2018-11-30

Schematic illustration of Earth abundant iron carbene complexes for solar energy applications.

A team of researchers from Lund University involving researchers at the Theoretical Chemistry Division have developed and characterized the first photofunctional iron molecule capable of both emitting light that can be seen by the naked eye, as well as to drive light-induced bimolecular oxidation and reduction reactions. This is an important step to develop iron-based molecules for light-harvesting and light-emitting applications including emerging molecular technologies for solar energy conversion that potentially include both solar cells and solar fuels.

The work is the result of a long-term collaboration at Lund University between groups in Synthesis (Wärnmark), Chemical Physics (Sundström), and Theoretical Chemistry (Persson). The work also involved research groups from Uppsala University (Lomoth) and Copenhagen (Bendix).

Press release (in Swedish): Lysande järnmolekyl kan ge billigare solenergi

Report in Science:

Luminescence and reactivity of a charge-transfer excited iron complex with nanosecond lifetime
Kasper S. Kjær et al., Science 10.1126/science.aau7160 (2018)
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2018/11/28/science.aau7160

First release 2018-11-29