Zeolites are regarded as promising host candidates for CO2 capture and storage (CCS) due to their high volumetric capacity, as well as the tunability afforded by their exchangeable cations and microporous framework structure, which control guest adsorption. However, the presence of water in flue gas causes competitive adsorption that has been shown to significantly diminish CO2 adsorption. It is essential to develop a deeper understanding of humid CO2 adsorption in zeolites, in order to enable the rational design of these functional materials, particularly as new understanding emerges about the role of water under zeolitic confinement. In this research thrust, we aim to tune zeolitic adsorption sites and their surrounding environment to facilitate selective CO2 adsorption over water thereby design water-resilient zeolite CO2 adsorbents for humid CO2 capture, which overturns a conventional viewpoint for zeolites being hydrophilic.

The greatest challenges facing catalysis in this century revolve around increasing their selectivity and stability, and perhaps nowhere is this challenge more acute than for the upcycling of greenhouse gas CO2 to valuable chemicals such as methanol – a platform molecule for the synthesis of fuels and chemicals. While copper-containing metal oxides have high catalytic activity for CO2 hydrogenation and are ubiquitous in industrial methanol-synthesis catalysts, typically in the form of copper-zinc-aluminum(CuZnAl) mixed oxides, increasing methanol selectivity and suppressing catalytic deactivation remain as grand challenges, which requires the controlled synthesis of catalysts and its active sites. In this research thrust, we aim to accomplish both high selectivity and stability of copper-based catalyst for CO2 hydrogenation reaction via rational catalyst design.

Environmental catalysis is a pivotal field in chemistry and environmental science dedicated to the design and application of catalytic materials and technologies to address environmental challenges, including the removal of industrial pollutants in air, water, and soil, which have detrimental effects on human health. The use of catalysts accelerates chemical reactions for the conversion of corresponding harmful environmental contaminants into less toxic, inert substances or even valuable chemicals. The success of these technologies relies on the development of novel catalysts that exhibit high activity and stability to prevent deactivation while processing complex waste streams. In this research thrust, we aim to investigate the development of catalysts for abating environmental pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and ammonia in flue gas and PFAS or microplastics in waste water.