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1st UK-Japan Solar Fuels Symposium: “Solar Fuels Synthesis: Materials & Mechanism”
18-19 September 2014, Tokyo
This symposium is a unique platform for scientists in in the UK and Japan to discuss the materials challenges for solar-driven fuel synthesis, to deepen fundamental understanding, and to find new opportunities for collaborations.
Together with Prof Kazunari Domen, Dr Junwang Tang and Dr Erwin Reisner are organising a SFN-Japan bilateral workshop, which will be held in Tokyo, 18-19 September 2014, with financial support from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The aim of this workshop is to develop UK-Japan solar fuels collaborations. If you are a UK-based academic/researcher who is interested in developing such a collaboration, please get in touch with Junwang and Erwin to register your interest and indicate which Japanese researchers you would particularly like to meet.
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Report: Advanced Materials and Processes for Energy Applications (AMPEA) workshop, May 2014
Andreas Bachmeier, University of Oxford
The workshop ‘Materials for Energy Devices’, organised by the European Energy Research Alliance’s joint programme ‘Advanced Materials and Processes for Energy Applications (AMPEA), was held at the ‘Forschungszentrum Jülich’ (a Helmholtz research centre) in Germany on May 16th 2014.... Read more
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Electrochemical Horizons
Date: 7th-9th September 2014
Venue: Loughborough University
Early bird registration closes on 31st July 2014
Registration
For more information about the Conference please visit the Conference website.
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Report: SOFI Summer Meeting, 11-13 June, Uppsala
Mark Symes, University of Glasgow
Dr Mark Symes (University of Glasgow) and Dr Deirdre Black (RSC) represented the SFN at this meeting, at which industry engagement, bilateral exchanges, the SFOI Knowledge Map, demo project and Kickstarter campaign, and a solar fuels X-Prize were discussed. You can read Mark’s report here.
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Summer School 2014
Reactivity of Nanoparticles for More Efficient and Sustainable Energy Conversion III – Rising Technologies
Date: 10-15th August 2014
Venue: Conference Center Kobæk Strand, Denmark
PHOTOCATALYSIS
- Shannon W. Boetcher (US)
- John Turner (US)
- Ulrike Diebold (AT)
- Thomas Jaramillo (US)
- Eric McFarland (AU)
- Xile Hu (CH)
- Clemens Heske (DE)
HETEROGENOUS CATALYSIS
- Günther Ruppecter (AT)
- Anders Nilsson (US)
- Jeppe Vang Lauritsen (DK)
- Beatriz Cuenya Roldan (DE)
- Stig Helveg (DK)
- Jens Nørskov (US)
- Ulrich Heiz (DE)
- Magnus Shoglundh (SE)
ELECTROCATALYSIS
- Marc Koper (NL)
- Jan Rossmeisl (DK)
- Yang Shao-Horn (US)
- Vojislav Stamenkovic (US)
- Andrea Russell (UK)
- Peter Strasser (DE)
- Jürgen Behm (DE)
- Matthias Arenz (DK)
- Yu Morimoto (JP)
GENERAL
- Peter Ditlevsen (DK)
- Henrik Svensmark (DK)
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SFN Workshop: “Challenges and Opportunities for Solar-Driven Fuels Synthesis: Materials and Molecular Design”
3 April 2014
This workshop was organised to recognise the award of Royal Society of Chemistry prizes to three solar fuels researchers: Prof Jim Barber (Imperial College; Interdisciplinary Prize 2013); Prof Bob Crabtree (Yale University; Centenary Prize 2013); Prof Mike Wasielewski (Northwestern University; Environment Prize 2013). Talks were also given by Toni Llobet (ICIQ), Chris Pickett (University of East Anglia) and Erwin Reisner (University of Cambridge). Click here to read reports about this workshop by students who were awarded SFN travel bursaries.
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Outreach
Oxfordshire Science Festival
In March 2014 the SFN supported a Solar Fuels themed stand in the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford, as part of the Oxfordshire Science Festival, and linked to the International Year of Crystallography. What do giant rubber gloves, gut bacteria, crystal structures, and photosynthesis have in common? We need all four to learn how to produce sustainable fuels using energy from the sun. Visitors learned about green energy, how to extract chlorophyll from plants in a hands-on experiment, touched incredible 3D printed models of enzymes involved in natural photosynthesis – structures determined using crystallography, chatted with the scientists carrying out the research, and competed with their friends in the glove box challenge! Find out more about the stand by visiting the Oxford group’s blog, watching their video podcasts and visiting the Royal Society Summer Exhibition website.
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Outreach
Imperial Festival
Dr Thanh-Truc Vu, Dr Anna Reynal and colleagues from the SFN and Imperial’s Chemistry Department presented a display entitled “Light, water, power!” Festival goers were able find out how renewable resources such as sunlight and water can be used to produce energy. Visitors started with a hands-on experiment to extract chlorophyll from spinach leaves, while learning of the key role chlorophyll plays at the heart of the photosynthesis process, transforming sunlight into energy. Both adults and children alike enjoyed donning gloves and performing the extraction and filtration of the green chlorophyll. The presenters explained how scientists can mimic Nature in order to produce energy through some simple experiments. A 9V battery attached to two pencils placed in water was used to generate hydrogen by water electrolysis, illustrating the principle of hydrogen fuel cell. The power of light was demonstrated by shining a desk lamp on a dye-sensitized solar cell to make a toy helicopter fly. Through these interactions with the enthusiastic demonstrators, visitors to the stall were able to ask plenty of questions about energy issues and the different solutions demonstrated at the stall.
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Outreach
Funding
The Solar Fuels Network supports outreach and public engagement activities with a theme of solar fuels/artificial photosynthesis. Steph Pendlebury leads a network of people from all over the UK involved in planning and developing these activities – please contact her for more information. We have a library of various demonstrations, hands-on activities and games, posters, hand-outs and information that can be used for events such as science festivals. Funding is also available to UK-based members of the SFN for outreach and public engagement. |
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SOFI Tweets!
The Solar Fuels Institute (SOFI) is now on social media! SOFI believes artificial photosynthesis is the key to our energy future, but it will only become a reality through engagement, collaboration and conversation between scientists, research institutions, and industry. Our Facebook and Twitter pages are a place to share and discuss videos, photos, discussions, and thought-provoking stories and research from around the web. You will also get the latest news about SOFI's projects and programs. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter, and help us build an online community dedicated to advancing solar fuels research.
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Congratulations!
The Solar Fuels Network would like to congratulate the 6 Royal Society of Chemistry medal winners
From the right: Prof Saiful Islam (Sustainable Energy Award), Prof Andrew Barron (Applied Inorganic Chemistry Award), Prof Robert Crabtree (Centenary Prize), Prof James Barber FRS (Interdisciplinary Prize), Prof Michael Wasielewski (Environment Prize), Dr Martin Heeney (Corday Morgan Prize)
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Upcoming Solar Fuels Themed Conferences and Events
Please note that travel bursary applications are not restricted to the conferences/symposia listed here
- SolarFuel14: New Advances in Materials for Solar Fuels Production (NanoGe), Montreal, 24-26 June 2014, link
- Materials for Solar-Driven Fuels Synthesis - a satellite meeting to the Royal Society’s: “Do we need a global project on artificial photosynthesis?”, London, 7th July 2014, link
- Royal Society: Do we need a global project on artificial photosynthesis? Kavli Centre (UK), 8-10 July 2014, link
- International School "Materials for Renewable Energy" 2014, (post-docs can also apply for travel bursaries) Rome, 12-18 July, 2014. link
- IPS-20: Photochemical Conversion and Storage of Solar Energy, Berlin, 27 July-1 August 2014, link
- Summer School 2014: Reactivity of Nanoparticles for More Efficient and Sustainable Energy Conversion III – Rising Technologies, Denmark 10-15 August 2014 (Students and early career post-doc UK-based members of the SFN can apply for funding), link
- Electrochem 2014: Electrochemistry Horizons, Loughborough University, 7-9 September 2014, link
- 1st UK-Japan Solar Fuels Symposium: “Solar Fuels Synthesis: Materials & Mechanism”
UK Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, 18-19 September 2014,contact Junwang Tang and Erwin Reisner for more information
- SFSC2014: 4th International Symposium on Solar Fuels and Solar Cells, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, China, 21-24 October 2014, link
- Faraday Discussion 176: Next-Generation Materials for Energy Chemistry, Xiamen, 27-29 October 2014, link
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