Saint-Gobain Materials Science Lecture

Living healthy on a dying planet—we are a world out of balance. Relying on science to improve the health of the individual with the design of new drugs and therapies, we are neglectful of the health of our humanity at a global level. Disease indeed does compromise humankind’s very existence … but it is not disease inflicted on humans … rather it is the disease inflicted by humans on our planet and the response of her immunological system on us. Climate change continues to outpace the implementation of renewable energy at an alarming rate. In addressing the global energy challenge, research discovery confronts two worlds: a world with a large energy infrastructure already in place (the legacy world) and a world with little to no energy infrastructure (the nonlegacy world). Consequently, in addressing the energy challenge, research must be cognizant of these two different energy worlds as they give rise to different targets. In the legacy world, the fastest path to implementing renewable energy is to integrate discovery with the established infrastructure. This talk will touch on the creation of new energy systems for the legacy and nonlegacy worlds, with an emphasis on the latter as will be shown, it is the non-legacy world that will drive future global energy need. Thus, this is the most important target for renewable energy to mitigate global carbon emissions. Two inventions will be presented: the Artificial Leaf and the Bionic Leaf, which produce food and fuel in a distributed and sustainable way using only sunlight, air and water. These discoveries are particularly useful to the poor of the world, where large infrastructures are not tenable.

Daniel G. Nocera is the Patterson Rockwood Professor of Energy at Harvard University. He moved to Harvard in 2013 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and was Director of the Solar Revolutions Project and Director of the MIT Solar Frontiers Center. Nocera is recognized for his discoveries in renewable energy, originating new paradigms that have defined the field of solar energy conversion and storage. Nocera created the field of proton coupled electron transfer (PCET) at a mechanistic level by making the first measurements that temporally resolved the movement of an electron coupled to a proton. On this experimental foundation, he provided the first theory of PCET. With PCET as a guiding framework, he invented the Artificial Leaf and the Bionic Leaf. The Artificial Leaf comprises Si coated with catalysts to capture the direct solar process of photosynthesis – the use of sunlight to split water to hydrogen and oxygen from neutral water, at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. The Bionic Leaf-C comprises a bio-engineered organism interfaced with the catalysts of the Artificial Leaf to capture the dark process of photosynthesis – the combination of carbon dioxide and hydrogen to produce biomass and liquid fuels. The integration of the light and dark processes of the Artificial Leaf and the Bionic Leaf-C, respectively, allowed Nocera to develop a complete artificial photosynthesis — sunlight + air + water to biomass and liquid fuels. The Bionic Leaf-C is much more efficient than natural photosynthesis, exceeding the biomass efficiencies of natural photosynthesis by a factor of ×10 and biomass-to-fuels efficiencies by a factor of ×100. Extending this approach to the Bionic Leaf-N, Nocera has achieved a renewable and distributed Haber-Bosch synthesis of ammonia from nitrogen in air by coupling solar-based water splitting to a nitrogen and carbon fixing microorganism to produce a living biofertilizer, resulting in increased crop yields and early harvests. In the latest field trial for leafy vegetables (90% chemical replacement of urea ammonium nitrate), use of the biofertilizer on a 400-acre farm mitigated 153 metric tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere. Additionally, the Bionic Leaf-N as a living biofertilizer avoids nitrogen runoff and thus has an important future role in sustainable farming. These science discoveries set the stage for the large scale and distributed deployment of solar energy fuels and food production using only sunlight, air and any water source. With such simple natural inputs, these discoveries are particularly useful to the poor, where large infrastructures for fuel and food production are not tenable.

Complementing his interest in solar energy conversion, Nocera has pioneered the implementation of PCET in radical enzymology, explored photo-/electro- redox catalysis mechanisms for applications in organic synthesis, and designed layered antiferromagnets to explore exotic states arising from highly correlated spins, creating the spin ½ quantum spin liquid on a kagomé lattice, a long-sought prize in condensed matter physics. His group has also created nanocrystal sensors for the metabolic profiling of tumors, a technique used by clinicians to develop new cancer drug therapies. Afield from chemistry, Nocera invented the Molecular Tagging Velocimetry to make simultaneous, multipoint velocity measurements of highly three-dimensional turbulent flows. This fluid physics technique has been employed by the engineering community to solve long-standing and important problems that had previously escaped characterization.

Nocera’s research contributions have been recognized by several awards, some of which include the Leigh Ann Conn Prize for Renewable Energy, Italgas Prize, IAPS Award, Burghausen Prize, the United Nation’s Science and Technology Award, Firenze Award in Molecular Sciences, F. A. Cotton Medal, Clarivate Citation Laureate and from the American Chemical Society the Inorganic Chemistry, Harrison Howe, Kosolapoff and Remsen Awards and the FA Cotton Medal. He is a member of the American Philosophical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Indian Academy of Sciences. He was named as 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine and was 11th on the New Statesman’s list on the same topic.

Nocera has been tireless in advancing the energy agenda within scientific and public arenas. Notably, he founded the Gordon Research Conference on Solar Fuels, was a member of the Hydrogen Technical Advisory Committee for the United States and contributed to several DOE energy research roadmaps. Nocera also has a rich experience in promulgating the science and engineering in the general public as a frequent guest on TV and radio and is regularly featured in print. Among many projects, he developed the pilot that was used to launch the PBS NOVA show, ScienceNow, which was a regularly scheduled science program on PBS, designed three permanent exhibits on energy for the MIT Museum, London Museum of Science and the Boston Museum of Science and his feature in Leonardo DiCaprio’s film, “Ice on Fire”, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival in May 2019 and released internationally in June 2019. His latest projects include filmings for WGBH (PBS) Science for the Public and for Spanish National Public TV (RTVE) El Cazador de Cerebros.

Nocera has taught from the undergraduate freshman to the graduate level in chemistry and he has also taught graduate level courses in physics. His teaching has been recognized with several university teaching awards including the School of Science Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at MIT. Nocera instituted the third student affiliate chapter of the National Organization of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers in the United States and he has published on successful programs that he has developed for enhancing the performance of under-represented students in chemistry at the university level.

Before joining Harvard, Nocera began his career at Michigan State University, where he was a University Distinguished Professor and then in 1997 joined the faculty of MIT where he was the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy. He earned his B.S. degree at Rutgers University and his Ph.D. at Caltech. Nocera has mentored 182 Ph.D. graduate and postdoctoral students, 84 of which have assumed faculty positions, published over 525 papers, given over 1150 invited talks and 145 named lectureships. Nocera founded Sun Catalytix, a company committed to developing energy storage technologies for the widespread implementation of renewable energy; the coordination chemistry flow battery technology invented by Sun Catalytix is now commercialized by Lockheed Martin and under the venture, GridStar Flow and allows for large grid scale storage for the widespread adoption of renewable electricity. A second company founded by Nocera, Kula Bio, produces the Bionic Leaf-N as a living biofertilizer for renewable, distributed and sustainable agriculture.

Charlie Bateman is currently the Senior External Relations Manager at Saint-Gobain Research North America. His activities range from managing relationships with academic partners through to finding materials and processing technologies of interest to Saint-Gobain in North America.

Of particular relevance are solutions related to what Saint-Gobain has identified as the Global Grand Challenges of the circular economy, electrification, connected objects & IOT, reduced carbon content solutions, human well-being & healthcare, and security & safety.

Charlie has a PhD in materials science and has spent much of his career at Saint-Gobain leading a team responsible for materials characterization and engineering. He is passionate about identifying the relationships between materials chemistry and processing to understand and improve product performance. He has worked on everything from building products to advanced ceramics for harsh environments and specialty polymers for demanding applications.

Redefining our Relationship with Materials – Rebalancing the Equation

​In these opening remarks I will outline at a high level our developing approach to materials selection at Saint-Gobain, emphasizing a shift from traditional criteria of price and performance to a more complex framework influenced by climate change awareness and resource limitations.