Dr Shannon A. Bonke
I am a Research Fellow and the Director of Studies in Chemistry at King’s College Cambridge, Senior Scientist in the Reisner Laboratory within the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, and President of the UK Alexander von Humboldt Association.
Chemistry for Sustainability
I develop chemistry that uses renewable energy to convert CO2 into sustainable fuels and chemicals.
Achieving this goal will enable us to replace fossil fuels as an energy and chemical source, and thereby eliminate the 76% of global CO2-equivalent emissions that arise from fossil fuel use.
Green Tech with a Twist
King’s of Curiosity with Gillian Tett
Hear me discuss my vision for green technologies and carbon capture with Gillian Tett OBE, Financial Times Editorial Board and Provost of King’s College Cambridge, for her ‘King’s of Curiosity’ podcast.
Green Hydrogen
My PhD research focused on catalysts for water electrolysers to make green hydrogen.
I set the solar-to-hydrogen energy conversion efficiency record, that is, the most efficient system for converting sunlight into hydrogen.
I also discovered a new acid-stable catalyst for water electrolysers that is the basis for now patented materials to replace precious metals.
Hydrogen gas bubbles being formed on the catalyst of the record solar-to-hydrogen system.
Light-Driven Carbon Capture and Conversion using Machine Learning
My recent work has used machine learning to develop chemical systems that self-assemble in water to convert CO2 under sunlight and shown how algorithms can help us understand complex chemical systems.
My current projects focus on upcycling for sustainable chemistry, including the use of CO2 as a regent to make pharmaceuticals and extracting chemicals from biomass byproducts of paper production.
