Recipe Matters! Photocatalytic Hydrogen Generation Using Mesoporous Silicon Nanoparticles

Prof. Mita Dasog
Department of Chemistry

Hydrogen is an important feedstock for various chemical processes and a promising green energy source. Sustainable and affordable production of hydrogen is extremely important for extensive commercialization of fuel cells and to reduce the carbon footprint of steam-methane reforming. Technoeconomic analysis has shown that solar driven water-splitting using suspended particulate photocatalyst is a simple and cost-effective way to produce hydrogen. Nanoscale silicon is an attractive photocatalyst for this process given its abundance, biocompatibility, favorable conduction band edge position for water reduction, and their solar light absorption properties. This presentation will highlight how silicon nanoparticles can be engineered to maximize hydrogen evolution rates.

Dr. Mita Dasog is an Assistant Professor and Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Research Chair in the Department of Chemistry at Dalhousie University. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Saskatchewan. She then moved to the University of Alberta to begin her PhD studies with Dr. Jonathan Veinot where she focused on the syntheses, properties, and applications of silicon quantum dots. After a short stay at Technical University of Munich as a Green Talents visiting scholar, Dr. Dasog went on to hold an NSERC post-doctoral position with Dr. Nathan Lewis at the California Institute of Technology, where she is studied light-material interactions in semiconductor wire arrays. Her group currently works on developing nanomaterials for the field of plasmonics and solar driven fuel generation. Since her appointment at Dalhousie, Dr. Dasog had received the Dalhousie University President’s Research Excellence Award for Emerging Investigators, Nova Scotia Discovery Center Emerging Professional Award, and in 2020 she was appointment as a member of the Global Young Academy.