ,chemistry ,13. Climate action ,visual_art ,visual_art.visual_art_medium ,Water splitting ,0210 nano-technology - Abstract
Overall water splitting represents one of the most promising approaches toward solar energy conversion and storage, which is, however, severely challenged by the four-electron/four-proton nature of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). One option to overcome this issue is to replace OER with a more useful reaction, for simultaneous production of both hydrogen and chemicals of interest. For the purpose, in this paper a cheap, hydrothermally prepared Ti-doped nanostructured hematite photoanode was employed for the first time as highly stable, heterogeneous catalyst for the low bias, efficient and highly selective photoinduced oxidation of benzylamine to N-benzylidenebenzylamine, and for the simultaneous production of hydrogen in a double solvent/environment cell. A preliminary estimate indicates the possibility to obtain a similar to 150 mu mol h(-1) H-2 production, with the contemporary production of stoichiometric benzylidene N-benzylamine in a 5 x 5 cm(2) area electrode. This study contributes to overcome the 40-year lasting issues limiting the use of hematite in industrial photo-electrochemical sunlight conversion and storage, due to poor performance of hematite and lack of economic value of oxygen production, providing solid evidence for the use of hematite in alternative oxidation reactions of industrial importance.
- Published
- 2019
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