Stefan Bernhard

About

Professor Stefan Bernhard began his chemistry career as a laboratory technician with Chocolat Tobler before earning a degree in chemical engineering from the Ingenieurschule Burgdorf. He pursued further studies under Professor Peter Belser at the Université de Fribourg, where he obtained a diploma and a PhD in chemistry. His early research primarily involved synthetic studies, which were complemented by a laser spectroscopy project at Los Alamos National Laboratory with Dr. Jon Schoonover and electrochemistry work in the Abruña group at Cornell University. Professor Bernhard's first faculty appointment was at Princeton University, where he explored luminescent metal complexes for optoelectronic and solar conversion applications. In July 2009, he joined Carnegie Mellon University and was promoted to the rank of Professor in 2014. His research focuses on the development of materials and systems for solar energy conversion and renewable energy technologies, including luminescent metal complexes and photocatalytic systems.

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Organic chemistry
• Photochemistry
• Biochemistry
• Combinatorial chemistry
• Inorganic chemistry
• Biology
• Materials science
• Immunology
• Physical chemistry

Selected publications

• High-Throughput Screening and Automated Data-Driven Analysis of the Triplet Photophysical Properties of Structurally Diverse, Heteroleptic Iridium(III) Complexes

  Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2021 · 123 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  = 0.89) for emission color were developed on the basis of experimental data. Furthermore, different degrees of nuclear reorganization in the excited state were shown to significantly impact emission energy and excited state lifetimes.

  DOI

• High-throughput Synthesis and Screening of Iridium(III) Photocatalysts for the Fast and Chemoselective Dehalogenation of Aryl Bromides

  ACS Catalysis · 2020 · 59 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  A high-throughput optical screening method for the photocatalytic activity of a structurally diverse library of 1152 cationic iridium(III) complexes ([Ir(C^N)2(N^N)]+), corresponding to all combinations of 48 cyclometalating (C^N) and 24 ancillary (N^N) ligands, was developed. This rapid assay utilizes the colorimetric changes of a high contrast indicator dye, coumarin 6, to monitor the photo-induced electron transfer from a sacrificial amine donor to the metal complex excited state. The resulti…

  DOI

• Parallelized Screening of Characterized and DFT-Modeled Bimetallic Colloidal Cocatalysts for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

  ACS Catalysis · 2020 · 53 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Using a newly designed and developed parallelized photoreactor and colorimetric detection method, a large sampling of bimetallic cocatalysts (Pd/Sn, Pd/Mo, Pd/Ru, Pd/Pb, Pd/Ni, Ni/Sn, Mo/Sn, and Pt/Sn) for photocatalytic water reduction have been tested. Of these cocatalysts, the combination of palladium and tin showed the highest synergistic behavior and peak hydrogen gas production at a low relative fraction of palladium. The resulting palladium/tin bimetallic cocatalysts were characterized, a…

  DOI

• Circularly polarized phosphorescence and photon transport of micro/nanocrystals of ruthenium and iridium complexes with chiral anions

  Science China Chemistry · 2023-09-07 · 40 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Supramolecular Co(II) complexes based on dithiolate and dicarboxylate ligands: Crystal structures, theoretical studies, magnetic properties, and catalytic activity studies in photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

  Journal of Molecular Structure · 2023-04-04 · 36 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• D3SC: Developing Data-Driven, Automated Methodology to Understand and Control Light-Driven Catalytic Processes

  NSF · $550k · 2021–2024

• Orchestrating Electron and Proton Transfer for Solar Energy Conversion

  NSF · $415k · 2011–2014

• Closing the solar fuel cycle: Investigating organic amines and water as reversible electron donors

  NSF · $495k · 2018–2021

Frequent coauthors

• Martin Albrecht

  University of Bern

  65 shared

• Andreas Brensing

  RheinMain University of Applied Sciences

  57 shared

• Helge Müller–Bunz

  36 shared

• George G. Malliaras

  University of Cambridge

  34 shared

• Karl-Heinz Witte

  32 shared

• Jason D. Slinker

  The University of Texas at Dallas

  32 shared

• Neal D. McDaniel

  Phillips 66 (United States)

  29 shared

• J. W. Niemantsverdriet

  Syngaschem (Netherlands)

  24 shared

Labs

• Bernhard GroupPI

Awards & honors

• Fellow, Scott Energy Center (2019)
• Graduate Mentoring Award, Princeton University (2006)
• National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2005)
• Dreyfus New Faculty Award (2002)

Similar researchers at Carnegie Mellon University

• Rongchao Jinh-128
• Tomasz Kowalewskih-77
• Terrence J. Collinsh-69