Use Chemistry To Tap Solar Power, Professor Says: "The basic science that will help produce an alternative, clean energy source with the help of sunlight needs to be realized within the next 10 years to make a difference, said Nocera, who is the W.M. Keck Professor of Energy and professor of chemistry at MIT.

Nocera spoke Thursday, May 11, on 'Powering the Planet: The Challenge for Chemistry in the 21st Century' as part of the MIT Energy Club Lecture Series.

Nocera's laboratory is seeking a future alternative fuel source by studying the principles that govern the conversion of photon energy into chemical potential during photosynthesis. The trick is to design a system in which the energy needed to break the chemical bonds between the hydrogen and oxygen in water is compensated by the absorption of a photon. The payoff: an alternative, clean fuel source -- hydrogen -- produced with the help of sunlight. "