Center for Bio-Inspired Solar Fuel Production | An Energy Frontier Research Center Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy

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Mission

The need for a continuous energy supply and energy requirements for transportation necessitates technology for storage of energy from sunlight in fuel, as well as conversion to electricity. Cost-effective technologies for solar fuel production do not exist, prompting the need for new fundamental science.

Frontiers in Energy Research

The new January 2012 issue of Frontiers in Energy Research, the EFRC newsletter, is now available at http://www.energyfrontier.us/newsletter.

Under Research Highlight section read an article "Maximizing Solar Fuel Production" about research in our center. Researchers at the Center for Bio-Inspired Solar Fuel Production have successfully incorporated DNA-based nanocages into the pores of a transparent metal oxide material that conducts electricity while allowing sunlight to pass through it. The team is now significantly closer to constructing a transparent electrode with integrated catalysts, which is fundamental to developing a bio-inspired artificial solar fuel system.

Upcoming Bisfuel events

Thursday, April 19, 2012

ASU-UA STUDENT CONFERENCE

Graduate students from the Center will take part in a student-focused conference exploring renewable energy research activities at Arizona State University and University of Arizona that will be held at ASU on April 19-20, 2012. The conference will feature student talks and poster presentations on the broad range of activities in solar fuels, solar electric, and energy policy.

Recent publications

Megiatto, J. D., Antoniuk-Pablant, A., Sherman, B. D., Kodis, G., Gervaldo, M., Moore, T. A., Moore, A. L., and Gust, D. (2012) Mimicking the electron transfer chain in photosystem II with a molecular triad thermodynamically capable of water oxidation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Published online May 7, 2012, (Read online)
Zhao, Y., Swierk, J. R., Megiatto, J. D., Sherman, B., Youngblood, W. J., Qin, D., Lentz, D. M., Moore, A. L., Moore, T. A., Gust, D., and Mallouk, T. E. (2012) Improving the efficiency of water splitting in dye-sensitized solar cells by using a biomimetic electron transfer mediator, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Published online April 30, 2012, (Read online)
Megiatto, J. D., Patterson, D., Sherman, B. D., Moore, T. A., Gust, D., and Moore, A. L. (2012) Intramolecular hydrogen bonding as a synthetic tool to induce chemical selectivity in acid catalyzed porphyrin synthesis, Chemical Communications, 48, 4558-4560 (Read online)
Terazono, Y., North, E.J., Moore, A.L., Moore, T.A., and Gust, D. (2012) Base-Catalyzed Direct Conversion of Dipyrromethanes to 1,9-Dicarbinols: A [2 + 2] Approach for Porphyrins, Organic Letters, 14, 1776-1779 (Read online)
Kloz, M., Pillai, S., Kodis, G., Gust, D., Moore, T. A., Moore, A. L., van Grondelle, R., and Kennis, J. T. M. (2012) New light-harvesting roles of hot and forbidden carotenoid states in artificial photosynthetic constructs, Chemical Science, 3, 2052-2061 (Read online)

2012 Departmental Awards

The 2012 Departmental awards ceremony has been held on April 10th, 2012. This year undergraduate and graduate students affiliated with EFRC have harvested a good load of awards:

ASU EFRC Leadership and staff congratulates Departmental award recipients, their mentors, and all personnel who contributed to the success!

Research news

2011-06-22

Size selective absorption of DNA tetrahedra in ATO nanomaterials

A group of Center for Bio-inspired Solar Fuel Production researchers collaborating on Subtask 2 (Water oxidation catalyst) and Subtask 5 (Functional nanostructured transparent electrode materials) have found that transparent and conducting antimony tin oxide with controlled pore size incorporates DNA nanocages with high affinity and without damage. Results of the study have been published in the June 2011 issue of ACS Nano. The study has brought the Center scientists a bit closer to a design of a transparent nanostructured electrode with entrapped functional water oxidation catalysts.

2011-05-13

Photosynthetic water oxidation versus photovoltaic water electrolysis

Professor Tom Moore, a leader of Subtask 1 (Total systems analysis, assembly and testing) in the Center, is a coauthor of the review paper “Comparing Photosynthetic and Photovoltaic Efficiencies and Recognizing the Potential for Improvement” published in May 13 issue of the Science magazine. In this paper, the multidisciplinary team of authors presented a consensus on comparison of solar energy conversion of photosynthesis and photovoltaics that outlines a road map for engineering of more efficient photosynthetic systems.

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