Prof. Anton P.J. Middelberg, from The University of Adelaide, visited our lab today. He gave an IRCE2 Lecture named Bio-inspired Approaches to Interfacial Chemical Engineering.Professor Anton Middelberg is the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences at The University of Adelaide. Prior to this he was Pro Vice Chancellor (Research and International) and A...

Electro-reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) is a promising way to curb the excessive CO2 emission and produce value-added products. Gold-copper (AuCu) alloys are known to exhibit eminent CO production performance towards CO2ER. However, it still remains a grand challenge to balance *COOH and *CO bonding and to further descend CO onset potential. This paper describes the construction of Cu vacanci...

Water splits into hydrogen and oxygen electrochemically is one of the most promising strategies for the utilization and storage of solar energy. However, oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with sluggish kinetics hinders its larger-scale application. NiFe-based catalysts are one of the most efficient oxygen evolution catalysts (OECs). High-valence Ni is considered as active site or conductive frame...

Congratulations! Prof. Gong is elected as a vice chair for Gordon Research Conference for Green Chemistry.Gordon Research Conferences are a group of prestigious international scientific conferences organized by a non-profit organization of the same name. The conference topics cover frontier research in the biological, chemical, and physical sciences, and their related technologies. The conferen...

Prof. Lynden Archer, from Cornell University, visited our lab today. He gave an IRCE2 Lecture named Electrodeposition of Reactive Metals in Structured Electrolytes: Electrokinetics and Stability.Lynden Archer is the James A Friend Family Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Director of the Cornell Energy Systems Institute. His research focuses on transport proper...

Electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) to value-added products is a promising way to solve CO2 emission problems. Thanks to the eminent conductivity and proper adsorption to intermediates, palladium has become a promising candidate for CO2 electroreduction (CO2ER). However, Pd-based nanocatalysts generally need a large overpotential to overcome energy barriers in generating highly s...

Prof. Yue Wu, from Iowa State University, visited our lab today. He gave an IRCE2 Lecture named Tuning Electrical and Thermal Properties in Nanostructured Materials.Prof. Yue Wu joined Iowa State University as the Herbert L. Stiles Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering in summer 2014. He obtained his B.S. degree in Chemistry at the University of Science and Technology of Ch...

Progress in heterogeneous catalysis is often hampered by the difficulties of constructing active architecture and understanding reaction mechanism at molecular level due to the structural complexity of practical catalysts, in particular for multicomponent catalysts. Although surface science experiment and theoretical simulation help understand the detailed reaction mechanisms over model systems...

Cocatalysts on the outside and inside of hollow spheres trigger photocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction to syngas‘Unlike previous ones, our cocatalyst structure is completely separated by a TiO2 shell, enabling electrons and holes generated by TiO2 to flow in opposite directions, which greatly supresses charge carrier recombination,’ Gong tells Chemistry World. Irradiation by solar light caus...

Our new proposal focusing on CO2 utilization collaborated with Profs. Feng Jiao and Bingjun Xu at University of Delaware was approved!2019-2022: “Solar-driven Carbon Dioxide Utilization for Environmental Sustainability”, PI Prof. Tuo Wang

Photocatalytic CO2 reduction represents a sustainable route to generate syngas (the mixture of CO and H2 ), which is a key feedstock to produce liquid fuels in industry. Yet this reaction typically suffers from two limitations: unsuitable CO/H2 ratio and serious charge recombination. This paper describes the production of syngas from photocatalytic CO2 reduction with tunable CO/H2 ratio via adj...

Li Ang, Zhibin, Xiaoxia, Jijie, Chengcheng, Shenjun, Jiubing, Weiting, Li Hao, Mengxin and Shanshan passed their dissertation defense today. Congrats!List of the thesis titles:Li Ang: Rational Regulation and Effective Utilization of Charge Carriers in PhotocatalystsZhibin: Effective Charge Carrier Utilization in Hematite PhotoanodesXiaoxia: Catalytic System Design and Mechanism Investigation fo...

The mixed-metal oxides are one of the most frequently used catalysts in chemical industry, because the superior catalytic reactivity can be achieved by taking advantage of the synergetic effects of their parent oxides. However, the interfacial electronic interactions between metal oxides remains unclear due to their structural complexity. This paper describes the modulation of catalytic perform...

Mixed-metal oxides are one of the most frequently used catalysts in chemical industry, because the superior catalytic reactivity can be achieved by taking advantage of the synergetic effects of their parent oxides. However, the interfacial electronic interactions between metal oxides remain unclear, because of their structural complexity. This paper describes the modulation of catalytic perform...

​CO2 reduction in aqueous solutions is an attractive strategy for carbon capture and utilization. Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) is a promising catalyst for CO2 reduction as it can not only convert CO2 into valuable hydrocarbons but also suppress the side H2 evolution reaction (HER). However, the nature of the active sites is still under debate due to the complex surface structure of Cu2O under reducing...

Prof. Taeghwan Hyeon, from the Seoul National University, visited our lab today. He gave a Peiyang Lecture with the title “Chemistry for Nano, and Nano for Medicine & Energy”.Prof. Taeghwan Hyeon is a faculty member of the School of Chemical and Biological Engineering of Seoul National University. He has been focused on the synthesis and applications of uniform-sized nanoparticles and related...

Chalcopyrite thin film absorbers such as Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) exhibit excellent solar energy conversion efficiency, particularly when coupled with CdS to form an excellent p-n junction. An increasing number of investigations have focused on adopting protective layers and cocatalysts for chalcopyrite/CdS to improve its stability and surface reaction kinetics. However, satisfactory performance has...

Prof. Michael Grätzel, from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, visited our lab today. He gave a Peiyang Lecture with the title “Mesoscopic Photosystems For Generation of Electricity and Fuels from Sunlight”.Prof. Michael Graetzel directs there the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces. He pioneered research in the field of energy and electron transfer reactions in mesoscopic syste...

The intrinsic errors due to functionals are always a concern on the reliability of the predicted catalytic performance by density functional theory. This paper describes a probability-based computational screening study, which has successfully identified an optimal bimetallic alloy (Pt3In) for propane dehydrogenation reaction (PDH). Considering DFT uncertainty, Pt3In was found to get an activit...

Supported vanadium oxides are one of the most promising alternative catalysts for propane dehydrogenation (PDH) and massive efforts have been made to improve its catalytic performance. However, unlike Pt‐based catalysts, the nature of the active site and surface structure of supported vanadium catalysts under reductive reaction condition still remain elusive. We show that the surface structure...