On Oct. 20-24, 2014, the 4th International Symposium on Solar fuels and Solar Cells (SFSC) and the 3rd DNL Conference on Clean Energy (DCCE) was held in the Convention Center of Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP). The symposium was co-chaired by Prof. Can Li from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, and Prof. Licheng Sun from Dalian University of Technology. Prof. Hongxian Han organized the symposium as the Secretary General of the 4th SFSC. 

Prof. Can Li chaired the opening Ceremony. Prof. Tao Zhang, the director of DICP gave a welcome speech, and Prof. Licheng Sun introduced the history of the series SFSC symposium which was held biannually since 2008.  About 350 scientists, scholars, postdoctors and students from more than 15 countries and regions attended the symposium. Taking the 4 days presentation time, extensive presentations and discussion were carried out in all aspects of research fields in solar fuels and solar cells, including natural photosynthesis, artificial photosynthesis, photocatalytic water splitting, photocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction and conversion, emerging novel technologies, materials and processes for solar cells, as well as the key scientific and technical problems for efficient solar energy conversion.

The 4th SFSC symposium is more like the highly standard “Gordon Research Conference”, featuring 4 plenary lectures, 17 keynote lectures, 18 invited oral lectures, 22 ordinary lectures and more than 100 posters. The poster evaluation committee screened out 9 RSC Poster Prize Awards. Wangyin Wang, a PhD student from Solar Energy Division of DNL, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, was awarded the Gold Prize. 

Solar energy is the most abundant renewable energy source on earth. Among the known renewable energy resources, only solar energy can replace the fossil fuels in large volume and quantity. To this end, research on solar energy conversion is vitally important for securing the global ecological civilization and sustainable economic development in the near future. Solar fuels and solar cells, the main themes of the SFSC symposium, are the two kinds of major solar energy conversion and utilization technologies under developing in the laboratory so far. 

Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics has established a world-standard Solar Energy Division in Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy (DNL) with research focus on  solar fuels and advanced solar cells. Successful organization of the 4th SFSC symposium will further strengthen the ties of DICP with other international institutes, and promote the research quality of DICP in the fields of solar fuels and solar cells. 

The biannual SFSC symposium has been supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Natural Science Foundation of China etc. 

Reported by Hongxian Han and Jianing Guan, Photos by Wansheng Liu and Hongyu An