For developing light-powered “antenna-reactor” catalysts that can substantially lower the temperatures required for industrial-scale hydrogen production, Naomi Halas and Peter Nordlander, both from Rice University, have received the prestigious ENI Energy Transition Award 2022. It is endowed with 200,000 US dollars. Halas, a chemist, physicist and engineer, and Nordlander, a theoretical and computational physicist, were recognized for leading the development of commercially viable light-activated nanoparticle catalysts that can insert energy into chemical reactions with surgical precision.
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