Bruce Parkinson

Dr. Bruce Parkinson is a professor in the Department of Chemistry and the School of Energy Resources.

The Parkinson group has diverse interests in the area of renewable energy and catalysis. We use combinatorial chemistry techniques to search for new metal oxide semiconductors that are useful for the direct photoelectrolysis of water. Associated with this effort is an outreach project that recruits undergraduates and high school students to help produce and screen some of the millions of possible multicomponent oxides for photoelectrolysis using a simple and inexpensive kit developed at UW. We also investigate new materials for thin film solar cells containing only earth abundant elements such as Cu₂ZnSnS₄. As part of the newly funded Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory we are involved in the electrochemical characterization of newly developed coordination compound catalysts for reactions important in energy conversion such as the oxidation and reduction of water. Another project investigates the fundamentals of the sensitization of large band gap oxide semiconductors to visible light using single crystal oxide electrodes and dyes, quantum dots and conjugated polymers as sensitizers.

Dr. Parkinson's Chemistry Page

Parkinson Research Group