<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">We are pleased to announce the sixth speaker of the 2008-2009 MITEI Seminar Series. We hope you will join us Tuesday, March 10th as we welcome Nate Lewis, the George L. Argyros Professor of Chemistry at Caltech.<div><br></div><div><b>Sunlight-driven hydrogen formation by membrane-supported photoelectrochemical water splitting</b></div><div><b>Nate Lewis</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div>Date: <b>March 10th</b></div><div>Time: <b>4:15-5:45</b> - Light refreshments to follow</div><div>Location: <b>66-110 </b>(Landau Building, 25 Ames Street)</div><div><br></div><div><b>Abstract</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Although sunlight is the most abundant energy resource, a
complete energy system must involve the capture, conversion and storage of
sunlight.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Other than nuclear
processes, the most energy dense form of energy storage is in the form of
chemical bonds.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Nature performs
this process using photosynthesis however CO</span><sub><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">2</span></sub><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> is at a rather low
concentration in the atmosphere and hence the mass flux of CO2 to the surface
of the earth will provide an ultimate upper bound on the rate and therefore the
efficiency of carbon-based photosynthesis.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Water, however, is available in a concentrated liquid form
and thus is a more readily reducible substrate to produce fuel from the sun. </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Hence photo-chemically derived
water-splitting is an attractive option to provide globally-scalable solar
energy capture, conversion and storage processes.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">This talk will discuss the research frontier involved with
the development of an integrated system based on semiconductor nanowires that
act as artificial photosynthetic pigments, which bridge a membrane and are
coupled to catalysts that both reduce water to hydrogen and oxidize water to
oxygen.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">All these components in an
artificial photosynthetic system must work together and in synergy for the
entire process to be successful.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Our research efforts have focused primarily on the development and
implementation of semiconductor nanorod arrays that can provide the ability to
use impure, low-cost, stable inorganic light absorbers in the presence of
organic, plastic, processable polymer membranes, to provide the capture and
conversion steps and couple to the catalytic steps needed for a solar-based
water-splitting system.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br></div><div class="MsoNormal">About the Speaker</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br></div><div class="MsoNormal"><!--StartFragment-->
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:black"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Dr. Nathan
Lewis, George L. Argyros Professor of Chemistry, has been on the faculty at the
California Institute of Technology since 1988 and has served as Professor since
1991. He has also served as the Principal Investigator of the Beckman Institute
Molecular Materials Resource Center at Caltech since 1992. From 1981 to 1986,
he was on the faculty at Stanford, as an assistant professor from 1981 to 1985
and as a tenured Associate Professor from 1986 to 1988. Dr. Lewis received his
Ph.D in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:black"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:black"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Dr. Lewis has
been an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar,
and a Presidential Young Investigator. He received the Fresenius Award in 1990,
the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry in 1991, the Orton Memorial Lecture award in
2003, the Princeton Environmental Award in 2003 and the Michael Faraday Medal
of the Royal Society of Electrochemistry in 2008. He is currently the
Editor-in-Chief of Energy & Environmental Science.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">He has published over 300 papers and
has supervised approximately 60 graduate students and postdoctoral associates.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br></span></font></div><div class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">We hope you will join us!</span></font></div><div class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br></span></font></div><div class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">We thank CERA for its sponsorship of the MITEI Seminar Series.</span></font></div></div></b></div></body></html>