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SUMMARY:Molecular Photosynthesis: Such Stuff as Dreams are Made On - Marce
 lla Bonchio University of Padova and ITM-CNR
DTSTART:20190124T113000Z
DTEND:20190124T123000Z
UID:TALK117454@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Catherine Pearson
DESCRIPTION:The use of solar-activated H2O/CO2 routines as a feed-stock fo
 r photosynthetic processes is nowadays a breakthrough concept for sustaina
 ble energy\, solar fuels\, green chemistry and food security. The enormous
  potential of this vital cycle is far from being adequately exploited. Ind
 eed\, Natural Photosynthesis will not be adequate to feed the world and po
 wer its energy needs in the next decades. As a result of a population incr
 ease up to 9 billion people\, the global demand for food and energy will i
 ncrease more than 60% by 2050. In this time-frame\, a spontaneous\, evolut
 ionary burst of the Natural Machinery is out of reach. \n\nThe game-change
 r relies on a man-made re-design of photosynthesis to overcome the natural
  bottlenecks\, efficiency losses\, and govern land exploitation conflicts 
 for food and energy (bio-fuels) production. The urgency is such that we ne
 ed to accelerate the equivalent of 100 million years evolution to orders o
 f magnitude less contingency.\n\nResearch on Artificial Photosynthesis is 
 taking the risk of this revolution\, by focussing on the high-gain of a su
 stainable\, clean and secure future “….the guarded secret of the plant
 s\, mastered by human industry which will know how to make them bear even 
 more abundant fruit than nature\, for Nature is not in a hurry and mankind
  is” (Giacomo Ciamician “The photochemistry of the future” Science 1
 912\, 36\, 385-394).\nAn extraordinary research effort has been dedicated 
 to elucidate the structural and mechanistic prerogatives of the natural ox
 ygen evolving complex embedded within the photosystem II enzyme (PSII-OEC)
 . A recent breakthrough in the field of artificial photosynthesis is the d
 iscovery of synthetic multi-redox catalysts\, as analogs of the PSII-OEC (
 Scheme 1)\, with a common functional-motif\, i.e. a redox-active\, tetranu
 clear {M4(-O)4 core boosting H2O oxidation to O2 with unprecedented 
 efficiency. Our vision points to a careful choice/design of the catalytic 
 core\, of its ligand set and of the surrounding nano-environment. We repor
 t herein a combined synthetic\, spectroscopic and mechanistic study on the
  use multi-metal catalysts for water oxidation and their combined use with
  visible light sensitizers and carbon nanostructures (CNS). The outcome is
  a hybrid nanomaterial with unperturbed CNS electrical properties\, enabli
 ng water splitting with high efficiency at overpotentials as low as the na
 tural protein.\n
LOCATION:Open Plan Area\, BP Institute\, Madingley Rise CB3 0EZ
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