Nanoparticle-enhanced Ce-UiO-66 & derivatives for photocatalytic water splitting Minh Chi To 1 , Olena Zavorotynska 1 , Sachin M. Chavan 2 1 Department of Mathematics and Physics, University of Stavanger, Norway, 2 Department of Chemistry, Bioscience and Environmental Engineering, University of Stavanger, Norway For the green transition to occur, cost-competive green energy sources must be available. Hydrogen can be produced using renewable sources, like solar energy, and is storable for later consumption, making it a good potential energy source [1] . Photocatalytic water splitting can be used to directly turn solar energy into hydrogen. To do so a photocatalyst must be able to absorb photons, subsequently generate charge carriers and transfer charge carriers to catalytic sites to oxidize water and reduce hydrogen ions [2] . Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are semiconductor-like materials composed of metal nodes and organic ligands. The following characteristics makes them potentially good photocatalysts: porous, large specific surface area, tunable structure and functionalizability [3] . The photocatalytic ability of MOFs can be enhanced with nanoparticles through mechanism such as acting as co-catalyst or hot electron generation [3,4] . Ce-UiO-66 MOFs and its derivatives have shown promising photocatalytic abilities [5] . Currently, the research on nanoparticle-enhanced Ce-UiO-66 is in the early stages. The addition of both noble- and non-noble metal nanoparticles to the MOF and its derivatives may yield better photocatalytic abilities. Whether the enhancement is derived through the nanoparticles acting as co-catalyst, hot electron generation or some other mechanism can be characterized with a variety of tools including spectroscopy, electron microscopy, XRD, BET and other tools. Creating composites of Ce-UiO-6 & derivatives with nanoparticles of both noble and non-noble materials is expected to give enhanced photocatalytic abilities to the MOF compared to its basic form. References 1. Li, X., Raorane, C. J., Xia, C., Wu, Y., Tran, T. K. N., & Khademi, T. Fuel , 334(126684), (2023). 2. Acar, C., Dincer, I., & Naterer, G. F. International. Journal of Energy Research., 40, (2016). 3. Navalón, S., Dhakshinamoorthy, A., Álvaro, M., Ferrer, B., & García, H. Chemical Reviews , 123(1), (2023). 4. Ma, W., Yu, L., Kang, P., Chu, Z., & Li, Y. Molecules , 29(24), 5834, (2024). 5. Liu, C., Shi, YZ., Chen, Q. Ye, BH., Bi, JH., Yu, J. C., Wu, L. Rare Metals , 44(2462-2473), (2025).
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