PhD position in chemistry and microtechnology

Development of human economic activities, especially use of fossil resources in transportation, industry and household combined with deforestation and land-use changes have led to the continuous increase in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere with strong greenhouse gas effect and change of the climate. The possible alternative to fossil fuels could be the application of renewable energy resources (wind, solar…) for the energy and chemical generation at mild conditions. These methods of transformation are usually based on photocatalysis using solar energy and electrocatalysis using electricity. The main disadvantage of photocatalysis is low quantum efficiency (2-5 %) with low selectivity to the target products. At the same time, electrocatalysis is hard to implement for the activation of stable molecules in the gas phase catalytic reaction. In this project, we propose to take advantage of both photo and electrocatalytic concepts by the implementation of catalytic diode. Opposite to a catalytic nanodiode, which produces electricity from a catalytic reaction, the diode will consist of a porous semiconductor catalyst inserted in a p-n junction to lead to catalytic reactions from the efficient and controlled electron and hole injections into the semiconductor catalyst. This concept should:

✓ increase the overall efficiency for the catalytic reactions and

✓ control the reaction using the electrical potential applied to transfer charge carriers from the electron and hole-transport interlayers.

The project will be focused on the development of Catalysis Inducing Diodes (CID) to perform catalytic reactions by a combination of chemistry (UCCS laboratory) and electric engineering (IEMN laboratory) in Lille University. The diode will be designed with low-cost technological processes, that rely on the use of solution-processable stable inorganic nanoparticles to build each interlayer as well as the catalyst layer. It will be operated for catalytic reactions of water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) splitting to produce hydrogen (H2) and carbon monoxide (CO), respectively, as the target products. These are valuable products in fuel and chemical industry that are produced nowadays by high temperature (700-900 oC) conversion of fossil fuels like methane reforming with the generation of CO2 as a side product. The application of diodes for these catalytic could be an important green alternative to existing industrial processes.