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SUMMARY:Utilization of Integrated Semiconductor-Electrocatalyst Systems fo
 r Small Molecule Activation and Phase Separation in Space Environments
DTSTART:20230428T110000
DTEND:20230428T120000
DTSTAMP:20260406T214722Z
UID:0e9ee5ea477745deab8985ac6cde2288240433a0d822a0c15ae1831b
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr Katharina Brinkert is passionate about natural and artifici
 al photosynthesis research since her school time\, where she participated 
 in several science competitions. She received her BSc degree in Chemistry 
 from the University of Bielefeld\, Germany\, and her MSc degree in Chemist
 ry for Renewable Energy from Uppsala University\, Sweden. She carried out 
 her master's degree project at the Center for Bioenergy and Photosynthesis
  at Arizona State University under the supervision of Prof. Devens Gust. R
 eturning to Uppsala for her first year of PhD studies\, she worked with Pr
 of. Stenbjörn Styring and Prof. Leif Hammarström on proton-coupled elect
 ron transfer kinetics in nature's water-splitting enzyme\, Photosystem II.
  She then moved to Imperial College London\, where she continued investiga
 ting electron transfer pathways and their energetics in Photosystem II via
  spectroelectrochemistry\, working with Prof. Bill Rutherford and Dr. Andr
 ea Fantuzzi. Katharina received her Ph.D. from Imperial College London in 
 2015. Consecutively\, Katharina received a Research Fellowship from the Eu
 ropean Space Agency/the Advanced Concepts Team (ESTEC/Noordwijk) for an in
 dependent research project on solar hydrogen production in the microgravit
 y environment. She continued her work in the area of artificial photosynth
 esis\, specializing in photoelectrochemistry and photoelectrocatalysis for
  solar oxygen\, fuel and chemical production in terrestrial and microgravi
 ty environments. Following her work at ESA\, Katharina received a Leopoldi
 na Postdoctoral Scholarship to work with Prof. Harry B. Gray at the Califo
 rnia Institute of Technology\, where she developed new electrocatalytic ma
 terials for electrochemical ammonia production. Since September 2019\, Kat
 harina is an Assistant Professor in Catalysis at Warwick where she does wh
 at she always wanted to do: artificial photosynthesis for solar-to-chemica
 l energy conversion. Besides her passion for sciences\, she enjoys sports\
 , literature\, film and theatre\, music\, philosophy and politics.\nAbstra
 ct : Efficient artificial photosynthesis systems are currently developed f
 or photoelectrochemical (PEC) water oxidation while simultaneously recycli
 ng CO2 and generating hydrogen as a solar fuel for storable renewable ener
 gy. These systems comprise e.g.\, integrated semiconductor-electrocatalyst
  devices which offer several benefits such as high system tunability with 
 respect to the electrocatalyst integration and a directly controllable ele
 ctron flux for the electrocatalytic process through the adjustability of i
 ncoming irradiation. These characteristics could also represent a signific
 ant advantage for electrocatalytic dinitrogen reduction\, although PEC dev
 ices remain little explored for this reaction. Due to their monolithic des
 ign\, they are furthermore interesting for applications for space explorat
 ion\, where weight and volume constraints for life support equipment predo
 minate.\nWe will discuss recent developments in fabricating and designing 
 integrated semiconductor-electrocatalyst systems for small molecule activa
 tion\, in particular dinitrogen fixation and furthermore\, possibilities f
 or engineering the electrocatalyst surface for efficient oxygen and hydrog
 en evolution in reduced gravitational environments. Here\, the near-absenc
 e of buoyancy traditionally hinders gas bubble desorption and causes sever
 e reaction overpotentials. Utilising custom-tailored electrocatalyst nanos
 tructures\, we show that terrestrial efficiencies can be achieved for hydr
 ogen production in microgravity environments\, generated for 9.2 s at the 
 Bremen Drop Tower.\n 
LOCATION:MED 0 1418 https://plan.epfl.ch//?room==MED%200%201418
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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