839,000 euros to overcome the limits of photocatalysis
MPIKG | Funding from Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation: Dr. Bartholomäus Pieber, group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, has received funding of around 839,000 euros for research into novel ways to use light for the synthesis of important chemicals. In the photocatalysis project, the chemists led by Dr. Pieber want to imitate nature’s mechanism for converting light into chemically usable energy. As part of its “Plus 3” Perspectives program, the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation is supporting Dr. Pieber’s project for three years.
Currently, there are only a very small number of compounds that make visible light usable for chemical synthesis. These photocatalysts are typically expensive precious metal complexes whose long-lived excited states are critical to their use as photocatalysts because chemical reactions in solution are limited by diffusion velocity. This shortage of catalysts severely limits the potential of photocatalysis. In contrast, nature is able to use organic dyes with a short lifespan as photocatalysts. This is possible because these reactions take place in spatially controlled processes.
The research group of Dr. Bartholomäus Pieber pursues a promising approach to replace precious metal complexes with organic, sustainable standard dyes as photocatalysts by mimicking the concept of nature. “We recently discovered that short-lived excited states can be harnessed by bringing a dye close to a target molecule,” says Pieber, group leader in the Department of Biomolecular Systems led by Prof. Dr. Peter H. Seeberger. He adds: “This groundbreaking research will open up new territory in synthetic photocatalysis and open up new possibilities for controlling the selectivity of chemical reactions.”
A key aspect of the proposal is the development of a novel technology: the use of self-assembling nanoreactors creates a limited catalytic environment that triggers reactivity between short-lived dyes in the excited state and a desired molecule.
About the program
With the “Plus 3” program, the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation supports outstanding junior research group leaders in Germany whose work is part of basic biological, chemical and medical research. The programme aims to give them time, freedom and flexibility so that they can realise their potential and develop their research profile. In this way, they can optimally use the productive phase of their first temporary position as head of a research group as a springboard for appointment to a professorship in an excellent environment. Around 80 percent of the group leaders whose “Plus 3” funding began between 2010 and 2018 now hold a professorship. More than 40 percent of all scholarship recipients come from abroad.
Further information
zu Dr. Bartholomäus Pieber und zur Abteilung Biomolekulare Systeme
Pressemitteilung auf der Website des MPIKG
Bildinformation: Portrait von Dr. Bartholomäus Pieber ©Max-Planck-Institut für Kolloid- und Grenzflächenforschung / Fotograf Bernhard Huber