TODAY
Please post and forward to your groups
Center for Excitonics Seminar Series presents:
Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer Processes Underpinning the Production of Renewable Fuels
December 12, 2017 at 4:30pm/rm: 36-428
Jillian Dempsey
University of North Carolina/Department of Chemistry
[
http://www.rle.mit.edu/excitonics/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/dempsey_jillia…]
The conversion of energy-poor feedstocks like water and carbon dioxide into energy-rich
fuels involves multi-electron, multi-proton transformations. In order to develop catalysts
that can mediate fuel production with optimum energy efficiency, this complex
proton-electron reactivity must be carefully considered. Using a combination of
electrochemical methods and time-resolved spectroscopy, we have revealed new details of
how molecular catalysts mediate the reduction of protons to dihydrogen and the
experimental parameters that dictate catalyst kinetics. While the energy input to drive
endergonic fuel-forming reactions is typically supplied indirectly, such as through
electricity produced by a solar photovoltaic, we are also exploring excited-state
proton-coupled electron transfer reactions that could directly promote catalysis with
visible light. This approach represents an energy-efficient mechanism by which solar
energy can be captured and converted to chemical energy. Through these studies, we are
revealing opportunities to promote, control and modulate the proton-coupled electron
transfer reaction pathways of catalysts.
Jillian Dempsey is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of North
Carolina. She received her BS from MIT in 2005 and her PhD from California Institute of
Technology in 2011. She was a NSF American Competitiveness in Chemistry Postdoctoral
Fellow at the University of Washington, Seattle from 2011-2012. She received the UNC
Junior Faculty Development Award, NSF CAREER Award, and the Packard Fellowship for Science
and Engineering in 2015. In 2016, she was awarded the Air Force Office of Scientific
Research Young Investigator Award, and the Sloan Research Fellowship. Research in
Dempsey's Inorganic Spectroscopy and Solar Energy Conversion group aims to address
challenges associated with developing efficient solar energy conversion processes. They
are particularly interested in the charge-transfer processes that will ultimately govern
efficiency in solar fuel production devices: proton-coupled electron transfer reactions,
electron transfer across the interface between a catalyst and semiconductor, and the
reduction of protons to hydrogen.
The Center For Excitonics Is An Energy Frontier Research Center Funded By The U.S.
Department Of Energy,
Office Of Science And Office Of Basic Energy Sciences
Light refreshments will be served.