AsiaChem | Chemistry in Japan | December 2021 Volume 2 Issue 1

80 | December 2021 www.facs.website Hironobu Ozawa Hironobu Ozawa received his Ph.D. from Kyushu University in 2007, working under the supervisiory of Prof. Ken Sakai. He carried out his Postdoctoral research in Prof. Koji Tanaka’s group at Institute for Molecular Science, Prof. Garry S. Hanan’s group at University of Montreal, and Prof. Ken Sakai’s group at Kyushu University. In 2010, he became an Assistant Professor at Tokyo University of Science (Prof. Hironori Arakawa’s group). In 2015, he moved to Kyushu University as an Assistant Professor (Prof. Ken Sakai’s group), and in 2018 he was promoted to an Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Kyushu University. His current research interests are focused on the development of solar energy conversion systems based on coordination compounds. Ken Sakai Ken Sakai received his Ph.D. from Waseda University in 1993 where he initiated his ongoing study on the hydrogen evolution reaction catalyzed by platinum(II) complexes. He extended his study in the related areas at both Seikei University (1991-1999) and Tokyo University of Science (1999-2004), and was finally promoted to be a full professor at the Department of Chemistry of Kyushu University in 2004. His interests involve the development of hybrid materials for artificial photosynthesis together with the detailed mechanic studies on the dark and photochemical catalysis relevant to the energy conversion processes, such as water splitting and CO2 reduction. He has also been proving his volunteer services to the IUPAC activity as one of the elected members of Bureau (2018-2025). We want to develop an artificial photosynthetic water splitting device enabling separate evolution of H2 and O2 in two different aqueous phases. This approach avoids the evolution of a potentially explosive H2/O2 gas mixture together with development of a gas separation facility required to capture H2 from the mixture. We are thus attempting to develop a two-electrode system for solar-light water splitting with the anode only subjected for photo-driven water oxidation to uptake electrons and protons, as the nature does. Our target device converts the electrons transferred to the cathode directly to H2 without light illumination, as is the case for the Calvin cycle where CO2 is converted into glucose as a dark reaction. An outstanding feature also lies in the high specific surface areas of both electrodes due to the mesoporous nature of the TiO2 films adopted as the electrode materials. Two-Electrode Solar Water Splitting Permitting H2 Separation at a Dark Cathode By Hironobu Ozawa and Ken Sakai https://doi.org/10.51167/acm00027 Why hydrogen and other fuel cells rather than battery? Among various approaches attempting to develop renewable energy sources, solar hydrogen production via water splitting has received an increasing attention in recent years.1 It actually has a great relevance to the recent advancement in the hydrogen fuel cell technology. The fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) possess several important characteristics superior to the battery electric vehicles (BEVs),1 even though the FCEVs still suffer from the drawbacks arising from their high costs together with the lack of sufficient numbers of refueling stations. However, the pressurized hydrogen fuel (over 35 MPa)2 has a higher energy density than lithium-ion batteries, featuring the FCEVs superior to any other zero-emission vehicles for long-distance transportation. Especially, transportation of

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