Affordable and Clean Energy

Global CO2 emissions remain a nearly constant by-product in many industrial branches despite the changes for example in energy production. Instead of storing CO2 in caves, the better way is to reuse it in a cycle of regenerative energy carriers. CO2 can then be seen as an abundant source of an inexpensive raw material to be transformed using solar irradiation into other energy carriers such as methane or methanol. The doctoral researcher's task is to study the combination of photocatalysts with plasmonic active metals that enhance absorption of light beyond the band gap limitations and drive selected reactions to enhance the output of specific solar fuels based on utilization of CO2-emissions. The work benefits both from catalytic materials engineering and advanced spectroscopic studies.

Related I4WORLD research themes: Affordable and Clean Energy; Clean Water, Biodiversity and Environment

Location of the position: Nano and Molecular Systems

Supervisors: Prof. Wei Cao (NANOMO), Prof. Max Lemme (Electronic Devices, RWTH-Aachen and AMO GmbH), Dr. Ulrich Plachetka (AMO GmbH.) and Doc. Satu Ojala (Environmental and Chemical Engineering)

Partners: RWTH-Aachen (Germany), AMO GmbH. (Germany)

Growing energy demands need technological developments for photocatalysis. Semiconductors with band gaps ranging from visible to ultraviolet are favorable photocatalysts, as incident photons with energies greater or equal to the band gap liberate charge carriers that migrate to the surface leading to redox reactions. Existing technologies are limited by low quantum efficiency, charge recombination, and chemical back-reactions. The doctoral student will develop novel two-dimensional (2D) materials and Van der Waal’s heterostructures that satisfy band gap requirements using extensive density functional theory calculations combined with high throughput simulations. In a secondment in Switzerland, the student will conduct photoemission spectroscopy experiments to test/refine the predictions.

Related I4WORLD research theme: Affordable and Clean Energy

Location of the position: Nano and Molecular Systems (NANOMO)

Supervisors: Doc. S. Assa Aravindh (NANOMO), Prof. Matti Alatalo (NANOMO) and Prof. Claude Monney (University of Fribourg)

Partner: University of Fribourg (Switzerland)

Hydrogen will be the key energy carrier of the coming century. Large-scale production of green hydrogen can hardly circumvent materials engineering along with deep mechanistic understanding of the processes. In photocatalysis the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is dictated by the semiconductor absorption and carrier recombination. To enhance HER efficiency, semiconductors have been formed to heterostructures. The focus of this project is on the heterostructure formation via materials engineering and characterization of tailored low dimensional 2D/1D composites through advanced spectromicroscopic studies. The electronic and optical properties of 2D/1D heterojunctions, which define light absorption, carrier distribution and redox potentials, will be studied on immobilized thin film layers.

Related I4WORLD research theme: Affordable and Clean Energy

Location of the position: Nano and Molecular Systems (NANOMO)

Supervisors: Prof. Wei Cao (NANOMO), Prof. Max Lemme (Electronic Devices, RWTH-Aachen and AMO GmbH), Dr. Ulrich Plachetka (AMO GmbH.) and Doc. Satu Ojala (Environmental and Chemical Engineering)

Partners: RWTH-Aachen (Germany), AMO GmbH. (Germany)

To optimize large scale renewable energy systems (RES) (wind farms, utility-scale PV), data from geographic information systems (GIS), unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), and remote sensing can be analyzed using artificial-intelligence (AI) and machine-learning (ML) techniques along with internet-of-things (IoT). This would enable real-time condition monitoring, fault detection, prediction of energy production and maintenance needs, which can help to optimise the operation and profitability of RES. This research will develop and apply advanced AI/ML techniques, integrated UAV, GIS and remote/IoT sensing data to provide short-/long-term intelligent services for the optimization, operation and planning of RE systems in terms of descriptive, predictive, diagnostic and prescriptive analytics. Close research collaboration with energy utility companies.

Related I4WORLD research theme: Affordable and Clean Energy

Location of the position: Water, Energy and Environmental Engineering (WE3)

Supervisors: Professor Eva Pongrácz (WE3), Associate Professor Mehdi Rasti (CWC-NS&WE3) and Maria Kopsakangas-Savolainen (SYKE)

Partners: Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) (Finland), Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) (Finland)