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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Fink Lecture
Prof. Thomas J. Meyer, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Solar Fuels from sunlight
Because of its intermittency, solar energy cannot be a primary energy source in a new energy future without energy storage on a massive scale. The only reasonable approach is chemistry and production of solar fuels with sunlight used to drive critical reactions such as water splitting into hydrogen and oxygen and water reduction of CO2 to reduced carbon, ultimately as a source of transportation fuels. The critical elements in solar fuels production by natural and artificial photosynthesis are understood: light absorption, excited state electron transfer, vectorial electron/energy/proton transfer through free energy gradients, electron transfer activation of catalysis, and rapid catalysis of target half reactions. All of these elements are available in Dye Sensitized Photoelectrosynthesis Cells (DS PEC) driven by excited state electron or hole injection at semiconductor surfaces and a âmodularâ approach.
For more information contact Prof. Jake Soper (404-894-4022).
