Department of Chemistry

portrait of Dr Erwin Reisner

Dr Erwin Reisner

St John's College

Groups: Reisner group website

Telephone: 01223 336323

E-mail: er376@cam.ac.uk


General


 

We are interested in applying principles from the traditional field of Biological Inorganic Chemistry to Renewable Energy research. We design artificial photosynthetic systems, which either mimic photobiological energy generation and/or incorporate enzymes directly in biotechnologically relevant hybrid systems. To achieve this aim, a solar light-harvesting component is coupled to a suitable redox catalyst to drive an energetically uphill redox transformation to produce a so-called "solar fuel".

A current focus lies on the production of the high specific energy carrier hydrogen and reduction of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. We aim to engineer an affordable system capable of producing hydrogen or reducing carbon dioxide driven by sunlight. Our laboratory covers a wide range of disciplines, from anaerobic Synthetic to Biological Chemistry, with an emphasis somewhere at the Interface of Inorganic Chemistry, Enzymology, Electro-, Photochemistry, Materials and Nanoscience.

Keywords:  Solar fuels, artificial photosynthesis, H2 and CO2, Small Molecule Activation, Metalloenzymes, Biomimetic Chemistry, Synthetic Chemistry, Electrochemistry

 


Cartoon representation of a hybrid (enzyme-TiO2) nanoparticle system showing aspects that are desirable for efficient and practical hydrogen production from sunlight. The system is shown with a hydrogenase as an enzyme catalyst and a ruthenium photosensitiser (not drawn to scale).

 

 

 

Selected Publications

 

"Current Challenges for Modeling Enzyme Active Sites by Biomimetic Synthetic Diiron Complexes", Chemical Society Reviews, (2010), 39, 2768-2779

“Efficient and Clean Photo-reduction of CO2 to CO by Enzyme-modified TiO2 Nanoparticles using Visible Light”, Journal of the American Chemical Society, (2010), 132, 2132–2133

“Visible Light-Driven H2 Production by Hydrogenases Attached to Dye-Sensitized TiO2 Nanoparticles”, Journal of the American Chemical Society, (2009), 131, 18457–18466

“Water-Gas Shift Reaction Catalyzed by Redox Enzymes on Conducting Graphite Platelets”, Journal of the American Chemical Society, (2009), 131, 14154–14155

“Catalytic Electrochemistry of a [NiFeSe]-Hydrogenase on TiO2andDemonstration of its Suitability for Visible-light Driven H2 Production”, Chemical Communications, (2009), 550–552 

Research Interests


Teaching


Personal


Funding


External Links: 

Publications

Immobilization of a Molecular Cobaloxime Catalyst for Hydrogen Evolution on a Mesoporous Metal Oxide Electrode
NM Muresan, J Willkomm, D Mersch, Y Vaynzof, E Reisner - Angew Chem Int Ed Engl (2012) 51, 12749
(DOI: 10.1002/anie.201207448)
Cu 2ONiO x nanocomposite as an inexpensive photocathode in photoelectrochemical water splitting
C-Y Lin, Y-H Lai, D Mersch, E Reisner - Chemical Science (2012) 3, 3482
(DOI: 10.1039/c2sc20874a)
Electron transfer in dye-sensitised semiconductors modified with molecular cobalt catalysts: Photoreduction of aqueous protons
F Lakadamyali, A Reynal, M Kato, JR Durrant, E Reisner - Chemistry (2012) 18, 15464
(DOI: 10.1002/chem.201202149)
Formation of Ti28 ln cages, the highest nuclearity polyoxotitanates (Ln = La, Ce).
Y Lv, J Willkomm, M Leskes, A Steiner, TC King, L Gan, E Reisner, PT Wood, DS Wright - Chemistry (2012) 18, 11867
(DOI: 10.1002/chem.201201827)
Selective Reduction of Aqueous Protons to Hydrogen with a Synthetic Cobaloxime Catalyst in the Presence of Atmospheric Oxygen
F Lakadamyali, M Kato, NM Muresan, E Reisner - Angew Chem Int Ed Engl (2012) 51, 9381
(DOI: 10.1002/anie.201204180)
Facile assembly of an efficient CoO(x) water oxidation electrocatalyst from Co-containing polyoxotitanate nanocages.
YH Lai, CY Lin, Y Lv, TC King, A Steiner, NM Muresan, L Gan, DS Wright, E Reisner - Chem Commun (Camb) (2012)
(DOI: 10.1039/c2cc34934e)
Photoelectrochemical water oxidation with photosystem II integrated in a mesoporous indium-tin oxide electrode
M Kato, T Cardona, AW Rutherford, E Reisner - Journal of the American Chemical Society (2012) 134, 8332
(DOI: 10.1021/ja301488d)
Group 11 complexes containing the [C-5(CN)(5)](-) ligand; 'coordination-analogues' of molecular organometallic systems
RJ Less, B Guan, NM Muresan, M McPartlin, E Reisner, TC Wilson, DS Wright - Dalton Transactions (2012) 41, 5919
(DOI: 10.1039/c2dt30274h)
Encapsulation of a 'naked' Br- anion in a polyoxotitanate host
Y Lv, J Willkomm, A Steiner, L Gan, E Reisner, DS Wright - CHEMICAL SCIENCE (2012) 3, 2470
(DOI: 10.1039/c2sc20193c)
Colloidal metal oxide particles loaded with synthetic catalysts for solar H 2 production
F Lakadamyali, M Kato, E Reisner - Faraday Discussions (2012) 155, 191
(DOI: 10.1039/c1fd00077b)