Title: Photocatalytic Production of Solar Hydrogen and Fuels from Water
Time: 2025-11-18 16:10
Lecturer: Kazunari Domen
Shinshu University
The University of Tokyo
Venue: Room 202, Lu-Jiaxi Building
Abstract：
Sunlight-driven overall water splitting using particulate photocatalysts is of growing interest as a means of producing green hydrogen and fuels because systems based on particulate photocatalysts can be spread over large areas using potentially inexpensive processes. The author’s group has studied various oxides, (oxy)nitrides, and (oxy)sulfides as photocatalysts for overall water splitting. Recently, by refining the preparation conditions of the photocatalyst and the loading conditions of the cocatalysts, the apparent quantum yield of overall water splitting using SrTiO3 has reached more than 90% at 365 nm, corresponding to an internal quantum efficiency close to unity. This observation means that particulate photocatalysts can drive the endergonic overall water splitting reaction with almost no recombination loss, as in photon-to-chemical conversion processes during photosynthesis. Using a modified SrTiO3 photocatalyst, a green hydrogen production system based on 100-m2 arrayed photocatalytic overall water splitting panels and an oxyhydrogen gas separation module was constructed and its performance and system characteristics, including safety issues, were reported. The hydrogen produced was also shown to be applicable to the conversion of carbon dioxide into chemical fuels. However, for practical solar hydrogen production, it is essential to radically improve the solar-to-hydrogen energy conversion efficiency of overall water splitting by developing photocatalysts that are highly active under visible light, and to develop suitable reaction systems for practical green hydrogen production. In my talk, recent advances and challenges in photocatalytic materials and reaction systems for mass production of green hydrogen and fuels will be discussed.
Bio of the Lecturer：
Prof. Kazunari Domen received his B.S. (1976), M.S. (1979), and Ph.D. (1982) honors in chemistry from the University of Tokyo. Dr. Domen joined Chemical Resources Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1982 as Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1990 and Professor in 1996. In 2024, he moved to the University of Tokyo as Professor and was cross-appointed with Shinshu University as Special Contract Professor in 2017. He became University Professor of the University of Tokyo in 2019 and Distinguished University Professor of Shinshu University in 2025.
His research interests include heterogeneous catalysis and materials chemistry, particularly surface chemical reaction dynamics, photocatalysis, solid acid catalysis, and mesoporous materials. He is a renowned scientist in the field of photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen production using solar energy. Since 1980, he has pioneered particulate photocatalytic water splitting systems and has made outstanding contributions to photocatalytic water splitting and artificial photosynthesis.
He has received numerous honours, including the Chemical Society of Japan Award in 2011; the Asia-Pacific Catalysis Achievement Award in 2019; the 2022 European Innovation Council (EIC) Horizon Prize on “Artificial Photosynthesis”; the Heinz-Heinemann Award of International Association of Catalysis Societies in 2024; the 2024 Clarivate Citation Laureate in Chemistry and 2025 August Wilhelm von Hofmann Lecture Award of German Chemical Society (DGCh).
He has published over 850 original and review papers in journals such as Nature, Nature Materials, Nature Catalysis, Nature Energy and JACS, with over 120,000 citations and h-index 161 (September 2025; Web of Science).
