Powering the planet with solar fuel

Abstract

The sun is a boundless source of clean energy, but it goes down every night. We and many others are trying to design solar-driven molecular machines that could be used on a global scale to store solar energy in chemical bonds by splitting water into its elemental components, hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is a clean fuel that could be used directly or combined with carbon dioxide to produce methanol, a liquid fuel. As investigators in the National Science Foundation Powering the Planet Center for Chemical Innovation (CCI Solar), we are working on rugged light absorbers and catalysts made from Earth abundant materials that have the potential to split water efficiently to generate carbon neutral fuels.