Daniel G. Nocera

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 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 — that is ten times more efficient than natural photosynthesis. Extending this approach, 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 bioorganism to produce a living biofertilizer (Bionic Leaf-N), resulting in increased crop yields and early harvests. In field trials, for a 400-acre farm, the use of the Bionic Leaf-N fertilizer avoided 175 metric tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere, as well as mitigating nitrogen runoff. The science discoveries of the Artificial Leaf, Bionic Leaf-C and Bionic Leaf-N 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, such discovery is 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 designed layered antiferromagnets to explore exotic states arising from highly correlated spins, creating the spin 1/2 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.