Framework Materials For Solar Energy Utilization

Framework Materials For Solar Energy Utilization Public Deposited

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Creator

Wang, Cheng
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Chemistry

Abstract

The ever-increasing global demand for energy has stimulated a new wave of research activities on generating clean and renewable energy using sunlight. Following the molecular approach adopted by green plants, scientists have developed various molecular systems that are capable of converting photons to high energy redox equivalents, as well as molecular catalysts for both water oxidation and proton/CO2 reduction. There are however not efficient ways of assembling these functional molecular components into hierarchical organizations to convert sunlight energy into chemical energy. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of crystalline materials that are constructed from well-defined molecular building blocks and metal-cluster connecting nodes. Similarly, crosslinked polymers (CPs) are built from well-designed organic precursors and represent a new class of robust materials. These framework materials provide a potential platform to organize different molecular components to achieve artificial photosynthesis. In this thesis, I will report our efforts on assembling MOFs and CPs for light harvesting, water oxidation, and photocatalytic proton and CO2 reduction. These materials not only provide a unique opportunity to integrate different functional molecular components hierarchically for energy conversion or organic transformation, but also allow the elucidation of molecular mechanisms for related reactions.

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