The Solar-driven Chemistry network has just selected the winners of a call for research proposals on solar energy applications. A Polish project, headed by Professor Joanna Kargul from the Centre for New Technologies of the University of Warsaw, has made the list.
Professor Kargul will coordinate a consortium composed of Polish, French, German and Turkish research teams under the SUNCOCAT project (Rational design of efficient energy and charge transfer in biophotoelectrodes for direct conversion of CO2 into fuel).
The consortium will focus on the nanoscale engineering of electron and energy transfer pathways with a view to developing efficient bio photoelectrodes to better capture sunlight and convert it into renewable fuel. The objective is to achieve the highest possible energy conversion efficiency by integrating methodologies from different scientific disciplines: electrochemical research, electron transfer modelling by quantum/molecular mechanics, as well as genetic and biophysical methods. The project is scheduled to start in early 2023.
Solar-driven Chemistry is a network of European research-funding organisations, established in 2008 on the initiative of the German Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). It organises international calls for research proposals devoted to the photochemical processes associated with sunlight. The network brings together research-funding organisations from Finland (AKA), France (ANR), Germany (DFG), Poland (NCN), Switzerland (SNSF) and Turkey (TÜBİTAK).