With this plan, scientists from the Czech Advanced Technology and Research Institute (CATRIN) at Palacký University Olomouc and the Centre for Energy and Environmental Technologies (CEET) at VSB – Technical University of Ostrava (VŠB-TUO), together with world-renowned research teams from Germany and Italy, are entering a three-year European project worth 1.5 million euros, which officially launched today in Olomouc.
The scientific part of the project will focus primarily on hydrogen production through solar water splitting, the electrochemical conversion of waste carbon dioxide, and, most notably, atomic-level engineering. According to the researchers, this approach will enable the development of new materials that can significantly enhance green hydrogen production or advance the conversion of carbon dioxide into high-value chemical substances.
"Within the international team, we aim to develop technologies that allow anchoring individual atoms onto the surface of suitable semiconductors and controlling the chemical and electronic properties of these atoms. The results show that this novel approach, known as atomic engineering, allows for a severalfold increase in the efficiency of materials used in photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical conversion of solar energy into hydrogen. This is key to the practical implementation of green fuel production technologies. Atomic engineering is gaining increasing global attention, but we are among the pioneers applying it to energy and environmental applications," said the project’s principal investigator, Štěpán Kment of CATRIN.
Researchers from both Czech universities have joined forces with European leaders in the field of renewable energy. One of them is the team of Patrik Schmuki from Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen, Germany. Schmuki, who is also affiliated with CATRIN, has long focused on hydrogen production—commonly referred to as the fuel of the future—using water, solar energy, and semiconductor nanomaterials. "Atomic-level engineering is a direction that could revolutionize numerous scientific disciplines. Our results indicate that in the field of renewable energy generation using sunlight, materials enhanced with suitable atoms can significantly boost hydrogen production," Schmuki confirmed.