Events

Materials and devices for the renewable synthesis of fuels and feedstocks

November 28, 2016 at 4pm/ 6-120

Ted Sargent
University of Toronto, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Tremendous progress in the cost-effective conversion of solar and wind energy into electrical power brings about a new challenge: the massive (seasonal-scale) storage of energy [1]. We focus on using computational materials science, spectroscopies including ultrafast and synchrotron, and advances in materials chemistry, to create new catalysts for CO2 reduction and oxygen evolution. I will discuss recent advances including a new high-activity OER catalyst [2] and a low-overpotential CO2 reduction catalyst based on field-induced reagent concentration [3]. I will also touch on related materials design problems in optoelectronics, including the design of composite organic-inorganic materials for photon-to-electron [4] and electron-to-photon [5] conversion.

[1] A. Bernstein, E. H. Sargent, A. Aspuru-Guzik, …M. Molina, “Renewables need a grand-challenge strategy,” Nature, DOI:10.1038/538030a, 2016.       [2] B. Zhang, … A. Vojvodic, E. H. Sargent, “Homogeneously dispersed, multimetal oxygen-evolving catalysts,” Science, vol. 352,  pp. 333-337.        [3] M. Liu, … S. O. Kelley, E. H. Sargent, “Enhanced electrocatalytic CO2 reduction via field-induced reagent concentration,” Nature, doi:10.1038/nature19060, 2016.          [4] C. R. Kagan, Efrat Lifshitz, E. H. Sargent, D. V. Talapin, “Building devices from colloidal quantum dots,” Science, 10.1126/science.aac5523, 2016.        [5] Z. Ning, E. H. Sargent, “Quantum-dot-in-perovskite solids,” Nature, vol. 523, pp. 324-328, 2015.

Ted Sargent holds the rank of University Professor in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Nanotechnology and also serves as Vice President – International for the University of Toronto. He is founder and CTO of InVisage Technologies and a co-founder of Xagenic Inc.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada; a Fellow of the AAAS “…for distinguished contributions to the development of solar cells and light sensors based on solution-processed semiconductors;” and a Fellow of the IEEE “…for contributions to colloidal quantum dot optoelectronic devices.” He is Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering for “…ground-breaking research in nanotechnology, applying novel quantum-tuned materials to the realization of full-spectrum solar cells and ultra sensitive light detectors. The impact of his work has been felt in industry through his formation of two start-up companies.” He received the B.Sc.Eng. (Engineering Physics) from Queen’s University in 1995 and the Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (Photonics) from the University of Toronto in 1998.