The partnership with King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) was initiated in 2014 through the Berkeley Global Science Institute in order to create the Center of Excellence for Nanomaterials for Clean Energy Applications (CENCEA).
The research focus at CENCEA lies in chemical engineering and materials science. KACST-UC Berkeley CENCEA aims to develop strong research collaborations between KACST and UC Berkeley on the subject of innovative nanomaterials for storage and production of clean energy to develop solutions for challenges in renewable and cleaner energy sources. The collaboration will broadly include two cross-cutting areas of research: i) porous metal-organic frameworks and ii) nanocrystals. The proposed projects will have substantial impacts on the efficient separation of hydrocarbons, carbon capture from flue gas, gas conversion to liquid fuels, and solar energy conversion. Furthermore, a main objective for the collaboration is to develop scalable technologies for pilot phase commericialization. Specifically, the CENCEA team is working towards discovering bench-top breakthrough systems for selective gas capture evaluation, water storage and release devices, MOF supercapacitors for powering electronic devices, tetrapod nanocrystals as biological force gauges, and nanocrystal solar cell architectures for efficient light absorption.
For further information concerning the research topics being explored by the CENCEA team, please visit their website.
