Photosynthetic Antenna Research Center (PARC)
Director
Robert Blankenship
Lead Institution
Washington University in St. Louis
Year Established
2009
Mission
To understand the basic scientific principles that underpin the efficient functioning of natural photosynthetic antenna systems as a basis for design of biohybrid and bioinspired architectures for next-generation systems for solar-energy conversion.
Research Topics
solar (fuels), photosynthesis (natural and artificial), biofuels (including algae and biomass), bio-inspired, mesostructured materials, materials and chemistry by design, synthesis (novel materials), synthesis (self-assembly)
Materials Studied
Materials: polymer, biological (DNA, protein)
Interfaces: organic/organic, metal/semiconductor, liquid/solid
Nanostructured Materials: 3D
Experimental and Theoretical Methods
X-ray diffraction and scattering, electron microscopy, scanning probe microscopy, near-field scanning optical microscopy, lithography, surface science, neutron diffraction and scattering, neutron spectroscopy, ultrafast physics, molecular dynamics (MD), density functional theory (DFT), monte carlo (MC), quantum mechanics, continuum modeling, mesoscale modeling, multiscale modeling
Partner Institutions
- North Carolina State University
- Northern Arizona University
- Northwestern University
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- Pennsylvania State University
- Princeton University
- Sandia National Laboratories
- University of California Riverside
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- University of Glasgow
- University of New Mexico
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of Sheffield
- Washington University in St. Louis
