Photodegradation and Environmental Remediation

We believe that environment is paramount to our existence.  A continues depletion of the natural resources and a sharp rise in environmental pollution call for immediate action. We are developing filtration  systems and catalysts for emerging pollutant's mineralisation in water systems.

Materials Photochemistry

Inspired by Nature, photocatalysis mimics a photosynthetic organism, where light energy is transformed into chemical free energy. In photochemically induced transformations, wavelength of absorbed light defines a course of the process. As many small organic molecules absorb only UV-light, visible-light organic photocatalysts offer an alternative pathway for indirect activation of these molecules by channelling solar energy.

Our heterogeneous catalyst's design is inspired by Nature, and includes a light antenna (visible-light absorbing organic entity) and an active surface with suitable electronic and thermal properties and well-defined active sites for the chemical reactivity.

Heterogeneous Photocatalytic Nanomaterials

Functionalisation of a surface holds promise to controllably tune and modulate its electrical, thermal, and photophysical properties, offering a broad range of applications. Research in our group focuses on the strategies to fabricate multi-functional hybrid materials with efficient catalytic and light harvesting properties.

Metal Free Heterogeneous Photocatalysts

Covalently modified surfaces with photoactive units, become increasingly important as they offer stability and show more superior properties in contrast to supramolecular interactions. Organic dyes have excellent catalytic (doi) and optical properties and many of them e.g. porphyrins and phenazines are naturally occurring and thus are deemed to be non-toxic.  We study photochemical processes whereby highly reactive intermediates can be generated through absorption of light by substrate and thus can be used in chemical synthesis and fabrication of the catalytic systems (doi). Such approaches are practical and time-saving as the reactions can be carried out under mild conditions and have no requirement of catalysts.

The strands of our research include materials synthesis and characterisations:

◊     Fabrication of novel heterogeneous photocatalytic systems and understanding of the structure-property relationship in the hybrid materials using spectroscopic and microscopic methods  of analysis e.g. SEM, STM, XPS, TEM.

◊      Development of heterogeneous photocatalysts and electrocatalysts for the water splitting, HER and ORR processes.