Copper-based Water Oxidation Catalyst Reported in Nature Chemistry, Highlighted in C&E News

Copper-based electrocatalyst.

CENTC investigators James Mayer, Karen Goldberg, and graduate student Shoshanna Barnett have prepared a homogeneous, water oxidation catalyst containing the earth abundant metal copper. In work reported in Nature Chemistry, copper salts and bipyridine mixed at high pH form a bipyridine hydroxo complex that promotes dioxygen production. This work is of interest because electrolytic water oxidation to give dioxygen is a key challenge in the conversion of electricity to chemical fuels.

Read the paper from Nature Chemistry, and the C&E News Science Concentrate.

John Hartwig Elected to National Academy of Sciences

Prof. John Hartwig

CENTC investigator John Hartwig has been elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Established in 1863, the National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit honorific society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furthering science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Academy membership is one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer in the United States.

John Hartwig is the Henry Rapoport Chair in Organic Chemistry and Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.

To learn more and see the entire list of new members read the Academy press release.