Professor Prashant Kamat presents how solar energy can meet our future energy demand in his ND Thinks Big talk. Sponsored by The Hub and CUSE, ND Thinks Big features 10 of Notre Dame’s most exciting and engaging professors sharing the impact of their work in action-packed, accessible 10 minute talks. Visit our website, KamatLab.com, for the latest news, publications, and research from our group.

1. Solar Energy - Beyond the Hype
Prashant V. Kamat
Dept Of Chemistry and Biochemistry and
Radiation Laboratory
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556-0579
http://www.nd.edu/~pkamat

2. ENERGY
I. Get the Facts Right

3. Comparing Energy Units
1W 1 KW 1 MW 1 GW 4 TW
100 103 106 109 1012 W
US consumes about 25% of Worlds Energy Supply!

4. The Energy Resources of Earth
They are solar energy (stored and current), the
tides, the earth’s heat and fission fuels.
From the standpoint of human history the period
of fossil fuels will be brief.
M. King
Annual TW Energyenergy demand is
15 worldwide Hubbert
increasing at a rate of 2.0%
BP ENERGY OUTLOOK 2030
http://www.bp.com/sectionbodycopy.do?categoryId=7500&contentId=7068481

5. http://www.eia.doe.gov/

6. Increasing demand is driving oil prices higher
Light Crude Oil (CL, NYMEX)
Monthly Price Chart
http://politicalhumor.about.com

7. ENERGY
II. Know your options

8. Global warming over
the past millennium
Very rapidly we have entered
uncharted territory -– what some call
the anthropocene climate regime.
Over the 20th century, human
population quadrupled and energy
consumption increased sixteenfold.
Near the end of the last century, we
crossed a critical threshold, and
global warming from the fossil fuel
greenhouse became a major, and
increasingly dominant, factor in
climate change. Global mean surface
temperature is higher today than it’s
been for at least a millennium.
Marty Hoffert et al. Nature 1998, 395, 881-884

9. Three possible options to meet the 10 TW- Challenge by 2050
Carbon Neutral Energy (fossil fuel in conjunction with carbon
sequestration)
-Need to find secure storage for 25 billion metric tons of
CO2 produced annually (equal to the volume of 12500
km3 or volume of lake superior!)
Nuclear Power
-Requires construction of a new one-gigawatt-
electric (1-GW) nuclear fission plant everyday for the
next 30 years
Renewable Energy Sources
- hydroelectric resource 0.5 TW
- from all tides & ocean currents 2 TW
- geothermal integrated over all the land area 12 TW
- globally extractable wind power 2-4 TW
- solar energy striking the earth 120,000 TW !!!

10. Solar Energy
E=hn
Thermal Conversion Photoconversion
Infrared Photons Energetic Visible Photons
E = hc/l = 119627/l (kJ/mole)
Heating Electricity
Generation Photosynthesis Photovoltaics
Food/Fuel

11. ENERGY
III. Be Creative and Futuristic

12. Harvesting Solar Energy
Chlorophyll & Analogs
Organic Dyes & Polymers
Semiconductors
CAPTURE
ENERGY
CONVERT STORE
Photosynthesis Hydrogen
Solar Cells Storage Batteries
Photocatalysis Bio fuels

13. Next Generation Solar Cells
Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (10-12%)
Organic Solar Cells (6-8%)
Quantum Dot Solar Cells (5-6%)
We need economically viable transformative technologies

14. Solar Energy Research at Notre Dame
Goal: To develop transformative energy conversion
devices using nanostructure architectures
• Mimicking photosynthesis with the
organized assembly of molecules
• Quantum dot solar cells
• Carbon nanostructures as scaffolds to
anchor catalysts (energy storage)
• Solar Fuels
- photocatalytic production hydrogen
- reduction of CO2

15. Towards the Design of Solar Paint
Simple bench-top fabrication of solar
paint can produce 1-2% efficient can
solar cells.
ACS Nano. 2012, 6, 865–872
Provisional Patent has been filed
Highlighted by the scientific and
M. P. Genovese, I. V. Lightcap and P. V. Kamat popular media

16. What will the future
hold?
Over the last twenty
years, the per-kWh price of It is Sun-Believable!
photovoltaics has dropped
from about $500 to < $2;
think of what the next
twenty years will bring.