Abstracts Book - IMRC 2018

• SC7-P013
EVALUATION OF METAL ORGANIC FRAMEWORK AS
PHOTOELECTRODES FOR PHOTOELECTROCHEMICAL WATER
SPLITTING
Vanessa Sanchez Vazquez 1 , Manuel Alejandro Estrella Gutierrez 1 , Geonel Rodríguez Gattorno 2 ,
Gerko Oskam 2
1 Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Facultad de Ingeniería Química, Mexico. 2 CINVESTAV-
Mérida, Departamento de Física Aplicada, Mexico.
An important challenge in science and technology consists in collecting and
storing solar energy in chemical bonds in a controlled fashion, similar to how
nature accomplishes photosynthesis but at higher efficiency.
Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is a method that converts water into
usable hydrogen (and oxygen) molecules, where hydrogen could become the
clean fuel at an industrial level with water being the only combustion product.
Although many semiconductor materials have been reported to be effective for
PEC hydrogen production, most of them are limited in their practical use due to
material photocorrosion, high charge carrier recombination, or a large band
gap, i.e., low efficiency and limited stability. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)
are a new class of porous materials with unique electronic, optical and catalytic
properties. More recently, MOFs are emerging as a new type of photocatalyst.
Having combined metal nodes and bridging ligands, MOFs provide the
possibilities of periodical arrangement of light harvesting and catalytic
components in a single structure, just like the natural photosynthetic system,
making them promising candidates for hydrogen production. In this work, we
investigate the influence of the incorporation of TiO 2 nanoparticles to two types
of MOFs photoelectrodes on PEC water splitting.
Keywords: Metal organic frameworks, Photoelectrode, Water splitting
Presenting authors email: vanesanvaz@gmail.com