Duke scientists receive $1 million from Keck Foundation to develop nature-inspired, super-efficient catalysts
Despite decades of effort, humans still struggle to efficiently convert one source of energy into another.
Steam motors, gasoline combustion and solar panels all convert less than half their fuel’s potential energy into energy we can use. By comparison, mitochondria, tiny power plants inside cells, convert almost 100 percent of the energy they receive into usable energy.
Now a $1 million award from the W. M. Keck Foundation will help a Duke University research team take a crucial step towards replicating and improving upon one of the energy conversion processes that happens inside cells.
“In the long run, this may allow us to make higher-efficiency solar energy conversion systems,” said David Beratan, the R.J. Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Physics at Duke. “It could give us a way to transfer the energy captured by solar panels into the power grid or into chemical forms with very limited waste.”
