Storing the energy of sunlight in chemical bonds to make solar fuels is one of the most promising renewable energy storage methods. Critical advances in materials discovery and device engineering, as well as a fundamental understanding of the intermediate steps that govern solar to fuel conversion, are needed. This symposium will provide the state of the field for a wide range of materials and device systems with an emphasis on the mechanisms behind either electrochemical or photo-initiated catalysis. The scope will include research on a broad range of targeted fuels, including H2, CO2 reduction products, or NHx.
- Integrated systems for solar to fuel conversion: nanostructured & monolithic devices
- Electronic and morphological structure of highly active & selective catalysts
- Steady state & time-resolved understanding of photo-initiated catalysis
- Elucidation of catalytic mechanism: experiment & theory
- In-Situ identification of reaction intermediates
- Charge transfer kinetics at the catalyst/electrolyte interface
- Interfaces of electrodes with co-catalysts
- New approaches to materials discovery for catalysis
Assistant Professor 2008-present Michigan State University Postdoctoral Fellow 2006-2008 Northwestern University Ph.D., Chemistry 2006 California Institute of Technology Research Interests: Inorganic chemistry, renewable energy technology, investigations of homogeneous and heterogeneous electron-transfer reactions, synthesis of novel nanostructured materials, development and investigations of photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical cells
Name: Kazunari DOMEN Affiliation: The University of Tokyo Adjunct affiliation: Department of Chemical System Engineering, School of Engineering, Education: 1976 B.E. The University of Tokyo 1979 M.E. The University of Tokyo, School of Science 1982 Ph.D. The University of Tokyo, School of Science Professional experience: 1982-1990 Associate Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology 1990-1996 Associate Professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology 1996-2004 Professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology 2004-present Professor, The University of Tokyo, Japan (Visiting Scientist at IBM Almaden Research Center from 1985 to 1986.) Academic interests: Development of Photocatalysts for Water Splitting Study on Heterogeneous Catalysis Reactions by Infrared Spectroscopy Surface Reaction Dynamics by Nonlinear Laser Spectroscopy Development of New Functional Materials for Catalysis Academic/social contribution: 1. Editorial Board, Journal of Catalysis 2. Associate Editor, Catalysis Today 3. Director, The Chemical Society of Japan 4. Director, Catalysis Society of Japan 5. Member, The Engineering Academy of Japan
James Durrant is Professor of Photochemistry in the Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London and Ser Cymru Solar Professor, University of Swansea. His research addresses the photochemistry of new materials for solar energy conversion targeting both solar cells (photovoltaics) and solar to fuel (i.e.: artificial photosynthesis. It is based around employing transient optical and optoelectronic techniques to address materials function, and thereby elucidate design principles which enable technological development. His group is currently addressing the development and functional characterisation of organic and perovskite solar cells and photoelectrodes for solar fuel generation. More widely, he leads Imperial's Centre for Processable Electronics, founded the UK�s Solar Fuels Network and led the Welsh government funded S�r Cymru Solar initiative. He has published over 500 research papers and 5 patents, and was recently elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
Sophia Haussener is a Professor heading the Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL). Her current research is focused on providing design guidelines for thermal, thermochemical, and photoelectrochemical energy conversion reactors through multi-physics modelling and experimentation. Her research interests include: thermal sciences, fluid dynamics, charge transfer, electro-magnetism, and thermo/electro/photochemistry in complex multi-phase media on multiple scales. She received her MSc (2007) and PhD (2010) in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Joint Center of Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) between 2011 and 2012. She has published over 70 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, and 2 books. She has been awarded the ETH medal (2011), the Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation award (2011), the ABB Forschungspreis (2012), the Prix Zonta (2015), the Global Change Award (2017), and the Raymond Viskanta Award (2019), and is a recipient of a Starting Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation (2014).
Karen Mulfort is a Chemist in the Solar Energy Conversion Group at Argonne National Laboratory in the USA. She earned her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Minnesota in 2001 and Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 2008, followed by a Director's Postdoctoral Fellowship at Argonne. Karen was promoted to Assistant Chemist in the Division of Chemical Sciences and Engineering at Argonne in 2010 and Chemist in 2015. Her current research program investigates molecular and supramolecular architectures in systems for artificial photosynthesis. Karen and her work have been recognized with a 2009 Young Investigator Award from the Inorganic division of the American Chemical Society, the 2018 Rising Star Award from the Women Chemists Committee of the American Chemical Society, and the 2018 Early Career Research Program from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Alexandr N. Simonov is a physical chemist specialising in (photo)electrochemistry and (photo)electrocatalysis. Research in his group is aimed at understanding and designing new effective ways to generate and use renewable electricity for the sustainable chemistry technologies. His major research focuses on the development of catalysts, electrode architectures and electrolytic devices for generation of hydrogen through splitting of water (including seawater), reduction of nitrogen to ammonia, as well as selective oxidation of ammonia and nitrogen to nitrates for fertiliser generation. He collaborates with Australian and German industry on several projects aiming to develop new cost-effective water electrolysers. He is a co-founder of a spin-out company Jupiter Ionics Pty Ltd. working on the commercialisation of the Monash technologies for ammonia synthesis and oxidation.