Light-driven, multi-electron redox processes are the foundation of natural photosynthesis that enables water splitting and, ultimately, CO2 and N2 fixation. Molecular chromophores, redox shuttles, and catalysts perform all of the key functions in an elaborate, coordinated dance. Emulating the elegance of biological photocatalysis has not yet been achieved by anthropogenic systems, but recent developments in molecular photocatalysis have demonstrated tantalizing new insights and concepts that are approaching this goal. This symposium invites contributions on the latest developments in the field of multi-electron photocatalysis toward water-splitting, CO2 reduction, and N2 fixation. Sessions will feature progress on fundamental insights in light-driven charge and ion transfer processes in molecular photocatalysts as well as systems-level molecular approaches based on molecular materials such as metal organic frameworks (MOFs) that demonstrate photocatalytic fuels production.
- Molecular and bio-inspired single-site photocatalysts
- Supramolecular photocatalytic systems including metal organic frameworks (MOFs)
- Time-resolved photodynamics and fundamental charge/ion transfer
Nate Neale received his B.A. degree in chemistry from Middlebury College in 1998, where he studied radical substitution reactions at activated arenes and the binding mode of cisplatin, a common commercial anti-cancer drug, to a model DNA fragment. His scientific training continued as a graduate student under Prof. T. Don Tilley at the University of California, Berkeley, investigating the mechanism by which a transition-metal catalyst facilitates the polymerization of stannanes to polystannanes, a class of inorganic polymers with unique optical and electronic properties. As a postdoctoral researcher at NREL, he worked on controlling the synthesis and surface chemistry of TiO2 nanostructures for dye-sensitized solar cells in the laboratories of Dr. Arthur J. Frank. After a brief stint at the University of Colorado, Boulder, during which time he worked in collaboration with Dr. Frank, Dr. Arthur J. Nozik, and Prof. David Jonas on photoelectrodes for photoelectrochemical water splitting, he returned to NREL as a staff scientist in 2008. His current research interests are focused on tailoring the chemical structure and photophysics of nanostructured inorganic semiconductors and catalysts for photovoltaics, solar fuels, batteries, and related energy conversion and storage concepts.
Roland A. FischerRoland A. Fischer, Prof. Dr. rer. nat., Dr. phil. h.c., holds the Chair of Inorganic and Metal-Organic Chemistry at the Technical University Munich (TUM) and is Director of the TUM Catalysis Research Centre. Previously he was Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Ruhr-University Bochum (1997-2015) and Heidelberg University (1996-1997). He has been elected Vice President of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in 2016. He is member of the Award Selection Committee of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Chemical Industry Fund and was elected member of the European Academy of Sciences. His research interest focuses on functional molecular materials for advanced applications in energy conversion, catalysis, gas storage and separation, chemical sensing, photonics and microelectronics. To illustrate, metal-rich complexes, atomic precise clusters, nanoparticles and nanocomposites can substitute rare noble metals for important catalytic transformation of small molecules. In addition, the combinatorial building-block principle of coordination network compounds such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) yields ample opportunities for the manipulation and design of the chemistry of coordination space in pores and channels accessible to guest molecules. The goal is to integrate chemical and physical multifunctionality in photo-active, electrical conductive, catalytic and stimuli-responsive MOFs. Currently, he is steering the DFG Priority Program 1928 “Coordination Networks: Building Blocks for Functional Systems”.
Ksenija GlusacAntoni Llobet was born in Sabadell (Barcelona) in 1960.
He obtained his PhD at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) with Prof. Francesc Teixidor in July 1985, and then moved to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for a postdoctoral stay with Prof. Thomas J. Meyer, until the end of 1987.
After a short period again at UAB and at University of Sussex-Dow Corning (UK) he then become a Scientific Officer for the Commission of the European Communities, based in Brussels, Belgium (1990-1991).
Then he was appointed Senior Research Associate at Texas A&M University in College Station (USA) from 1992 till 1993, working with the groups of Prof. Arthur E. Martell and Donald T. Sawyer. From 1993 till 2004 he joined the faculty of the Universitat de Girona where he was promoted to Full Professor in 2000. At the end of 2004 he joined the faculty of UAB also as Full Professor.
In September 2006, he was appointed as Group Leader at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) in Tarragona.
His research interests include the development of tailored transition metal complexes as catalysts for selective organic and inorganic transformations including the oxidation of water to molecular dioxygen, supramolecular catalysis, the activation of C-H and C-F bonds, and the preparation low molecular weight complexes as structural and/or functional models of the active sites of oxidative metalloproteins.
In 2000 he received the Distinction Award from Generalitat de Catalunya for Young Scientists. In 2011 he was awarded the Bruker Prize in Inorganic Chemistry from the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry (RSEQ) and in 2012 he has been awarded with the “Hermanos Elhuyar-Hans Goldschmidt” lecture jointly by RSEQ and the German Chemical Society (GDCh).
At present he is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of “Catalysis Science and Technology” from the Royal Society of Chemistry, “Inorganic Chemistry” from the American Chemical Society and “European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry” from Wiley-VCH.
Shengqian Ma obtained his B.S. degree from Jilin University, China in 2003, and graduated from Miami University (Ohio) with a Ph.D. degree under the supervision of Hong-Cai Joe Zhou (currently at Texas A&M University) in 2008. After finishing two-year Director’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at Argonne National Laboratory, he joined the Department of Chemistry at University of South Florida (USF) as an Assistant Professor in August 2010. He was promoted to an Associate Professor with early tenure in 2015 and to a Full Professor in 2018. In August 2020, he joined the Department of Chemistry at University of North Texas (UNT) as the Robert A. Welch Chair in Chemistry.
Amanda Morris is a Professor of Inorganic and Energy Chemistry at Virginia Tech. Her research education conducted at Penn State University (B.S.), Johns Hopkins University (Ph.D.), and Princeton University (Postdoctoral) has been focused on addressing critical environmental issues with fundamental science including water remediation, solar energy harvesting and storage, and carbon dioxide conversion. As her publication record shows, Morris is a classically trained photo-electrochemist with demonstrated success utilizing various techniques (cyclic voltammetry, spectroelectrochemistry, and pulsed-laser spectroscopy) to explore new frontiers in renewable energy. Her research group’s current focus is on light-matter interactions and catalysis. She has received numerous awards for her research pursuits listed below. In addition to her academic pursuits, Morris has a demonstrated record in service including the recruitment and retention of minority chemists. In recognition of this work, she has received the Alan F. Clifford Service Award and College of Science Diversity Award. She currently serves as an American Chemical Society Expert in the area of Sustainable Energy and through this effort has worked to communicate science to the broader national audience with interviews on NPR, newspaper editorials, and press conferences. She also serves as an Associate Editor of Chemical Physics Reviews and sits on the Editorial Advisory Boards for ACS Applied Energy Materials and EnergyChem.
Maria Wächtler studied Chemistry at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena where she also received her PhD in 2013. After a postdoctoral period at Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology Jena (Leibniz-IPHT), she was appointed head of work group Ultrafast Spectroscopy in the department Functional Interfaces in 2015 and since 2020 she is head of work group Quantum Confined Nanostructures at Leibniz-IPHT. Her research focuses on the design of systems for light-driven water splitting based on colloidal semiconductor nanostructures and the investigation of function determining interactions and light-driven processes by (time-resolved) spectroscopy.