Research Experience for Undergraduates in the Chemistry of Materials for Renewable Energy

The University of Wisconsin–Madison Departments of Chemistry and Chemical and Biological Engineering, through support from the National Science Foundation, host an annual Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program focused on the Chemistry of Materials for Renewable Energy. Selected participants spend 10 weeks conducting research on a renewable energy project in chemistry, chemical engineering, or biological engineering.

Research projects in the Department of Chemistry include:

• Molecular interfaces to nanoscale materials
• Charge-multiplying nanostructured interfaces
• Electrocatalytic interfaces to nanostructured materials
• Unconventional and abundant semiconductor nanomaterials for solar energy conversion
• Nanomaterials of semiconducting silicides for thermoelectric energy conversion
• Nanostructured Proton Conducting Membranes from Block Copolymers
• Theoretical modeling of new fuel cell membranes
• Metal-metal multiply bonded compounds in solar energy utilization
• Modeling the Interaction of Water with Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks
• Chemical Synthesis with Sunlight
• Surface-Tethered Metal Complexes for Electrocatalytic Water Oxidation
• New catalysts for energy research – Hydroformylation

Research projects in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering include:

• Pathways towards nanostructured materials for energy applications
• Templated Assembly of Anisometric Nanorods for Solar Energy Collection
• Heterogeneous catalysts for flow reactor processing of biodiesel
• Rheological properties of cellulosic biomass during processing
• Computational design of bacteria for biofuel production
• Metabolic Engineering for Biofuel Production

Program highlights:

• Weekly faculty-led seminars on various Energy Topics
• A special seminar on applying to, surviving, and excelling in graduate school
• An end-of-summer REU poster session in which students present their research results and conclusions
• Social activities with students from other REU programs
• A summer in beautiful Madison, Wisconsin