Artificial Photosynthesis to Answer Challenges in Energy, Health, and the Environment

Depok, December 15, 2022. The use of fossil fuels currently burdens CO2 gas emissions, resulting in global warming. New, renewable energy and energy sources that are environmentally friendly are needed, to replace fossil fuels, because they have the weakness of a slow carbon cycle. Meanwhile, humans use a lot of energy to meet their daily needs. As a result, the reserves of petroleum that are ready to be explored are increasingly depleted, because not all carbon emitted into the atmosphere has returned to petroleum deposits.

"Therefore, as a country rich in sunlight and many minerals, Indonesia has a good position or momentum to contribute to solving the energy problem. With the help of ideas from researchers and technology, it will be very possible to produce new energy that can replace the current energy that we use and overcome the carbon cycle problem, by trying to shorten the cycle chain," said Prof. Dr. Jarnuzi Gunlazuardi during his inaugural speech as a professor in the field of Photo Electro Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Indonesia (FMIPA UI), on Wednesday (14/12).

The system, said Prof. Jarnuzi, can in principle change (fix) CO2 gas into methanol, or N2 gas into ammonia. Methanol and ammonia can be energy-producing fuels, or become precursors to other compounds that are useful for life.

"In the photo electro chemical cell system, sometimes there is a problem of inefficiency due to over potential. To overcome this, additional external power supply input is needed. We propose to overcome this problem by developing a tandem system between solar cells and electrochemical cells. The solar cells used are Gratzel type solar cells, namely Dyes Sensitize Solar Cell (DSSC), which are paired with photo electro chemical cells (PEC), therefore the tandem system is called tandem DSSC-PEC," he said.

He added that the DSSC-PEC tandem system or device developed with the help of sunlight and aqueous electrolyte media, can convert CO2 gas into methanol, nitrogen into ammonia, and produce hydrogen from the breakdown of water. Hydrogen is an environmentally friendly renewable energy and is predicted to be the fuel of the future. Meanwhile, methanol and ammonia, in addition to being fuel, are also important precursors to be converted into chemicals for industry or agriculture.

The inauguration procession of the professor was led by the Chancellor of UI, Prof. Ari Kuncoro, SE, MA, Ph.D., at the Convention Hall, UI Campus, Depok, and broadcast virtually via the University of Indonesia Youtube channel and UI Teve.

"I would like to thank you for your speech, it is very relevant for the energy transition, where we will decarbonize. So, we will shift from fossil fuels to new renewable energy and the sky will be blue. I congratulate you, you have been inaugurated as a Permanent Professor of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, UI," said the UI rector.

The inauguration procession of the professor was attended by the Vice President of Pertamina Energy Institute, PT Pertamina (Persero), Dr.rer.nat Hery Haerudin; Senior Researcher, Center for Political Research (Conflict, Defense and Security) BRIN, Prof. Research. Dr. Hermawan Sulistyo, MA; Senior Researcher, Center for Research on Raw Materials for Medicine and Traditional Medicine, BRIN, Prof. Research. Dr. Muhammad Hanafi, MSc.; Senior Researcher of the Center for Chemical Research, BRIN, Prof. Dr. Ir. Anny Sulaswatty M.Eng; and Professor of FMIPA Halu Oleo University, Kendari, Prof. Dr. Muh. Nurdin, M.Sc..

Prof. Janurzi completed his undergraduate education at the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, UI. Since graduating from his undergraduate program in 1984, he began his career as a lecturer at the Department of Chemistry, FMIPA UI. Then, Prof. Janurzi continued his master's and doctoral education in Environmental Chemistry, at Ehime University, Matsuyama, Japan, in 1898-1993.

To date, Prof. Janurzi has published 40 international journal articles and 44 international proceedings journal articles. Some of the scientific works that have been published include Comparative Study of Bismuth Ferrite Deposition Method on TiO2 Nanotube and Performance of Hydrogen Evolution in a Photoelectrochemical Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Tandem System (2022); Core-shell copper-gold nanoparticles modified at the boron-doped diamond electrode for oxygen sensors (2022); Electrochemical Preparation of Highly Oriented Microporous Structure Nickel Oxide Films as Promising Electrodes in Urea Oxidation (2022); Magnetically Separable Fe3O4/SiO2/TiO2 Photocatalyst Composites Prepared through Hetero Agglomeration for the Photocatalytic Degradation of Paraquat (2021); and NickelCobalt Modified Boron-Doped Diamond as an Electrode for a Urea/H2O2 Fuel Cell (2021).

News source : https://sci.ui.ac.id/