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Home > News > Powerboost

Powerboost

Berkeley Engineer Spring 2012
May 1, 2012
This article appeared in Berkeley Engineer magazine, Spring 2012
  • In this issue

    Features

    Winging it

    Sensors

    Engineers Without Borders

    Dean’s Word

    Upfront

    • New tenants at Richmond Field Station
    • Washington calling
    • Big theory comes to campus
    • It starts with a stove
    • What’s next?
    • Science on a shoestring
    • Q+A on excellence in diversity
    • Understanding energy by degrees
    • Comments

    Breakthroughs

    • Told in tears
    • Powerboost
    • Slow going
    • Startup incubator
    • Green governor
    • Molecular Legos
    • Putting water online

    Alumni notes

    • Hats off
    • Seeds of social change
    • Girls meet “the science of better”
    • Farewell

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Artificial photosynthesis, in which solar energy is converted directly into fuel, may just have gotten an important boost. Peidong Yang, professor of materials science and engineering, and his research team have developed a powerful new approach to designing catalysts for the complex chemical reactions. The researchers successfully integrated two types of interfaces on a single catalyst, resulting in a novel tandem catalyst. This new type of catalyst could be used in multi-step chemical reactions occurring in artificial photosynthesis

Topics: Energy, Materials science
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