Size and Excitation Controlled Photoredox Catalysis with Cadmium Selenide Quantum Dots for Biomass Conversion
Chloe Peak, Kayla Lee
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Faculty Supervisor: Michael Enright
Oil remains the primary source of carbon based chemical feedstocks. Transitioning away from a petroleum based economy requires environmentally friendly strategies to access high value organic molecules. Plant biomass represents a renewable and sustainable carbon source, but the extraction of useful compounds is challenging because they are embedded within a complex lignin framework. In this work, we investigate photocatalytic reductive cleavage of C-O bonds in lignin model substrates using Cadmium Selenide quantum dots. These semiconductor nanocrystals are promising photocatalysts due to their tunable bandgap, adjustable surface chemistry, and high catalytic turnover. By probing quantum dots of varying sizes and selectively exciting specific electronic transitions with wavelength-controlled LEDs, we examine how excitation energy influences photoredox efficiency. Our results demonstrate that excitation energy plays a critical role in photocatalytic performance. Understanding how quantum dot size and light wavelength affect electron transfer processes provides insight into optimizing solar driven chemical conversion. This work contributes to the broader goal of developing efficient photocatalysts capable of transforming renewable biomass into valuable chemical feedstocks.