Artificial photosynthesis can store solar energy and reduce CO2 into fuels to potentially alleviate global warming and energy crisis. Compared to gas products, it remains a grand challenge to tune the product distribution of artificial photosynthesis to liquid fuels, such as CH3OH, that are suitable for storage and transport. This paper describes the introduction of metallic Cu nanoparticles (N...

Due to the existence of scaling properties of adsorption energies on transition metal surfaces, the enhancement of the catalytic activity is frequently accompanied by side reactions leading to a reduction in selectivity for the target product. Herein, by systematically screening Pt alloy materials using density functional theory calculations, we developed an approach to breaking the scaling rel...

Prof. Liang-Shih Fan, from the The Ohio State University, visited our lab today. He gave an IRCE2 Lecture named Metal Oxide Reaction Engineering and Chemical Looping Technology for Fossil Energy Conversion。Metal oxide composites are enabling materials in a variety of energy conversion systems such as solid oxide fuel cells, ionic transport membranes, solar cells, batteries, light emitting diod...

Congratulate Congling Hu, Wenjin Zhu and Piaoping Yang on receiving the National Scholarship!

Prof. Notker Rösch, from the Institute of High Performance Computing of the Agency of Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), visited our lab today. He gave an IRCE2 Lecture named Reduced Centers of the MoVOx Catalyst for Hydrocarbon Oxidation. To Localize or not to Localize, That is the Question.Professor Notker Rösch is the head of the Catalysis Modelling Group at the Institute of High Per...

We are excited to welcome 27 new graduate students to the Energy & Catalysis Adventure Team. They are Dongfang Cheng, Engr.Bilal Fareed, Hui Gao, Zichen Gong, Hui Ke, Zhuo Li, Xiaoyun Lin, Yan Lin, Zhenpu Lu, Ran Luo, Jian Qin, Mingxue Shi, Zi Shi, Shijia Sun, Qingzhen Wang, Tianzuo Wang, Yang Wang, Yongtao Wang, Zhongyan Wang, Bo Wu, Yang Wu, Yiyi Xu, Jiachuan Yu, Tenghui Yuan, Tingting Zhang,...

Rose Zhu and Brandon Sutherland, from Joule, visited our lab today. They gave an IRCE2 Lecture named Energy Research & High Impact Publishing in Joule.Dr. Rose Zhu(朱昌荣) is the Associate Editor for Joule based out of Shanghai office. She started her Ph.D. study at Nanyang Technological University (NTU, Singapore) under Prof. Hong Jin FAN in 2012 after received BSc degree in Sichuan University...

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...