The University is currently operating under normal conditions
Chemistry professor Jillian Dempsey’s lab researches ways to convert solar energy into liquid fuels.
Sustainable energy consumption and conversion options are now widespread. Using sunlight to power our houses or electricity to fuel our cars offers alternatives to traditional practices.
The technologies that allow us to harness and use sustainable energy are a step in the right direction, but a disconnect lies between their operational needs and our nation’s infrastructure.
Jillian Dempsey, Francis Preston Venable Distinguished Professor in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences’ chemistry department, researches novel mechanisms for converting solar energy into efficient everyday use.
I get this question a lot from folks: “Why are you doing research in solar energy? I have solar panels on my roof.” That is true; we have solar energy harvesting technologies where panels capture photons and generate electricity. But unless you buy a battery, charge it during the day and pull from it at night, you can’t be fully grid independent.
The same applies to electric vehicles. The last decade has been incredible to watch, but we have to admit that much of our transportation sector relies on liquid fuels, not on batteries.
If we pop up an army base in the middle of a war, we can’t tap into electricity from a nearby city. This is a place where liquid fuels matter. They’re transportable, distributable and very energy dense. Our existing solar technologies take us to electricity, but with the way our society operates, we still are going to need transportable fuels.
My lab works on all parts of this: How do we capture light with materials that absorb it and then convert it into chemical energy? If we take gasoline and burn it, the combustion makes our cars go, and the gasoline turns into carbon dioxide and water. What if I wanted to do that reaction backward? What if I wanted to take the carbon dioxide and water and turn them back into gasoline? If I got energy out when I burned the gasoline, I have to put energy back in to reform it. That energy could come from sunlight.
We’re not immediately trying to develop new technologies because there are fundamental science obstacles that we need to overcome first. If we can do that, we can diversify our fuel portfolio. Right now, we use fuels like gasoline, crude oil, coal and natural gas. Some of those we can source domestically, but for others we rely on strategic oil reserves in the Middle East. Another component is that the combustion of fuels generates carbon dioxide. Decades of climate research indicate that increased carbon dioxide levels correlate with increasing global temperatures and unpredictable weather patterns, so there are opportunities for environmental impacts of moving to alternative fuel.
I’ve also been interested in exploring other ways, beyond fuels, where we can take advantage of light-promoted chemical synthesis. Maybe it’s not using light with feedstocks like carbon dioxide and water to make fuels but instead investigating how light can drive the transformation of other feedstocks into fine chemicals like pharmaceuticals. I’m not the first one to think about this, but as an inorganic chemist, I’m thinking about how I could use light in innovative ways to make new molecules or find more direct and efficient routes to known ones.
Named professorships support renowned scholars and advance research at Carolina. These privately funded endowments help attract and retain leading faculty, strengthening the academic experience for all Tar Heels and fueling discovery that makes an impact.
Master of Public Health student Libby Meier tested how practical that alternative would be for Enfield, North Carolina.
The Sustainable Energy Research Consortium is launching broader initiatives in renovated space in Caudill Labs.
Want more Carolina news? The Well newsletter updates Tar Heels on UNC-Chapel Hill’s top stories, upcoming events and campus accolades, arriving in your inbox every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning.
NC Children’s will be North Carolina’s first freestanding hospital dedicated to caring for kids.
The Carolina sophomore shares her life through her poems, tours and activities on campus.
Heather Wasser focuses her work on safe infant feeding, a concern after the storm hit western North Carolina.
During a BIOL 119 hospital shift, Neha Varrier did CPR on a patient until help arrived.
This fall, nearly a thousand Tar Heels got help from fellow students through this free Learning Center program.
© 2026 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

source