AMPED EFRC Research Structure
Multidisciplinary Collaborative Team-Based Research
- Shared vision, mission, and goals with collective understanding of and commitment to the Center
- Highly integrated multi-institutional, focused, project oriented
- Flexibility to respond and reorganize as scientific goals change
- Ability to innovate more rapidly than research groups with a single PI
- Ability to extend the underlying science broadly and in new directions
- Complementary skills and capabilities in areas required for success
Team Structure and Research Focus
The AMPED EFRC utilizes an integrated multi-disciplinary team-based approach in its research efforts that has proven to be highly effective in bringing together a broad spectrum of ideas and capabilities necessary for transformational advances in solar fuels research. Many AMPED EFRC discoveries could not have been realized by single research groups working independently. It is commonplace for EFRC research to utilize expertise in molecular and materials synthesis, solid state characterization, catalysis, time-resolved spectroscopies, kinetic modelling, and photo-electroanalytical methods. The success of this collaborative approach is evident in emergent design principles for photoelectrode interfaces that are guiding the scientific community
Five teams led by faculty members at our partner institutions pursue research in these areas, with theory integrated across the center:
Catalysis Team:
Development and mechanistic studies of solution and interfacial catalysts for water oxidation and CO2 reduction; integration of catalysts into assembly structures, and electrodes.
Assemblies Team:
Development of chromophore-catalyst assemblies for use in water oxidation and CO2 or H2O reduction at n- and p-type semiconductor interfaces.
Dynamics Team:
Study of dynamics of light-driven interfacial electron transfer in chromophores, assemblies, and chromophore-catalyst assemblies on metal oxide semiconductor surfaces.
Photocathode Team:
Design, synthesis and characterization of hole-transporting semiconductor nanomaterials, core/shell morphologies, and sensitizers to achieve high-performance photocathode systems integrated with molecular catalysts for CO2 reduction.
Photoanode Team:
Optimize sunlight driven water oxidation at dye-sensitized photoanodes.
