Energy will be the Next Scientific Grand Challenge.
The past two decades have witnessed a dramatic increase in global energy consumption. While this need has been largely met by fossil fuels, the rapidly increasing global competition for this limited resource and the expectation that the Earth’s energy needs will double by 2050 and triple by the end of the century, has generated growing concern over future availability.
Combine the above with the mounting evidence that carbon dioxide emissions are adversely affecting global climate, and it becomes increasingly clear that developing renewable carbon-neutral energy sources constitutes a grand challenge for the scientific community.
To address the challenges in creating a sustainable energy future, the UNC Energy Frontier Research Center "Solar Fuels" was established at one of the top five public research universities in the United States, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Led by a distinguished faculty, including members of the National Academy of Sciences, UNC EFRC leverages key discoveries made at UNC during the past 20 years and collaborations with other research institutions to assemble a critical mass of scientists working together on energy-related research. The research center is headquartered at UNC-CH in partnership with Duke University, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University, the University of Florida, and Research Triangle Institute.
UNC EFRC is conducting research on capturing sunlight and using it to drive solar fuel reactions or photovoltaic devices. The Center's efforts range from basic research on fundamental processes to integrating components into sub-systems, and sub-systems into prototypical devices. The research utilizes a broad, multidisciplinary approach in a highly collaborative setting drawing on expertise across a broad range of disciplines in chemistry, physics, and materials sciences. The primary targets are Dye Sensitized Photoelectrosynthesis Cells for solar fuels production and new approaches to organic photovoltaics including nano-structured, polymer-based photovoltaic devices, as shown above and below.
DSPEC research utilizes a modular approach and integration of multiple functions: molecular level light absorption; excited state electron injection into the conduction band of a semiconductor; electron transfer activation of a catalyst for water oxidation by use of free energy gradients; physically separated catalysts for water oxidation and reduction and a separating proton exchange membrane (PEM) for proton diffusion and equilibration. Key efforts are underway in the development of integrable molecular and nanoscale catalysts, semiconductors, integrated chromophore-catalyst assemblies, interfacial structure and dynamics, and device design and scale-up, the latter in collaboration with the Research Triangle Solar Fuels Institute.
UNC EFRC is investigating novel approaches to PV device design based on novel structured materials and electron-hole pair collection strategies. In one approach, rapid one-dimensional electron and energy transfer in preformed chemical structures is being investigated with polymers and peptides vertically aligned on n-type semiconductors. This approach exploits past findings of rapid intra-polymer energy transfer and interfacial electron transfer. Objectives include synthesis of new assembly architectures, measurement and analysis of exciton, energy, and charge transport dynamics, and development of patterned electrode architectures for light capture.
The Center is engaged in the development of experimental and theoretical methods for analyzing and describing phenomena that underpin solar fuels reactions and organic PV devices at the component and device level. Theory is closely integrated with experiment in support of team goals and objectives. Current focus is on excitation energy transport in complex molecular architectures, development of new ultrafast spectroscopic techniques to probe molecular excited states in solution and at interfaces, and applying state-of-the art theoretical and experimental methods to the study of catalysis and integrated systems.
To provide the basic research to enable a revolution in the collection and conversion of sunlight into storable solar fuels.
We will combine the best features of academic and translational research to study light/matter interactions and chemical processes for the efficient collection, transfer, and conversion of solar energy into chemical fuels and electricity.
