Artificial photosynthesis could one day harness energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water into liquid fuels to power your car, and enable a process for creating chemicals and fertilizers that is better for the environment. First, scientists need new techniques to efficiently convert sunlight into solar fuels and chemicals at scale, and store them for later use.
Since its founding in 2020, the Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA)—a Fuels from Sunlight Energy Innovation Hub funded by the U.S. Department of Energy—has made advances in developing these science principles. A recent Berkeley Lab News Center roundup of “Five Ways LiSA is Advancing Solar Fuels,” included a project led by Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division Director Junko Yano that could enable characterization, under real-world conditions, of the chemical reactions that take place where a metal catalyst and electrolyte meet.
Using X-ray beamlines at SLAC’s Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource and Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source, the team is developing and applying techniques to determine where chemical reactions take place in active sites of a copper-liquid interface at relevant time scales. The work can enable new insight related to the catalytic mechanism and durability issues in artificial photosynthesis systems.
