Synthetic and Biosynthetic Catalysts for H2 production – CatH2

Use of hydrogen as a primary energy vector is recognised as providing the best long term solution for achieving a clean and sustainable energy economy. This project aims at mimicking hydrogenase enzymes to provide new synthetic catalysts for hydrogen production and/or uptake, thus allowing the replacement of platinum in low temperature electrolysors and fuels cells. The key steps are the following : (i) The design of new catalysts for hydrogen evolution and hydrogen oxidation, the structure of which will be inspired from the active sites of hydrogenases (bioinspired approach),(ii) the enhancement of catalytic activity of non-biomimetic catalysts for hydrogen production by incorporation of structural features found at the active sites of hydrogenase enzymes, (iii) the preparation and characterisation of bio-inspired complexes incorporating a polypeptide or a protein as ligand (biosynthetic approach), (iv) the evaluation of the catalytic properties of the new complexes for hydrogen production/uptake and their grafting on surfaces in order to produce modified electrodes and (v) the coupling of the catalysts for hydrogen production to sensitizers in the perspective of hydrogen photoproduction from renewable energy sources and water.