BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Solar Technologies for Waste-to-Chemical Conversion
DTSTART:20230822T110000
DTEND:20230822T120000
DTSTAMP:20260930T195035Z
UID:00ff9af0eeabaa78fed64302d73b7b417ad0d5133904d86e3cfb91fe
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Erwin Reisner\,\nUniversity of Cambridge\, UK\nAbstract
  : \nSolar panels are well known to produce electricity\, but they are al
 so in early-stage development for the production of sustainable fuels and 
 chemicals. These panels mimic plant leaves in shape and function as demons
 trated for overall solar water splitting to produce green hydrogen by the 
 laboratories of Nocera and Domen.1\,2 This presentation will give an overv
 iew of our recent progress to construct prototype solar panel devices for 
 the direct conversion of carbon dioxide and solid waste streams into fuels
  and higher-value chemicals through molecular surface-engineering of solar
  panels with catalysts. Specifically\, a standalone ‘photoelectrochemica
 l leaf’ based on an integrated lead halide perovskite-BiVO4 tandem light
  absorber architecture has been constructed for the solar CO2 reduction to
  produce syngas (CO and H2).3 Further manufacturing advances have enabled 
 the reduction of material requirements to fabricate such devices and make 
 the leaves sufficiently light weight to even float on water\, thereby enab
 ling application on open water sources.4 The tandem design also allows for
  the integration of biocatalysts and the selective and bias-free conversio
 n of CO2-to-formate has been demonstrated using enzymes.5 Recent progress 
 in catalyst-development has enabled carbon-carbon bond formation and the d
 irect production of liquid multicarbon fuels directly from CO2.6 The versa
 tility of the integrated leaf architecture has been demonstrated by replac
 ing the perovskite light absorber by BiOI for solar water and CO2 splittin
 g to demonstrate week-long stability.7\n\nAn alternative solar carbon capt
 ure and utilisation technology is based on co-deposited semiconductor powd
 ers on a conducting substrate.2 Modification of these immobilized powders 
 with a molecular catalyst provides us with a photocatalyst sheet that can 
 cleanly produce formic acid from aqueous CO2.8 CO2-fixing bacteria grown o
 n such photocatalyst sheets enable the production of multicarbon products 
 through clean CO2-to-acetate conversion.9 The deposition of a single semic
 onductor material on glass gives panels for the sunlight-powered conversio
 n plastic and biomass waste into hydrogen and organic products\, thereby a
 llowing for simultaneous waste remediation and fuel production.10\,11 The 
 concept and prospect behind these integrated systems for solar energy conv
 ersion\,12 related approaches\,13 and their relevance to secure and harnes
 s sustainable energy supplies in a fossil-fuel free economy will be discus
 sed.\n\n \nReferences\n[1] Reece et al.\, Science\, 2011\, 334\, 645–64
 8\n[2] Wang et al.\, Nat. Mater.\, 2016\, 15\, 611–615\n[3] Andrei et al
 .\, Nat. Mater.\, 2020\, 19\, 189–194\n[4] Andrei et al.\, Nature\, 2022
 \, 608\, 518–522\n[5] Moore et al.\, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.\, 2021\, 60\,
  26303–26307\n[6] Rahaman et al.\, Nat. Energy\, 2023\, 8\, 629–638\n[
 7] Andrei et al.\, Nat. Mater.\, 2022\, 21\, 864–868\n[8] Wang et al.\, 
 Nat. Energy\, 2020\, 5\, 703–710\n[9] Wang et al.\, Nat. Catal.\, 2022\,
  5\, 633–641\n[10] Uekert et al.\, Nat. Sustain.\, 2021\, 4\, 383–391\
 n[11] Bhattacharjee et al.\, Nat. Synthesis\, 2023\, 2\, 182–192\n[12] A
 ndrei et al.\, Acc. Chem. Res.\, 2022\, 55\, 3376–3386\n[13] Wang et al.
 \, Nat. Energy\, 2022\, 7\, 13–24\n\n\nBio: Prof. Erwin Reisner: he was
  born and raised in the foothills of the alps in Upper Austria and studied
  Chemistry at the University of Vienna. He developed an early interest in 
 bioinorganic and coordination chemistry\, and his PhD studies in the Keppl
 er group focused on ‘redox activated ruthenium anticancer drugs’. Prof
 . Reisner subsequently changed from medicinal inorganic chemistry to diffe
 rent aspects of bio-inspired energy conversion as a postdoc. In the Lippar
 d group at MIT\, he studied synthetic models of the diiron(II) active site
  of soluble Methane Monooxygenase\, which selectively converts natural gas
  to methanol. He subsequently joined the Armstrong group in Oxford to work
  on solar hydrogen production with enzyme-nanoparticle hybrid systems. His
  independent career started with an EPSRC research fellowship at The Unive
 rsity of Manchester\, followed by a University Lectureship at the Universi
 ty of Cambridge. He is currently the Professor of Energy and Sustainabilit
 y and a Fellow of St. John’s College in Cambridge\, coordinator of the U
 K Solar Fuels network\, which organises the national activities in artific
 ial photosynthesis\, and the Cambridge Creative Circular Plastics Centre.\
 n \n\n 
LOCATION:Tseuzier https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==I17%204%20K2 https://epfl.zo
 om.us/j/64862135950
STATUS:CONFIRMED
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR