EIC Pathfinder Open 2022 PLANKT-ON – Plankton-like Protocells for Artificial Photosynthesis Targeting Carbon-neutral Energy Vectors
Global energy demands are continuously rising and necessitate green alternatives to fossil fuels, including wind and solar sources. Funded by the European Innovation Council, the PLANKT-ON project aims to develop a net-zero emissions technology inspired by nature that releases oxygen into the atmosphere and simultaneously produces formate as a precursor for hydrogen fuel. The technology involves assembling synthetic plankton-like protocells that use light, water and CO2 to produce O2 and formate. The latter is easily converted into molecular hydrogen through chemical reactions, serving as a potential source of clean energy. The technology will complement other solar technologies, such as photovoltaics and photoelectrocatalysis, and will empower the EU vision for solar fuels production through artificial photosynthesis.
Start date: 01 April 2023
End date: 31 March 2023
Role: Coordinator (INSTM – National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology)
Other Partners: Commissariat à l’energie atomique et aux energies alternatives (Paris, France) – Politecnico di Milano (Milan, Italy) – Asociation Centro de Investigation cooperativa en biomateriales CICbiomaGUNE (San Sebastian, Spain) – Enphos S.r.l. (Verona, Italy)
More Info: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101099192
Research outputs
| Partner/Team members | Type of divulgation activity | Description | Audience (type&number) |
| All | Event | Sustainable hydrogen and its colors – Kick-off meeting/Industrial perspective (Venice, Italy) | General public, 50-100 |
| All | Event | Joint meeting between Enphos and research groups (Prof. Gobbo and Prof. Prato, UniTS and Prof. Bonchio, UniPD) | Scientific community, <50 |
| All | Event | 1st Plankt-on Progress Meeting – Villa Donna Camilla Savelli (Rome, Italy) | Scientific community, <50 |
| All | Workshop | Surprising Science on Molecular Architectures and Emerging Materials (Rome, Italy) | Scientific community,50-100 |
| F. Vicentini | Conference | Towards quantasome protocells for photo-induced water oxidation – Poster presentation, Italian Chemical Society – National Congress of the Division of Organic Chemistry (Rome, Italy) | Scientific community, >500 |
| A. Rebasa- Vallverdu | Event | Photo-induced movement in protocell-based biomimetic systems – oral presentation and outreach to high school students, I giovani e la chimica in FVG, Italian Chemical Society | General Public, 100-500 |
| A. Rebasa-Vallverdu | Conference | Protocellular materials for photo-induced water oxidation – Poster presentation, Suprachem Days 2023 (Cagliari, Italy) | Scientific community |
| A. Rebasa-Vallverdu | Event | A new generation of photocatalytic protocells for water oxidation & From photocatalytic protocells towards photosynthetic materials – Oral presentations, 1st PROTOMAT Symposium Series | Scientific community, <50 |
| A. Rebasa-Vallverdu F. Vicentini | Event | Coacervates and PCVs: versatile and tunable protocellular models & Stabilised coacervate vesicles: Recent milestones and future perspectives – Oral presentations, 2nd PROTOMAT Symposium Series | Scientific community, <50 |
| All | Event | Plankt-on Progress Meeting (Marano Lagunare, Italy) | Scientific community, <50 |
The Gobbo Group 