Chemistry researchers modify solar technology to produce a less harmful greenhouse gas

Potential for environmentally friendly fuels

09-Apr-2024 - Researchers in the UNC-Chapel Hill Chemistry Department are using semiconductors to harvest and convert the sun’s energy into high-energy compounds that have the potential to produce environmentally friendly fuels. In the paper, "Methyl Termination of p-Type Silicon Enables Selective ...

Next generation solar fuels: How a record-breaking copper catalyst converts CO₂ into liquid fuels

Researchers have made real-time movies of copper nanoparticles as they evolve to convert carbon dioxide and water into renewable fuels and chemicals

21-Feb-2023 - Since the 1970s, scientists have known that copper has a special ability to transform carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals and fuels. But for many years, scientists have struggled to understand how this common metal works as an electrocatalyst, a mechanism that uses energy from electrons to ...

How a soil microbe could rev up artificial photosynthesis

The secret is an enzyme that “juggles” reaction ingredients

04-May-2022 - Plants rely on a process called carbon fixation – turning carbon dioxide from the air into carbon-rich biomolecules ­– for their very existence. That’s the whole point of photosynthesis, and a cornerstone of the vast interlocking system that cycles carbon through plants, animals, microbes and the ...

New research advances clean energy solutions

"Chemistry will play a vital role in the development of clean solutions to the world’s mounting energy dilemma"

06-Sep-2021 - Meeting society’s growing energy needs has become a daunting challenge for humanity. Demands for energy are expected to nearly double by the year 2050, while the effects of climate change, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, are already wreaking havoc in the form of droughts, wildfires, floods ...

Showtime for photosynthesis

One of nature's most important chemical reactions is now being captured in a breakthrough 'molecular movie'

08-Jun-2020 - Using a unique combination of nanoscale imaging and chemical analysis, an international team of researchers has revealed a key step in the molecular mechanism behind the water splitting reaction of photosynthesis, a finding that could help inform the design of renewable energy technology. "Life ...

Adapting natural membrane to make hydrogen fuel from water

14-Jan-2019 - A chemical reaction pathway central to plant biology have been adapted to form the backbone of a new process that converts water into hydrogen fuel using energy from the sun. In a recent study from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, scientists have combined two ...

This bacterium gets paid in gold

Harvesting solar fuels through a bacterium's unusual appetite for gold

11-Oct-2018 - A bacterium named Moorella thermoacetica won't work for free. But UC Berkeley researchers have figured out it has an appetite for gold. And in exchange for this special treat, the bacterium has revealed a more efficient path to producing solar fuels through artificial photosynthesis. M. ...

Splitting water: Nanoscale imaging yields key insights

20-Jul-2018 - In the quest to realize artificial photosynthesis to convert sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into fuel - just as plants do - researchers need to not only identify materials to efficiently perform photoelectrochemical water splitting, but also to understand why a certain material may or may ...

New discovery could better predict how semiconductors weather abuse

07-Jul-2016 - Mimicking nature is not easy, but new insights by researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) could help create a viable artificial system of photosynthesis. One of the major challenges for scientists working to create systems that efficiently ...

Discovery could dramatically boost efficiency of perovskite solar cells

06-Jul-2016 - Scientists from the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered a possible secret to dramatically boosting the efficiency of perovskite solar cells hidden in the nanoscale peaks and valleys of the crystalline material. Solar cells made from ...