OVERVIEW

The science that ties the entire research program together is proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET). The Nocera group created the field of PCET at a mechanistic level by making the first measurements that temporally resolved the movement of an electron coupled to a proton, and then provided the first theory of PCET. With PCET as a guiding framework, new approaches to biological, chemical and physical energy conversion are discovered. Students in the Nocera group are trained in the synthesis of a variety of compounds and materials, ranging from inorganic coordination and organometallic compounds to supramolecular assemblies, extended materials and biomolecules. They then apply steady-state and time-resolved laser spectroscopies, photocrystallography, electrochemistry and many other physical methods, coupled to computation and modelling, to define critical phenomena, which in turn guide the further design of new systems with targeted properties and reactivity.