Wednesday, June 6, 2012 - 3:00pm
Speaker: Johannes Messinger
Program Description
The conversion of solar light into fuels that can be stored and employed when needed is one important goal for reaching a sustainable energy economy. The development of devices that can perform this reaction at global scale requires highly efficient catalyst made from cheap and earth abundant elements. Photosynthetic organisms contain the best water oxidation catalyst known to date that fulfills these requirements. Therefore, this biological catalyst often serves as blueprint for developing artificial devices. This seminar describes how the molecular structure and function of this catalyst can be revealed by employing various spectroscopic techniques in combination with DFT calculations.
