Descripción del proyecto
This project stands in the general context of the current worldwide energy and environmental crisis. It aims to engineer a new generation of conjugated microporous polymers based on fused metalloporphyrins for the low-cost, clean and efficient production of hydrogen from solar water splitting. The CLEANH2 concept relies on the gas phase reaction of metalloporphyrins to engineer new heterogeneous catalysts with remarkable hydrogen production yields. Metalloporphyrins, selected by Nature to fulfil the main catalytic phenomena allowing life, are attractive molecules for water splitting owing to their highly conjugated structure and central metal ion, which can readily interconvert between different oxidation states to accomplish oxidation and reduction reactions. For efficiency and sustainability considerations, it is highly desirable to employ metalloporphyrins in conductive assemblies for heterogeneous catalysis. Nevertheless, due to the lack of synthetic approach, the design and application of conjugated porphyrin assemblies is a largely unexplored topic in view of the plethora of available porphyrin patterns.
The central idea of CLEANH2 builds upon our recent advance in the gas phase synthesis and deposition of directly fused metalloporphyrins coatings. Progress in our approach is expected to open the way for the construction of powerful catalytic and photocatalytic materials. To achieve this, the key challenging goals of this project are: 1) the engineering of the microstructure and electronic structure of directly fused metalloporphyrins thin films; 2) the use of the full potential of directly fused metalloporphyrins thin films for the unmet, clean and high quantum yield overall water splitting for hydrogen production. The outcomes of CLEANH2 will be foundational for the engineering of directly fused metalloporphyrins systems and their implementation in advanced technological applications related to catalysis and solar energy.