Principal investigator: Andrew Magenau
University: Drexel University
Industry partner: FXI Inc.
Clean hydrogen has the potential to revolutionize society by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing a sustainable energy source. The development of green hydrogen at low-cost would have an immense impact by supplying clean power to heavy carbonizing sectors like transportation, chemical production, and manufacturing. Today, the US Department of Energy has the goal of reducing clean hydrogen costs to $1 per 1 kilogram, however, technological challenges exist in producing effective materials capable of generating clean hydrogen at low-cost. We propose manufacturing a material from a cheap scalable photocatalytic nanomaterial and an industrially produced and affordable polymeric scaffold. The proposed material would be a highly porous, reticulated, polyurethane with surfaced-embedded one-dimensional TiO2-based Lepidocrocite nanomaterials capable of splitting water into hydrogen gas when exposed to light. This project would explore production of such a reticulated nanocomposite by in-situ polymerization, coating, and chemical etching along with evaluating its performance for hydrogen production.