Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Reducing the number of pollutants emitted into the atmosphere and transforming the existing ones into valuable substances are critical points in the struggle against global warming and the greenhouse effect. Especially, the transformation of CO2 molecules into fuels is one of the promising solutions that has attracted significant attention in both public and scientific sectors around the globe. For this purpose, different catalytic and photocatalytic alternatives have been successfully designed and studied. The latter approach is much more attractive due to the possibility of harvesting sunlight to convert CO2 molecules into CO, CH4, methanol, C2+ hydrocarbons. These products are not only less harmful to the atmosphere but are also essential feedstocks for the chemical industry. However, the obtention of highly selective and active photocatalytic systems is still a challenge that has to be overcome, and further research needs to be developed to do so. The current research proposal requests a spectrofluorometer for lifetime-resolved and steady-state photoluminescence, which will allow strong characterization of the photocatalytic systems obtained in our research group. This instrument is crucial to derive new conclusions, take new directions on our research, and explore different modifications to the catalytic systems developed.