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Professor Antoni Llobet is one of 5 top researchers chosen to lead a research project on “Photocatalysis Redox” together with Professors Wonwoo Nam (Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea), Shunichi Fukuzumi (Osaka University, Japan) Kenneth D. Karlin (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA), and Joan S. Valentine (UCLA, California, USA).
The project entitled ‘Bioinspired Photocatalysis Using Redox Transition Metals’ aims to find synthetic chemical models capable of mimicking the photosynthesis of green plants, ie. the conversion of water into carbohydrates induced by solar light, and redox metalloproteins, natural proteins involved in electronic exchange processes that are of vital importance in the metabolism of all living things.
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The aims are to isolate and characterize molecules similar to those involved in the natural processes in order to have a better understanding of the mechanism and to reproduce it artificially. This could be an important step forward in the search of new biofuels that could be obtained from water and sunlight as green plants do, and in the synthesis of artificial proteins.
Each of the 5 researchers is an expert in a different field of the research. This fusion of the best talent brings in different views and different approaches in the research on “Photocatalysis Redox” and promises good results like those already published in the journal Nature.
This project is part of the South Korean government’s commitment to invest $120 million per year in funding different research projects that bring together the world’s most recognized scientists in their field of expertise. This is a strategy initiated in 2009 through the program “World Class University” that aims to promote R&D, which is pivotal for the economic and educational progress of South Korea.
Professor Llobet was invited by Professor Wonwoo Nam, Ewha Womans University, to create his own research group based at this University in Seoul and to join the research groups led by the other 4 scientists selected for this project. The research groups are funded by the South Korean government and all the research leaders are committed to spending time in Korea and lead the group through Skype, phone and e-mail the rest of the time.