Title : Sustainable heterogeneous (electro)catalysis: Understanding for designing
Abstract:
Heterogeneous catalysis is of vital importance to the world’s economy, allowing us to convert raw materials into valuable chemicals and fuels in an economical, efficient, and environmentally benign manner. Continued research into heterogeneous catalysis is required to allow us to address increasingly complex environmental and energy issues facing our industrialized society. To confront these challenges, this vibrant discipline is becoming increasingly design-driven, a shift that is facilitated by increasingly powerful tools and the continued development of fundamental knowledge and understanding. The design of a heterogeneous catalyst, a dream not long ago, is becoming a reality. In this talk, I will discuss the recent works (mainly in electrocatalysis) from my group to illustrate how the understanding of catalyzed processes can promote more efficient catalyst design. I will start with a brief history of catalysis and its wide application, thermodynamics quantitative analysis of chemical reactions, and reactions coupling to bypass the thermodynamics limitation of a single reaction, followed by the fundamental concepts of catalysis, including kinetics (bond strength and scaling relations) and active sites. Then, I will use some examples of iridium-based electrocatalysts for water oxidation (oxygen evolution reaction) to illustrate how to design more active catalysts by adjusting the bond strength between reaction intermediates and the catalyst surface. In addition, transition metal single-atom catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction will be discussed to show how to design the active sites for the electrochemical synthesis of hydrogen peroxide. At the end, I will give a summary of levels of research in heterogeneous (Electro)catalysis.
Audience Take Away
- The audience will learn the basic concepts of catalysis and how to apply the fundamental concepts to design better catalysts.
- other faculty could use this research to expand their research and teaching in heterogeneous (Electro)catalysis.
- This talk also provides a practical solution to the specific problem regarding the water-splitting process and hydrogen peroxide synthesis process.
