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Faculty Lecture Series Talk by Timothy Chapp: 12/6

Posted on November 29, 2017 | Filed under Archive

Details — Faculty Lecture Series Talk by Timothy Chapp — December 6

Date: 12/6Time: 7 pm

This post has been archived. Information below may be out of date and/or relate to a past event.

The December talk in the Karl W. Weiss ’87 Faculty Lecture Series for 2017-18 will be held on Wednesday, December 6, at 7 p.m. in Campus Center 301/302. Timothy Chapp, assistant professor of chemistry, will present “Hydrogen, Hydrogenases and Their Potential Roles in Contributing to Sustainable Energy.”

Hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant element in the universe. Despite its ubiquity, relatively little of it can be found on earth as hydrogen gas. Instead, elemental hydrogen more commonly occurs with bonds to other elements like oxygen or carbon in familiar substances like water, or the organic molecules called hydrocarbons, which provide the energy to drive our economy. However, hydrogen gas is often suggested as the future alternative to the hydrocarbons in fossil fuels, yet the vast majority of it is currently produced by steam reforming of natural gas. Electrolysis of water is an attractive alternative for obtaining hydrogen gas, but it will be necessary to develop electrocatalysts that will make its production feasible and sustainable. Hydrogenase enzymes in nature have already accomplished this goal, therefore, studying and mimicking their structural features provides a path towards achieving our sustainable energy goals.