Author: Maxime Sauvan, ICMM-CSIC
Supervised by: Dooshaye Moonshiram, ICMM-CSIC
When: October, 24 - 12PM
Where: Salón de Actos, ICMM
Abstract: The widespread use of fossil fuels as energy sources significantly contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, particularly carbon dioxide, thereby accelerating global warming. To address this challenge, the development of renewable energy technologies—especially those harnessing solar energy—has become a major scientific priority.
Natural photosynthesis, the process by which green plants convert sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water into glucose and oxygen, serves as a model for designing artificial systems capable of sustainable energy conversion. Artificial photosynthetic systems aim to replicate this process using metal-based complexes, where photosensitizers absorb photons and activate catalysts to drive reactions such as water splitting or carbon dioxide reduction. Among these, ruthenium-based photosensitizers have shown excellent performance but are limited by their scarcity and high cost. Consequently, recent efforts have focused on developing efficient alternatives based on earth-abundant elements.
This thesis explores the design, synthesis, and characterization of photosensitizers based on aluminum, zinc, and iron. These systems were studied using a combination of advanced spectroscopic techniques—including X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), time-resolved XAS (tr-XAS), UV-Vis spectroscopy, and optical transient absorption (OTA)—alongside computational methods such as density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT). These tools provide complementary insights into the geometric, electronic, and photophysical properties of the complexes, enabling a detailed understanding of their behavior in photocatalytic systems.
