New coordination complexex for solar energy conversion

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Canadian citizens are proud to have a standard of living that has routinely been selected as among the best in the world. The wealth of resources found in Canada, in particular the large quantity of fossil fuels, has contributed greatly to our enviable living standard. However, as the world's population grows towards 10 billion by 2050 and the Earth's non-renewable fuel sources are gradually depleted, the demand for energy will exceed currently projected fossil fuel reserves in addition to raising the greenhouse gas composition of our atmosphere. Although Canadian energy reserves may satiate our own demands for energy in the foreseeable future, they may also slow our response to the impending world energy crisis and global climate change, and more significantly, impede our commitment to alternative energy research out of complacency. This would be a grave error as Canadians would be at a scientific and technological disadvantage compared to less energy independent nations for generations to come. This discovery grant application intends to bolster Canada's involvement in alternative energy research and the concomitant training of graduate students and researchers in this area so critical to Canada's future prosperity.The main goal of our research is to create artificial photosynthetic devices (APD) capable of producing usable forms of energy from sunlight (e.g., H2 from H2O). Along the way, we will learn a great deal about the fundamental processes involved in photosynthetic systems, such as electron and energy transfer. The understanding of fundamental processes will in turn help us to produce better and better models for our APD. One day we may be able to produce chemical energy from sunlight inexpensively and as a renewable resource. In order to reach our goal of the photoproduction of H2 from water, we need to synthesize photoactive catalysts and analyze their photophysical properties. In summary, this discovery grant application and our complementary equipment grant application will allow us to design and create new photocatalysts for the production of H2 from H2O. They will also allow new students to gain valuable expertise in the synthesis and photophysical analysis of APD.