Succes for Amsterdam Center for Multiscale Modeling in computational sciences call
3 October, 2014 - Three collaborative UvA/VU proposals granted
Three proposals of chemistry researchers from the Amsterdam Universities were selected for the final matching phase of the ‘Computational Sciences for Energy Research' public-private partnership, a multi-million euro research initiative of Shell, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research NWO and the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM).
The successful call demonstrates the strength of the collaborative research of the Amsterdam science faculties, a collaboration pioneered by the joint Amsterdam Center for Multiscale Modeling (ACMM). The projects will be executed within the ACMM. Two of them were proposed by researchers Bernd Ensing and Evert Jan Meijer, respectively, both of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and ACMM. In the third project Koop Lammertsma and Matthias Bickelhaupt, both of VU University and ACMM, will collaborate with Wybren Jan Buma of the UvA Molecular Photonics research group. The projects will add to an earlier successful CSER call in which an ACMM proposal by Peter Bolhuis (UvA) and Pieter-Rein ten Wolde (VU/AMOLF) was granted.
Talented Indian researchersThe Computational Sciences for Energy Research initiative CSER is a a joint large-scale public-private partnership in fundamental research in the energy domain. It was established in 2012 by Shell, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM). Shell will invest circa 20 million euro to fund a total of 75 PhD positions at Dutch universities. NWO's investment will amount to approximately 21 million euro.
Parallel to the calls for PhD research projects in the Netherlands, the Shell Technology Centre Bangalore (STCB) in India recruits and employs talented researchers for PhD project in the Netherlands. Upon a successful match of these excellent Indian students to the selected project the proposal will be granted. This final decision is expected to be taken by FOM before the end of the year.
Project summaries
Probing the electrochemical reaction dynamics in solar water splitting cells
Bernd Ensing
One of the most promising approaches for solving the world energy crisis is the use of solar energy to produce hydrogen via photoelectrochemical water splitting. Several recent scientific breakthroughs are bringing the holy grail of creating an efficient semiconductor photoelectrode for water splitting within reach. The time is now to investigate this with molecular modeling and gain fundamental understanding of the underlying electrochemical processes in these new materials.
We propose to employ our novel framework of first principles molecular dynamics simulations combined with advanced sampling methods that allows us to simulate for the first time the kinetics of the electron transfer and redox chemistry processes that take place in photoelectrochemical cells.
Our strategy combines the harvesting of reactive trajectories
with computing free energy landscapes using recent in-house
developed techniques. Our aims include unraveling the origins of
limiting hole diffusion lengths and oxygen evolution kinetics in
solar water splitting cells.
Evert Jan Meijer
Molecular hydrogen is an important carrier of energy in routes for clean and renewable energy production. Reduction of water to produce H2 is a topic of intense research, in particular in the context of solar energy. In this context, homogeneous catalysis offers a promising method for the efficient production of H2 from water.Recently, several molecular complexes have been designed that efficiently catalyze the oxidation of water and reduction of protons in aqueous solution. However, a detailed understanding of the reaction mechanism is still missing and a route to a rational design of more efficient and robust catalysts remains a great challenge.
We propose to address this challenge by determining an accurate
molecular picture using accurate quantum molecular dynamic
simulations. The fundamental understanding provided by this
molecular modeling approach will provide a solid basis for the
rational design of improved catalysts for efficient and clean
hydrogen production.
Ruthenium complex in aqueous solution, acting as an
efficient catalyst for water oxidation.
Koop Lammertsma, Wybren Jan Buma, Matthias Bickelhaupt
Breaking through the 700 nm absorption barrier will constitute a major breakthrough in solar energy conversion. Capturing light in the 700-1000 nm region alone adds 31% over current technology. We will develop novel rugged molecules from extended naphthalene diimides to absorb this far-IR segment of the solar spectrum and convert it to energy.
The full gamut of electronic structure theory will be brought to bear to analyze and predict UV absorbance, phosphorescence, and quenching with time-dependent ab initio and in-house developed density functional theory methods. Synthetic and spectroscopic efforts financed from other sources will provide the feedback for optimal material design. The target is a durable antenna to be implanted in current solar-energy conversion technology.
The PIs have complementary skills (synthesis, theory,
spectroscopy) in the solar energy field with computational
chemistry as focus. The requested PhD student will be embedded
in the ACMM Center and the HRSMC School, which offer extensive
training in theoretical chemistry.
Sophisticated quantum chemical design of antenna
molecules aims at breaking the 700 nm barrier for absorption of
(solar) photons