Research Projects

The increasing consumption of fossil fuels due to population growth and industrialization has led to a rise in greenhouse gas concentrations, affecting the Earth's ecosystem. To preserve the planet, modern societies must transition to C-neutral energy sources, requiring new sustainable and environmentally respectful energy conversion schemes. Green plants capture sunlight and convert it into chemical energy through the reduction of carbon dioxide and water oxidation, producing hydrocarbons and hydrogen fuels. To avoid catastrophic global warming, innovative explorations are needed with improved catalysts or photosensitizers, which aim to generate renewable fuels using earth-abundant materials for C-neutral energy sources. Photosensitizers and catalysts are essential components for implementing these technologies. Organic dyes are used due to their photophysical properties, low cost, and easy material management, but are not stable due to photobleaching. Inorganic semiconductors absorb visible light but have low absorbance, affecting energy conversion efficiency. Molecular metal coordination complexes are effective and inexpensive photosensitizers, but there is a gap in optimized strategies for chemically anchoring them to semiconductor surfaces. Plasonic nanostructure-derived photosensitizers exhibit prolonged chemical stability and enhanced absorption cross sections through localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). This proposed research aims to study the electrocatalytic and photochemical reduction of CO2 by transition metal polypyridyl complexes (Ru/Co) for liquid fuel generation. The research will involve designing a selective molecular framework with symmetric/asymmetric multidentate ligands, understanding the roles of substituted ligands, fabricating a hybrid nanocomposite for enhanced photocatalytic activity, investigating potential mechanistic pathways and degradation, and incorporating molecular catalysts into the heterogeneous plasmonic nanostructure hybrid nanocomposite for device fabrication.