Research
Overview
The increasing environmental concern and accelerated depletion of fossil fuels have driven research towards the development of new technologies using alternative energy sources as well as enhancing energy utilization efficiency. Catalysts development sits in the heart of these endeavors for their broad uses to promote the necessary chemical/electrochemical reactions. Activity, stability, selectivity, and cost are major concerns in the search for new catalysts. Thus breakthroughs have to be made in the design and preparation of advanced catalysts in order to move energy-related research forward.
Our research focuses on the design of highly active, cost-effective and stable electrocatalysts to enable the commercialization of fuel cells, and the development of advanced materials useful as heterogeneous catalysts for a wide range of energy-related reactions. With multidisciplinary knowledge and research experiences in materials science, heterogeneous catalysis, and fuel cells, we are in an advantageous situation to take stock of all the fields. We utilize the unique integrated competences in rational design of advanced materials of interest, facile preparation of desired structures by developing new synthetic approaches, and in-depth investigation of the catalytic property and reaction kinetics.
Ongoing Projects
1. Active, Cost-Effective and Stable Fuel Cell Catalysts
Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells are considered as a clean and highly efficient technology for mobile applications. However, high cost and lack of stability of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst are two main hurdles in advancing the technology. The Pt loadings must be lowered from current 1 g Pt/kW to < 0.2 g Pt/kW and stability of the catalyst must be improved to achieve the target for large-scale applications.
The objective of our research is to develop active, cost-effective, and stable ORR catalysts using a Metal@Pt core-skin layer approach. The replacement of Pt cores with other less expensive metals can decrease the overall cost on catalyst. The reaction kinetics on surface Pt can be promoted by rational selection of core metals, which are able to adjust the electronic structure of Pt surface layers. The durability issues of the catalysts are addressed by searching for new supports with strengthened interaction with Pt particles to prevent their dissolution and coalescence.
2. New Catalysts for C1-Chemicals Conversion
Chemical reactions involving the use of C1 molecules offer many routes to industrial chemicals and sustainable energy sources, which are promising alternatives to fossile fuels and can help alleviate environmental problems. The research of our lab puts emphases on catalytic conversion of CO2 and CH4 for the production of syn gas and small molecular fuels, and focuses on the discovery and investigation of novel and efficient materials.
3. Facile Preparation of Advanced Catalysts
Metal nanocrystals with tailored shape, composition, and higher-level architecture (core-shell, dumbbell, etc.) are of great interest for their novel catalytic property, which have stimulated the exploration of new methods for preparing these advanced structures. However, most current approaches involve the use of organic agents and require complete removal of hydrocarbons from the particles before they become catalytically active. Moreover, the complexity of such preparative procedures and the difficulties in scaling them up have limited their uses to fundamental studies and made them less useful in commercial applications. We are developing simple, cost-effective, scalable, surfactant-free methods for preparing advanced metal catalysts, with an objective to make the developed methods readily commercializable.
Financial Support Acknowledgement
