Renewable Energy: Solar Fuels GRC/GRS: Converting Sunlight into Chemical Energy - February 27 & 28, 2015 Lucca, Italy

项目编号：1549695太阳能燃料工艺利用阳光中的能量，利用受植物光合作用启发的催化剂，将二氧化碳和水转化为化学燃料。尽管这一过程有可能取代石油燃料，并提供一种环境可持续的运输燃料供应，但目前的过程并不理想——它们不能一步将二氧化碳全部转化为化学品和燃料，催化剂价格昂贵，效率不高。要使太阳能燃料成为一项可行的技术，还需要进行更多的基础研究。2016年戈登研究会议（GRC）和戈登太阳能燃料研究研讨会（GRS）的重点是确定跨学科科学研究的进展，挑战和机遇，以开发基于自然启发过程的新催化剂，以促进科学理解和开发更好的太阳能燃料过程。太阳能燃料GRC是由美国领导的国际会议，将于2016年2月28日至3月4日在意大利卢卡（巴尔加）的Il Ciocco酒店和度假村举行。2016太阳能燃料GRC有一个相关的太阳能燃料GRS，这是一个专门为研究生和博士后研究人员提供贡献的聚会。太阳能燃料GRS紧随2016年2月27日和28日在同一地点举行的GRC。该合同将为GRC和GRS提供部分支持。GRC项目将包括邀请已经显示出取得新突破潜力的早期职业研究人员以及知名研究人员进行口头报告，以及海报报告，其中一些将被选中进行简短的口头报告。奖金将用于支持入选的GRC和GRS参与者的注册费。太阳能燃料GRC将重点关注实现太阳能燃料所需的五大基础科学技术挑战：1)光驱动水氧化催化与质子或二氧化碳还原的高效耦合；2)了解光活性组分之间以及固体无机或分子集成组件的多个界面之间的电荷传输过程；3)低过电位下的二氧化碳还原，特别是CO或甲酸以外的深度还原产物；4)新型光捕获与光催化材料；5)新的生物光系统设计原理及其在人工光合作用中的应用，以及人工光合成分与微生物催化的整合。太阳能燃料GRS将专注于人工光系统。考虑到这些挑战的跨学科性质，参与者包括化学家、物理学家、材料和计算科学家、生物物理学家、化学工程师和生物工程师。此外，在会议上讨论的太阳能燃料的基本实验和理论主题-电荷转移，催化，材料发现，纳米科学，分子和生物动力学，界面工程等-不仅仅是化学和材料科学。参与者将分享他们在特定工作领域的最新成果和正在进行的努力，同时让自己接触到他们直接专业知识或专业领域以外领域的挑战和进展。后者对于研究生、博士后研究员和早期职业科学家来说是一个重要的教育方面，特别是他们将与知名科学家和这个社区的主要成员会面并进行头脑风暴。

Principal Investigator: Gary W BrudvigProposal No: 1549695Solar fuel processes harness the energy in sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into chemicals fuels using catalysts inspired by photosynthesis processes in living plants. Although this process has the potential to replace petroleum fuels and provide an environmentally sustainable supply of transportation fuel, present processes do not work well - they cannot take carbon dioxide all the way to chemicals and fuels in a single step, and the catalysts are expensive and not very efficient. More fundamental research is needed to make solar fuels a viable technology. The 2016 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) and the Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on Solar Fuels focus on identifying the progress, challenges and opportunities of interdisciplinary scientific research for the development of new catalysts based on nature-inspired processes to advance scientific understanding and development of better solar fuel processes. The Solar Fuels GRC is an international conference under US leadership, and will be held on February 28 to March 4, 2016 at the Il Ciocco Hotel and Resort, Lucca (Barga), Italy. The 2016 Solar Fuels GRC has an associated GRS on Solar Fuels, which is a gathering dedicated exclusively to contributions from graduate students and post-doctoral research associates. The Solar Fuels GRS immediately precedes the GRC on February 27 & 28, 2016 at the same location. This award will provide partial support for both the GRC and GRS. The GRC program will include invited oral presentations by early career researchers who are already showing potential for making new breakthroughs, as well as established researchers, and poster presentations from which some will be selected for short oral presentations. The award will be used support the registration fees of selected participants for the GRC and the GRS.The Solar Fuels GRC will focus on five fundamental scientific and technological challenges needed to realize solar fuels: 1) Efficient coupling of light-driven water oxidation catalysis with proton or carbon dioxide reduction; 2) Understanding of charge transport processes between photoactive components and across multiple interfaces of solid state inorganic or molecular integrated assemblies; 3) Carbon dioxide reduction at low overpotential, in particular to more deeply reduced products beyond CO or formate; 4) Novel materials for light capture and photocatalysis; 5) New design principles for biological photosystems with applications to artificial photosynthesis and integration artificial photosynthetic components with microbial catalysis. The Solar Fuels GRS will focus on artificial photosystems. Given the interdisciplinary nature of these challenges, the participants include chemists, physicists, materials and computational scientists, biophysicists, chemical engineers, and bioengineers. Furthermore, the fundamental experimental and theoretical topics underlying solar fuels - charge transfer, catalysis, materials discovery, nanoscience, molecular and biological dynamics, interface engineering, and others - discussed at the meeting go beyond just the chemical and materials sciences. The participants will share their recent results and ongoing effort in their specific area of work, and at the same time expose themselves to the challenges and progress in areas beyond their immediate expertise or field of specialization. The latter is a critical educational aspect for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and early career scientists in particular who will meet and brainstorm with established scientists and leading members of this community.