Graphene based Nanocomposites and their Application in Hydrogen Generation and Storage

Abstract

Role of Energy is very crucial for running the economy of any country. Conventionally, the energy is generated through combustion of fossil fuel. But the stock of the fossil fuels are depleting gradually and the use of fossil fuel are producing green house gases, which are polluting our environment. Therefore, we should discover some better substitution of the fossil fuel that should be in environment friendly manner. Hydrogen can be a good alternate in this direction because it has the highest energy density (143KJ), fuel efficiency (75%) and its combustion produces water without liberating any green-house gases. Currently, the hydrogen is mainly produced by steam reforming, which is also based on fossil fuel. Hydrogen is abundantly present in the form of water. So, the hydrogen can also be generated by splitting of water either photo-catalytically or photo-electrochemically. Photocatalytic water splitting is more convenient over photoelectrochemical water splitting because it did not used electricity and it is similar to the photosynthesis of the plant, which requires sun light, photocatalyst and water. Emergence of some nanomaterial to construct light harvesting assemblies can provide an avenue to utilize renewable energy resources. Among them a 2D material Graphene has many outstanding properties, which develop a keen research interest of researchers for their usages in energy conversion applications. newlineTherefore, in this thesis we have synthesized the 2D graphene-based nanocomposites for water splitting, which are biogenic reduced graphene oxides by lemon and ascorbic acid, nickel phosphate loaded graphene oxide, Ag/AgCl(BaCl2)atZnO/GO and Eu-doped ZnOatGO nanocomposites for water splitting.