Javier Concepcion

Brookhaven National Laboratory

Chemistry Division
Bldg. 555
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000

(631) 344-4369
jconcepc@bnl.gov

Research | Education | Appointments | Publications | Awards

Research Activities

Artificial Photosynthesis Group

Research Interests

Chemical, electrochemical and photochemical catalytic processes related to artificial photosynthesis, especially water oxidation and water/CO2 reduction. Ground and excited state proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET), kinetic and mechanistic studies related to homogeneous and heterogeneous small molecule activation with a combination of experimental techniques and high level theoretical calculations.

Education

• Ph.D. Inorganic Chemistry, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (Chile) and
  Georgia Institute of Technology (USA), March 2002
• B.S. Chemistry, Central University of Las Villas (Cuba), July 1992

Professional Appointments

• Visiting Scholar with Prof. William S. Rees, Jr.,
  Georgia Institute of Technology, 2000-2002
• Postdoctoral Research Associate with Prof. William S. Rees, Jr.,
  Georgia Institute of Technology, 2002-2004
• Assistant Professor
  Kennesaw State University, Georgia, 2004-2005
• Postdoctoral Research Associate with Prof. Thomas J. Meyer,
  UNC at Chapel Hill, 2005-2009
• Senior Research Scientist
  EFRC, UNC at Chapel Hill, 2009-2013
• Associate Chemist
  Chemistry Division, BNL, 2013 - 2017
• Chemist
  Chemistry Division, BNL, 2017 - present

Selected Publications

• Sampaio RN, DiMarco BN, Concepcion JJ (2021) Proton-Coupled Group Transfer Enables Concerted Protonation Pathways Relevant to Small-Molecule Activation. Inorganic Chemistry. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.1c01609
• Ertem MZ, Concepcion JJ (2020) Oxygen Atom Transfer as an Alternative Pathway for Oxygen–Oxygen Bond Formation. Inorganic Chemistry 59:5966–5974. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.9b03751
• Wang L, Shaffer DW, Manbeck GF, Polyansky DE, Concepcion JJ (2019) High-Redox-Potential Chromophores for Visible-Light-Driven Water Oxidation at Low pH. ACS Catalysis 10:580–585. doi: 10.1021/acscatal.9b04034
• Wang D, Wang L, Brady MD, Dares CJ, Meyer GJ, Meyer TJ, Concepcion JJ (2019) Self-Assembled Chromophore–Catalyst Bilayer for Water Oxidation in a Dye-Sensitized Photoelectrosynthesis Cell. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 123:30039–30045. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.9b07125
• Wang L, Polyansky DE, Concepcion JJ (2019) Self-Assembled Bilayers as an Anchoring Strategy: Catalysts, Chromophores, and Chromophore-Catalyst Assemblies. Journal of the American Chemical Society 141:8020–8024. doi: 10.1021/jacs.9b01044
• Wang L, Yan D, Shaffer DW, Ye X, Layne BH, Concepcion JJ, Liu M, Nam C-Y (2018) Improved Stability and Performance of Visible Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting on Solution-Processed Organic Semiconductor Thin Films by Ultrathin Metal Oxide Passivation. Chemistry of Materials 30:324–335. doi: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b02889
• Brennaman MK, Gish MK, Alibabaei L, Norris MR, Binstead RA, Nayak A, Lapides AM, Song W, Brown RJ, Concepcion JJ, Templeton JL, Papanikolas JM, Meyer TJ (2018) Pathways Following Electron Injection: Medium Effects and Cross-Surface Electron Transfer in a Ruthenium-Based, Chromophore–Catalyst Assembly on TiO2. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 122:13017–13026. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b04837
• Xie Y, Shaffer DW, Concepcion JJ (2018) O–O Radical Coupling: From Detailed Mechanistic Understanding to Enhanced Water Oxidation Catalysis. Inorganic Chemistry 57:10533–10542. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.8b00329
• Shaffer DW, Xie Y, Szalda DJ, Concepcion JJ (2017) Lability and Basicity of Bipyridine-Carboxylate-Phosphonate Ligand Accelerate Single-Site Water Oxidation by Ruthenium-Based Molecular Catalysts. Journal of the American Chemical Society 139:15347–15355. doi: 10.1021/jacs.7b06096
• Shaffer DW, Xie Y, Concepcion JJ (2017) O–O bond formation in ruthenium-catalyzed water oxidation: single-site nucleophilic attack vs. O–O radical coupling. Chemical Society Reviews 46:6170–6193. doi: 10.1039/c7cs00542c
• Sherman BD, Xie Y, Sheridan MV, Wang D, Shaffer DW, Meyer TJ, Concepcion JJ (2016) Light-Driven Water Splitting by a Covalently Linked Ruthenium-Based Chromophore–Catalyst Assembly. ACS Energy Letters 2:124–128. doi: 10.1021/acsenergylett.6b00661
• Shaffer DW, Xie Y, Szalda DJ, Concepcion JJ (2016) Manipulating the Rate-Limiting Step in Water Oxidation Catalysis by Ruthenium Bipyridine–Dicarboxylate Complexes. Inorganic Chemistry 55:12024–12035. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.6b02193
• Manbeck GF, Fujita E, Concepcion JJ (2016) Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer in a Strongly Coupled Photosystem II-Inspired Chromophore–Imidazole–Phenol Complex: Stepwise Oxidation and Concerted Reduction. Journal of the American Chemical Society 138:11536–11549. doi: 10.1021/jacs.6b03506
• Su W, Zhou K, Cai F, Chen C, Mousavi B, Chaemchuen S, Verpoort F (2017) Water Oxidation by In Situ Generated [RuII(OH2)(NC NHC O)(pic)2]+. Chemistry - An Asian Journal 12:2304–2310. doi: 10.1002/asia.201700837
• Concepcion JJ, Zhong DK, Szalda DJ, Muckerman JT, Fujita E (2015) Mechanism of water oxidation by [Ru(bda)(L)2]: the return of the "blue dimer."Chemical Communications 51:4105–4108. doi: 10.1039/c4cc07968j
• Fang Z, Ito A, Luo H, Ashford DL, Concepcion JJ, Alibabaei L, Meyer TJ (2015) Polypyridyl Ru(ii)-derivatized polypropylacrylate polymer with a terminal water oxidation catalyst. Application of reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer polymerization. Dalton Transactions 44:8640–8648. doi: 10.1039/c5dt00287g

Awards & Recognition

Postdoc Award for Research Excellence, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2008.
Named Best Graduate Student, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Santiago, Chile, 2000.
National Olympiad of Chemistry, awarded First Prize, Havana, Cuba, 1988.

Patents

1. Norman, Lewis R.; Carlise, Joseph R.; Concepcion Corbea, Javier Jesus; Rees, William S.; Weck, Marcus “Crosslinked polysaccharides and methods of making and using crosslinked polysaccharides”, U.S. Pat. Appl. Publ. 2005, 7 pp.: US 2005112077 CAN 143:10269 AN 2005:450698.
2. Concepcion Corbea, Javier Jesus; Chen, Zuofeng; Jurss, Jonah Wesley; Templeton, Joseph L.; Hoertz, Paul; Meyer, Thomas J., U.S. Pat. Appl. Publ. 2011, US 20110042227 A1 20110224.