Psaras McGrier
Ohio State University, OH·Chemistry
Carbon dioxide is a waste gas, but it is also a carbon source that could be turned back into fuels and useful chemicals. Doing that with sunlight, rather than heat or electricity from fossil sources, requires a photocatalyst: a material that absorbs light and uses that energy to drive a chemical reaction.
- Fields
Chemistry
Materials Science
- Topics
covalent organic frameworks
photocatalysis
carbon dioxide reduction
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2028
What they work on
- Synthesize metal-free donor-acceptor covalent organic frameworks, crystalline porous polymers pairing electron-rich and electron-poor units, and test whether visible light drives them to reduce carbon dioxide.
- Develop organic hydride-based covalent organic frameworks that deliver hydride, a hydrogen with an extra electron, to carbon dioxide, and evaluate their photochemical reduction activity under visible light.
- Determine whether these framework photocatalysts convert carbon dioxide selectively to specific chemical fuels and value-added products rather than mixtures.
- Engage middle school students from Columbus City Schools through the Breakfast of Science Champions program and mentor participants in the Ohio State Chemistry and Biochemistry Post-Baccalaureate Bridge Program.
More about the research
Most carbon dioxide photocatalysts rely on metals, which raises cost and supply concerns. This project builds photocatalysts that contain no metal at all.
Why it matters
Converting carbon dioxide into fuels and chemicals with sunlight could help close the carbon cycle and ease environmental pressure from this greenhouse gas. Because these catalysts contain no metal, they may avoid the cost and supply limits of metal-based systems. The project also brings middle school students from local Columbus schools into research settings and mentors post-baccalaureate students toward Ph.D. programs.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Mihai Vaida
University of Central Florida, FL·Chemistry·Early-career
Track how light-excited charge carriers move at the surface of metal-decorated 2D transition metal dichalcogenide photocatalysts, using pump-probe photoemission spectroscopy with extreme ultraviolet laser pulses at femtosecond resolution.
Sebastien Laulhe
Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis, IN·Chemistry
Design aryl radicals with tuned steric bulk and electronic properties, generated from light-activated electron-donor-acceptor (EDA) complexes, to remove hydrogen atoms selectively from specific C(sp3)-H bonds.
Vladimir Gevorgyan
University of Texas at Dallas, TX·Chemistry
Develop a visible light–induced hybrid method that combines a transition-metal catalyst with radical steps to convert unactivated C(sp3)–H bonds, the single carbon–hydrogen bonds common in drugs, without acids or added oxidants.
The school
Ohio State University: 71 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 882 research doctorates a year.
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