Asea Brown Boveri Ltd. (ABB) Award 2017 – Carlos Morales Guio

"For his remarkable research in the preparation, characterization, and application of Earth-abundant electrocatalysts for sunlight-driven water splitting."

The direct transformation of sunlight into fuels in a photoelectrochemical (PEC) tandem cell device mimics natural photosynthesis and is an attractive technology for the storage of solar energy on a large scale. While many complex and expensive systems have been reported to achieve high solar-to-fuel energy efficiencies, their scalability is limited due to the scarce metal catalysts and expensive semiconductor components used.

In the last decade a great number of efficient and inexpensive electrocatalysts and photoabsorbers have been discovered. However, the coupling of these two components to produce inexpensive and scalable devices remains one of the major challenges towards PEC production of solar fuels.

This doctoral thesis increases the library of Earth-abundant materials that could potentially be used to store solar energy in a large scale. This work introduces innovative concepts in the coupling of electrocatalyst to photoabsorbers and the design of materials for hydrogen fuel production from sunlight and water. An oxidative electrodeposition method for the preparation of some of the most active water oxidation electrocatalysts is presented and their integration into functional devices for unassisted solar water splitting is demonstrated. The insight generated in the design and preparation of these materials and the fundamental understanding gained in the underlying energy transformation mechanisms should motivate and facilitate the development of future generation of artificial photosynthetic systems.