Kirk S. Schanze

Department of Chemistry, University of Texas at San Antonio,

1 UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78712

Abstract

The dye-sensized photoelectrosynthesis cell (DSPEC) brings together molecular or polymer based chromophores and catalysts at semiconductor interfaces to use sunlight to drive water oxidation and/or CO2 reduction. The Solar Fuels Energy Frontier Research Center (http://www.efrc.unc.edu), seeks to develop the components needed to create a tandem DSPEC, including molecular and polymeric chromophores and catalysts. These investigations include molecular and polymer synthesis, photophysical, electrochemical, and photoelectrochemical characterization. The lecture will highlight recent results from the Center, including detailed study of photodynamics and photoelectrochemistry of specific polymer based chromophore-catalyst assemblies for water oxidation at a SnO¬2/TiO2 core-shell photoanode and water reduction at a NiO photocathode.

References
[1] Morseth, Z. A, et. Al., “Ultrafast Dynamics in Multifunctional Ru(II)-Loaded Polymers for Solar Energy Conversion”, Acc. Chem. Res. 2015, 48, 818–827.
[2] Chen, Z. et al., „Light Harvesting Polymers: Ultrafast Energy Transfer in Polystyrene Based Arrays of -Conjugated Chromophores“, J. Phys. Chem. B 2014, 118, 372-378.
[3] Leem, G.; et al., “Light Harvesting and Charge Separation in a -Conjugated Antenna Polymer Bound to TiO¬2”, J. Phys. Chem. C 2014, 118, 28535-28541.
[4] Leem, G.; Sherman, B. D.; Burnett, A.; Morseth, Z. A.; Wee, K.-R.; Meyer, T. J.; Schanze, K. S., “Light-Driven Water Oxidation Using Polyelectrolyte Layer-by-Layer Chromophore–Catalyst Assemblies”, ACS Energ. Lett. 2016, 1, 339–343.

Biography:

Kirk Schanze earned his B.S. in Chemistry from Florida State University in 1979 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1983. He was appointed a Miller Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1984-1986 and began his independent research career at the University of Florida in 1986. Schanze served as Professor of Chemistry and Chairman of the Organic Chemistry Division at the University of Florida. He was Distinguished Professor and held the Prominski Chair at the University of Florida
until 2016. Since then he has held the Robert A Welch Distinguished University Chair at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He served as a Senior Editor for Langmuir from 2000 – 2008 and Editor-in-Chief of ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces since 2008. He has authored or co-authored 300 peer-reviewed articles on basic and applied research topics, with a primary focus on organic and organometallic materials chemistry, and is coinventor in 20 patents or disclosures.