The faculty hosts leading experts on bioorganic electronics: Bio and Sustainable Organic Electronics Workshop (October 5–6)
Sustainable development and circular economy are among the biggest challenges we face in the 21st century. Therefore, it is crucial to constantly re-evaluate the characteristics of contemporary technologies, products and means to improve the existing production schemes. The workshop will focus on current multidisciplinary topics that aim to connect the research activities of participating teams. The purpose is to present various aspects of the potential and possibilities of bioorganic electronics and discuss biomaterials and biodegradable systems in bioorganic applications and related topics.
On October 5–6, 2022, the Faculty of Chemistry will host the second edition of the Bio and Sustainable Organic Electronics workshop. The workshop continues where the previous event, hosted by the University of Bari in May this year, ended. Experts and their teams from Italy, Austria and Switzerland will arrive in Brno to participate in the workshop. As a part of the workshop, two public lectures will be given: by Prof. Sariciftci (JKU Linz) and Prof. Farinola (University of Bari).
Wednesday, October 5, 14:00, room A109:
Prof. Gianluca Maria Farinola: Sustainable routes to optoelectronic materials: from organic semiconductors to photosynthetic microorganisms
The lecture will present our studies on sustainable routes to organic and bio-hybrid optoelectronic materials exploring both organic synthesis and synthetic biology, and also combining the two approaches. We have developed green synthetic protocols for molecular semiconductors based on direct arylation reactions which avoid the use of organometallic reagents, occur in solventless conditions and replace thermal heating with IR irradiation. Besides the classical synthetic methods, we are exploring new concepts in materials design based on functional structures extracted from photosynthetic microorganisms for photoconversion and photonics. Examples are photosynthetic enzymes from cyanobacteria as active components in photoelectrochemical cells and in light-activated field effect transistors, or photonic structures from biosilica shells of microalgae. Finally we report the use of living photosynthetic bacteria in photoelectrochemical cells for solar energy conversion.
Prof. Gianluca Maria Farinola is Vice President of the Italian Chemical Society, President of the Organic Chemistry Division (European Society of Chemistry) and Rector Delegate for Research and Innovation at the University of Bari.
Thursday, October 6, 8:30, main auditorium P1:
Prof. Niyazi Serdar Sariciftci: Solar energy conversion strategies and CO2 recycling
Our civilization needs energy. Up today, the main source of energy is based on fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. These fossil fuels are the products of the natural photosynthesis millions of years ago, stored underground and now driving the world economy. However, the sudden release of CO2 which was chemically converted over millions of years creates the sudden increase of CO2 in the atmosphere resulting in global warming due to greenhouse effect today.
In order to account for a sustainable future, the application of circular use of CO2 is needed. This idea is like natural photosynthesis, creating higher hydrocarbons from CO2 from atmosphere, water and solar irradiation. These artificially synthesized hydrocarbons can be
considered as CO2 neutral fuels like biomass. The conversion of CO2 into methane (or other synthetic fuels) using solar energy is also an important step to make an efficient, large scale solar energy storage.
We report organic as well as bio-organic catalysts which can be used in photo-electrocatalytic conversion devices. Such bio-catalysts can be enzymes as well as living bacteria immobilized on electrodes. Selectivity of such bio-catalysts is very high and combined with the room temperature operation of such bio-electro-catalytic systems makes them industrially highly attractive.
Prof. Niyazi Serdar Sariciftci is Chair Professor and Director of LIOS (Linz Institute for Organic Solar Cells) and the Institute of Physical Chemistry at JKU Linz. He is a world-leading scientist and one of the most-cited researchers in the given field.
More information is coming soon!
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| Link | https://www.fch.vut.cz/en/faculty/for-media/f81551/d230927 |