Special Seminar: Converting CO2, Water, and Sunlight into Liquid Fuels—Towards affordable solar fuels and chemicals

ZOOM LINK
Meeting ID: 913 9744 0830
Passcode: 645291

Generating liquid solar fuels necessitates the development of technologies optimized at multiple levels. On a molecular level, we need to create catalytic materials that stably convert CO₂ with high conversion rates and selectivity to desired products. On a system level, we need to engineer reactors that efficiently convert solar energy into heat required to run chemical reactions. This stringent requirement presents a challenge to convert CO₂ into liquid fuels.

In this talk, I will present our work to develop a tandem photoelectrochemical-photothermal system that turns CO₂, water, and sunlight into multicarbon products, paving the way toward affordable solar fuels and chemicals.

Hosted by Professor Laura Ray.

About the Speaker(s)

Aisulu Aitbekova
Kavli Nanoscience Institute Postdoctoral Fellow, Caltech

Aisulu Aitbekova is a Kavli Nanoscience Institute Postdoctoral Fellow in the Harry Atwater Group at Caltech. She earned her PhD in chemical engineering from Stanford University, her MS in chemical engineering practice from MIT, and her BS in chemical engineering from Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan. Her PhD focused on how a catalyst's properties affect its performance, and how to develop more efficient materials for thermocatalytic CO₂ conversion and automotive exhaust emission control. As a postdoctoral member in the Liquid Sunlight Alliance DOE Energy Hub, Aisulu develops solar-driven processes (photoelectrochemical CO₂ reduction, photothermal ethylene oligomerization, and tandem photoelectrochemical/photothermal CO₂ conversion into liquid fuels) through catalyst synthesis, device fabrication, and reactor engineering.

Contact

For more information, contact Ashley Parker at ashley.l.parker@dartmouth.edu.