CHASE: Center for Hybrid Approaches in Solar Energy to Liquid Fuels.
CHASE is a DOE Energy Innovation Hub headquartered in the Chemistry Department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For details, please visit CHASE home page (https://solarhub.unc.edu/)
Center mission: To develop molecule/material hybrid photoelectrodes for cooperative sunlight-driven generation of liquid fuels from carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water.
Scientific goals: Pairing the light-absorbing properties of semiconductor materials with the selective fuel-producing reactivity of molecular catalysts, CHASE will advance a new paradigm of liquid solar fuels generation. This vast, mostly unexplored space at the intersection between molecular catalysts and heterogeneous materials presents unique opportunities for breakthroughs in photocatalyst durability and access to high-octane liquid fuels.
CHASE research focus of the Lian group: The development and application of in situ time resolved spectroscopy techniques for probing photogenerated carrier kinetics and catalytic reactions at the semiconductor electrode/molecular catalyst interface.
Current projects:
- In situ SFG study of catalyst binding on Si photocathodes
- Raman probe of quasi-fermi level and catalyst microenvironment of hybrid photocathodes
- Time-resolved study of charge transfer in nanoporous hybrid Si photocathode
