Abstract:

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting can convert sunlight directly into chemical fuels, but doing so efficiently depends on photoanode materials that simultaneously absorb sunlight, separate and transport photogenerated charges, and remain stable under operating conditions. Metal oxide semiconductors are the most widely pursued photoanode material class but have long been constrained by a fundamental tradeoff between the film thickness required for efficient light absorption and short charge carrier transport lengths that limit collection efficiency. My Ph.D. research has developed a generalizable solution-phase synthesis platform for nanoporous metal oxide thin films that decouples this tradeoff through controlled nanostructuring. Applied to a WO₃–BiVO₄ core–shell architecture, this platform yielded high-performing photoanodes for solar water oxidation. A parallel investigation focused on developing a synthesis method for gold nanoparticle dimers through selective click chemistry surface functionalization. These project areas share a unifying premise: the way a material interacts with light can be engineered by controlling its nanoscale architecture, and the synthetic methods developed here provide the control needed to translate that principle into improved performance.