Catalizadores híbridos alternativos para la generación de hidrógeno :nanopartículas plasmónicas-semiconductores soportadas sobre hidrogeles bio-basados.

Resum

The growing demand for new energy sources with a sustainable perspective has been the subject of research in recent years. In this context, hydrogen has emerged as a suitable alternative both from an energy and environmental standpoint. The reason for this is that this research proposes the development of new hybrid catalysts and photocatalysts to promote hydrogen generation. The materials developed in this study are based on bimetallic nanoparticles (BNP), composed of a combination of noble metals (Au and Pt) with earth- abundant metals (Cu, Ni and Ti). The combination of these metals has significantly enhanced the performance of the proposed materials, attributed to the emergence of bimetallic synergistic effects and exploitable optical properties in catalysis, such as light absorption properties linked to the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). This enables the use of these systems as plasmonic catalysts. These BNPs were synthesized and supported on bio-based hydrogels, formed by crosslinking nature-abundant biopolymers such as chitosan and sodium alginate. The catalysts developed in this work were evaluated in reactions of interest, including: (1) hydrogenation of 4-nitrophenol, (2) hydrogen generation from the hydrolysis of ammonia borane, and (3) water decomposition for hydrogen production. Systems containing BNP proved to be highly efficient in carrying out these reactions and, furthermore, were more efficient in catalysis. In addition, improvements in the performance of these materials when exposed to visible light were observed, attributed to the activation of the surface plasmon resonance of the nanoparticles