Daniel G. Nocera

About

Daniel G. Nocera is the Patterson Rockwood Professor of Energy at Harvard University. His research areas include analytical biophysics, catalysis, chemical biology, energy-related inorganic materials, organic and organometallic chemistry, and physical/chemical physics. He is a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and is accepting graduate students for his research group. His work focuses on energy and chemical processes, contributing to the advancement of sustainable energy solutions and innovative chemical research.

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Biochemistry
• Organic chemistry
• Materials science
• Nanotechnology
• Computer Science
• Biology
• Stereochemistry
• Photochemistry
• Environmental chemistry

Selected publications

• Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer: The Engine of Energy Conversion and Storage

  Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2022 · 245 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) underpins energy conversion in chemistry and biology. Four energy systems are described whose discoveries are based on PCET: the water splitting chemistry of the Artificial Leaf, the carbon fixation chemistry of the Bionic Leaf-C, the nitrogen fixation chemistry of the Bionic Leaf-N and the Coordination Chemistry Flow Battery (CCFB). Whereas the Artificial Leaf, Bionic Leaf-C, and Bionic Leaf-N require strong coupling between electron and proton to reduce…

  DOI

• Ribonucleotide Reductases: Structure, Chemistry, and Metabolism Suggest New Therapeutic Targets

  Annual Review of Biochemistry · 2020 · 225 citations

  class Ia enzymes. The unusual radical-based organic chemistry of nucleotide reduction, the inorganic chemistry of the essential metallo-cofactor biosynthesis/maintenance, the transport of a radical over a long distance, and the dynamics of subunit interactions all present distinct entry points toward RNR inhibition that are relevant for drug discovery. We describe the current mechanistic understanding of small molecules that target different elements of RNR function, including downstream pathway…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Quantum spin liquids

  Science · 2020 · 200 citations

  © 2020 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved. Spin liquids are quantum phases of matter with a variety of unusual features arising from their topological character, including “fractionalization”—elementary excitations that behave as fractions of an electron. Although there is not yet universally accepted experimental evidence that establishes that any single material has a spin liquid ground state, in the past few years a number of materials have been shown to…

  DOI

• The 2022 solar fuels roadmap

  Journal of Physics D Applied Physics · 2022 · 137 citations

  Abstract Renewable fuel generation is essential for a low carbon footprint economy. Thus, over the last five decades, a significant effort has been dedicated towards increasing the performance of solar fuels generating devices. Specifically, the solar to hydrogen efficiency of photoelectrochemical cells has progressed steadily towards its fundamental limit, and the faradaic efficiency towards valuable products in CO 2 reduction systems has increased dramatically. However, there are still numerou…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Bacterial Phosphate Granules Contain Cyclic Polyphosphates: Evidence from ³¹P Solid-State NMR

  Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2020 · 46 citations

  cell extracts is metabolized to trimetaphosphates, supporting the presence and biological role of metaphosphates in cells. The definitive evidence for the presence of metaphosphates, reported here in whole bacterial cells for the first time, opens the path for future investigations of the biological function of metaphosphates in many organisms.

  DOI

Recent grants

• Metal Platforms for the Photoactivation of Metal-Hydride, -Halide and -Oxo Bonds

  NSF · $637k · 2011–2013

• Multielectron Activation of Metal-Halide, Metal-Hydride and Metal-Oxo Bonds

  NSF · $570k · 2008–2011

• Metal Platforms for the Photoactivation of Metal-Hydride, -Halide and -Oxo Bonds

  NSF · $478k · 2013–2015

Frequent coauthors

• Thomas S. Teets

  University of Houston

  100 shared

• Cyrille Costentin

  Université Grenoble Alpes

  97 shared

• Christopher C. Cummins

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  77 shared

• David Gygi

  Harvard University

  71 shared

• Seung Jun Hwang

  Pohang University of Science and Technology

  68 shared

• Miguel I. Gonzalez

  Harvard University

  66 shared

• Yangzhong Qin

  Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA (United States)

  64 shared

• Dilek K. Dogutan

  Harvard University

  57 shared

Labs

• Nocera GroupPI

Education

• B.S., Chemical Engineering

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  1982

• Ph.D., Chemistry

  Harvard University

  1987

Similar researchers at Harvard University

• George Whitesidesh-241
• Stuart L. Schreiberh-214
• E. J. Coreyh-150