{"id":3840,"date":"2026-02-27T15:10:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www-preprod.cnrs-imn.fr\/projects-collaborations\/academic-projects\/europe-omatsolfuel\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T12:18:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T10:18:04","slug":"europe-omatsolfuel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.cnrs-imn.fr\/en\/projects-collaborations\/academic-projects\/europe-omatsolfuel\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe – OMATSOLFUEL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Project Europe<\/p>\n<\/div>

Valence band engineering of oxidation materials for economical and sustainable solar fuel production<\/h2><\/div>
<\/div><\/div>

Dates:<\/strong>
\nSeptember 2023 – August 2025<\/p>\n

Project coordinator:<\/strong>
\nCNRS<\/p>\n

Partner laboratory:<\/strong>
\nIMN<\/p>\n

IMN personnel involved:<\/strong>
\nCl\u00e9ment MAHEU<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div>

Given the need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and our dependence on fossil fuels, there is great interest in developing solar fuels, and in particular solar H2. However, production costs are not yet competitive. Current strategies are based on converting water into H2 and O2. Since O2 production is of little economic interest, the feasibility of the solar H2 production process is based solely on the reduction half-reaction, the oxidation half-reaction being secondary. <\/p>\n

In OMATSOLFUEL, the focus is on the oxidation half-reaction. Developing processes for the photoconversion of glucose and glucose-rich, low-cost, renewable industrial blends could help micro-industries become self-sufficient in fuel and energy. Instead of simply generating H2 and O2, glucose will be converted by photocatalysis into high-value molecules (e.g. arabinose or erythrose) and H2. These molecules would be highly attractive for lowering the cost of solar H2 and replacing molecules produced by the petrochemical industry. To achieve this goal, we need to develop high-yield, selective photocatalysts (oxides, oxynitrides, chalcogenides). <\/p>\n

The main focus of the project will be on engineering the electronic structure by adjusting the S 3p, N 2p, O 2p and metal d orbitals to bring the photocatalyst valence band maximum (i.e. the oxidation potential of the photogenerated holes) closer to the oxidation potentials of glucose. Powders and thin films will be synthesized using soft chemistry and chemical or physical vapor deposition (PVD and PECVD) methods. The resulting morphology, structural and electronic properties will be characterized using the many facilities at the Nantes Materials Institute (IMN), and in particular photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS\/UPS).<\/p>\n<\/div>

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