Solar energy to chemical energy given a thought

A new strong computational method has been developed which is capable of increasing the speed to find next generational material that could transform the solar energy into chemical energy.

This work will concentrate on polyheptazine imides, a kind of carbon nitride substances which can absorb sunlight and produce reactions such as Hydrogen production, Carbon Di-Oxide conversion and hydrogen peroxide synthesis.

After analysing how 53 different metal ions influence the structure and electronic behaviour of these substances scientists have discovered a framework that predicts which combinations will do the best.

Photocatalysis is capable of converting sunlight into huge amount of chemical energy. Polyheptazine imides have structural and functional features that make them effective for photocatalytic reactions.

Scientists led by a team at the centre for advanced system understanding (CASUS) at Helmholtz- Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf (HZDR) now has come up with a dependable and reproducible theoretical approach to tackle this problem.