Supramolecular Chromophores: From Assembly to Photocatalysis

Title:

Supramolecular Chromophores: From Assembly to Photocatalysis

Schedule:

Date: 21^st May, 2024 (Tuesday)

Time: 5 - 6 pm (HKT)

Venue: Lecture Theatre P3, Chong Yuet Ming Physics Building

Speaker:

Prof. Luka Ðorđević

Department of Chemistry

University of Padova, Italy

Biography:

Luka Ðorđević received his Ph.D. in 2016 from the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Trieste, under the guidance of Professors Maurizio Prato and Davide Bonifazi. From 2016 to 2018, he worked as post-doctoral researcher at Universities of Trieste and Cardiff. Then he moved to Northwestern University in United States and worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in Professor Sam Stupp’s group from 2018 to 2022. He joined University of Padova as an assistant professor in Nov 2022. In Oct 2023 he established his research group in supramolecular photocatalysis, as associate professor, thanks to the ERC Grant.

Abstract:

In the field of artificial photosynthesis, self-assembly is an attractive strategy that utilizes noncovalent interactions to mimic the alignment and organization of light-harvesting machinery found in plants. Although recently there has been much progress in the chemistry of supramolecular polymers for harvesting sunlight, most systems are limited to the aqueous photocatalytic production of hydrogen. Therefore, efforts are still needed to develop artificial photosynthetic systems for the great challenge of CO₂ reduction (especially with nonabundant metals) and/or production of liquid fuels.

To obtain supramolecular materials for production of solar fuels, the design of monomers is crucial. The monomers utilized are chromophore amphiphiles that, on one hand, encode the light-harvesting ability to drive photocatalytic reactions and, on the other hand, spontaneously self-assemble in aqueous solutions. This talk will describe two separate strategies to use self-assembled materials to photocatalytically produce either (i) carbon monoxide and methane starting from carbon dioxide or (ii) hydrogen peroxide from water and oxygen.

References:

(1) Ðorđević, L.;† Dumele, O.;† (eq. contr.); Sai, H.; Cotey, T.; Sangji H. M.; Kohei, S.; Dannenhoffer, A.; Stupp, S.; Photocatalytic Aqueous CO₂ Reduction to CO and CH₄ Sensitized by Ullazine Supramolecular Polymers. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144 (7) 3127–3136.

(2) Đorđević, L.; Sai, H.; Yang, Y.; Sather, N. A.; Palmer, L. C.; Stupp, S. I.; Heterocyclic Chromophore Amphiphiles and their Supramolecular Polymerization. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023, 62 (17), e202214997.

(3) Đorđević, L.; Jaynes, T.; Sai, H.; Kupferberg, J.; Sather, N.; Weigand, S.; Stupp, S.; Actuating photocatalytic supramolecular soft matter for H₂O₂ photoproduction. In preparation, 2024.

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