Current Research Directions
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Photocatalysis
A critical challenge in solar fuels and photocatalysis technologies is charge transfer management. While quantum dots have shown to be useful for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution and other related solar-to-fuel applications, these systems suffer from low quantum efficiencies and turnover numbers due to rapid radiative recombination on the nanosecond time scale and slow photocatalyst regeneration. Our work explores the synthesis and implementation of new heterostructure nanomaterials optimized for photocatalysis to reduce radiative recombination to improve solar to fuel efficiency with more rapid catalyst turnover rates. This research effort explores both catalyst design and development of new chemical reactions.
Luminescent Solar Concentrators​
Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) are luminophore embedded waveguides capable of collecting sunlight across a wide area and concentrating it onto smaller cells for energy conversion. Our lab is developing strategies to achieve high performance concentrators using near infrared emissive nanoparticles. Our goal is to create gray-scale LSCs to serve as power generating windows. These technologies are being developed to enable off-grid power generation.
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Selective carbon dioxide reduction
A major goal of CO2 electroreduction is the high yield of energy-dense and industrially useful C2+ products, such as ethylene and ethanol using renewable electricity. Although high yields of CO2 reduction to multiple C1 products have been achieved, high selectivity of C2+ products remains a challenge. We seek to tune the catalytic activity and selectivity of reduction microenvironments on copper by manipulating a combination of the nano- and microscale structural attributes of ordered catalytic layers. Our central objective is to identify specific attributes of catalytic microenvironments that lead to high product selectivity and to create self-assembled, ordered lattices with tailored microenvironments.
MOFs for carbon dioxide capture
(previous work)
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have high surface area and porosity and are emerging materials for a spectrum of environmental applications, including carbon capture and storage. MOFs have great potential in gas absorption and are promising candidates for sequestering CO2 emissions through capture technology. This project is done in conjunction with developing teaching laboratory experiments to demonstrate CO2 capture in the context of climate justice. One experiment uses ZIF-8 to extract methyl blue dye from water. This is a visible demonstration of how MOFs sequester impurities and serve as an analogous system to removing CO2 from the atmosphere in first-year laboratories. The second MOF explored, CD-MOF-1, captures CO2 from the environment and the extent of sequestration can be measured using advanced instrumental techniques, such as FTIR and XRD.
Environmental fate of selenium nanoparticles
(previous work)
Selenium nanoparticles are common in nature and formed naturally by yeast, bacteria, and fungi. Some bacteria are known to generate and excrete selenium nanoparticles via blebs, however, the reasons for this process is not fully understood. Since selenium is toxic in high concentrations, the bacteria may be forming nanoparticles to reduce selenium to safe levels or they may be using the excretions as weapons to deliver toxic levels of selenium nearby bacteria that absorb the excreted nanoparticle. This project is an interdisciplinary, collaborative effort and the Enright group's contribution is to synthesize monodisperse Se NPs to develop characterization tools and techniques for tracking Se NP behavior in the environment. These same Se NPs are also under development as antibacterial agents against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.