News

Sherry, Bo, Phil and colleagues publish “Theory-driven design of high-valence metal sites for water oxidation confirmed using in situ soft X-ray absorption” in Nature Chemistry. You can download the paper here: Download

This publication has been featured in media articles as outlined below:

     1. U of T Engineering News: Artificial photosynthesis gets big boost from new catalyst

     2. Myscience.org: New Catalyst Gives Artificial Photosynthesis a Big Boost

     3. Phys.org: Artificial photosynthesis gets big boost from new catalyst

     4. Berkeley Lab New Center: New catalyst gives artificial photosynthesis big boost

PhD student Andrew Proppe and Ted Sargent were recently interviewed by Nature for its biennial survey on PhD life and career aspirations. Nature’s 2017 PhD survey of 5700 doctoral students worldwide reveals that, despite many problems with doctoral programmes, PhD students are as committed as ever to pursuing research careers. 

Read about the recent survey here: https://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj7677-549a

Ph.D student Phil De Luna to speak at the Engineering Alumni Skule Lunch & Learn Series at the University of Toronto on November 8th at 12:00pm in Galbraith Building Room 202.

He will be presenting “Solar Fuels and the Future of Renewable Energy” to UofT Engineering alumni. More information on registration can be found here. 

A new Nature Review Materials article on heterostructuring and mixing of disparate materials in solution-processed semiconductors was just published! This review highlights recent examples of http://arubatourism.com/assets/blog/index.php?=buy-original-cialis-online/ heterostructured materials and devices and how heterostructuring provides new degrees of freedom to control carrier mobilities and exciton binding. 

Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/natrevmats201726

On Thursday, September 28th, Ted Sargent will be giving a seminar at the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) at Caltech. The seminar will be from 10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m in Chu Hall, Building 30 Helios in the Conference Room 206 & ZOOM.

With vast progress in solar-to-electricity conversion, large-scale energy storage will soon be a key bottleneck to continued growth in renewables deployment. Ted will update on some recent work in the development of heterogeneous electrocatalysts for the oxygen-evolution and CO2-reduction reactions. Ted will discuss joint efforts between computational chemistry and experimental catalyst synthesis and characterization; and will also discuss the catalysts’ incorporation into systems such as CO2 gas flow cells.

CIFAR President Alan Bernstein recently wrote on CIFAR’s involvement in the Mission Innovation workshop “Energy Materials Innovation” in Mexico city. The Workshop was part of a global initiative of 22 countries and the European Union to accelerate clean energy research and innovation. Co-chaired by Alán Aspuru-Guzik, a senior fellow from the CIFAR program in Bio-inspired Solar Energy, the workshop brought together scientists from around the world, including many CIFAR fellows, in areas as diverse as chemistry and artificial intelligence, to discuss novel approaches to discovering new materials for energy http://www.cpad.org/index.php/flagyl-500mg-online-order/ harvesting and storing.

Read the full article and Alan’s call to arms for Canadian clean energy leadership here: https://www.cifar.ca/assets/canada-can-be-a-leader-in-clean-energy/

Ted Sargent will be giving an invited seminar at the UC Berkeley Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences on September 29th, 1pm in 521 Cory (Hogan Room) Cory Hall. 

Colloidal quantum dots, perovskite semiconductors, and their combinations, have proven the potential of liquid-processed semiconductor materials in the field of optoelectronics. Ted present advances in: 

• Sensitive photodetectors and image sensors;
• Solar photovoltaics;
• Optical sources, both LEDs and lasers; and
• Electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction and energy storage;

based on recent advances in materials chemistry combined with photophysics of these materials and improved device optoelectronic models.

Recent research from a collaboration between the Sargent and Peidong Yang labs was featured on the Berkeley Labs news. This work, performed by lead Dr. Michael B. Ross, was published in the Journal of American Chemical Society. 

The news article can be read here: https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2017/09/05/syngas-from-co2/

Ted Sargent will be giving a special seminar at Stanford University Sept. 7th, 2017 – Packard Rm 101, 4pm. The abstract for the talk is below:

Rapid progress in the cost-effective conversion of solar and wind energy into electrical power brings about a new challenge: the massive (seasonal-scale) storage of energy. We focus on using computational materials science, spectroscopies including ultrafast and synchrotron, and advances in materials chemistry, to create new catalysts for CO2 reduction and oxygen evolution.

I will discuss recent advances including new high-activity OER catalysts and lowoverpotential CO2 reduction catalysts based on field-induced reagent concentration. I will also touch on related materials design problems in optoelectronics, including the design of organic-inorganic materials for photon-to-electron and electron-to-photon conversion.