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[ May 15, 2019]
Earth Abundant Electrocatalysts for Water Splitting
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- Speaker:
- Chuan Zhao
- Date:
- May 16, 2019
- Time:
- 4:00-6:00pm
- Location:
- Room 210, COE Building No.1
- Host:
- Shaojun Guo
- Abstract
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The increasing demands for clean energy have triggered tremendous research interests on electrochemical energy conversion and storage systems with minimum environmental impact. Electrolytic water splitting holds the promise for global scale storage of renewable energy, e.g., solar and wind in the form of hydrogen fuel, enabling the continuous usage of these diffusive and intermittent energy sources when used together with fuel cells. Nevertheless, the widespread application of water splitting technology has been severely constrained by the use of precious metal catalysts, such as oxides of ruthenium and iridium for the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and platinum for the cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). This presentation concerns our recent progress in developing non-precious metal-based, carbon-based and metal-organic framework (MOF)-based water splitting catalysts, as well as our strategies for enhancing the efficiency of these catalysts by nanostructuring to a level comparable to that of precious metal catalysts. The commercialisation of some our catalysts in water electrolysis industry also will be discussed.
- Biography
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Professor Chuan Zhao is a Professor in the School of Chemistry at the University of New South Wales, and is currently an ARC Future Fellow and the Chair of Electrochemistry Division Royal Australian Chemical Institute (EDRACI). His research interest focuses on developing nanoelectrochemistry technologies, and discovering novel nanomaterials, and their implications for clean energy and biomedicine applications. His team is also interested in ionic liquids chemistry and their applications for electrochemical energy conversion and storage and sustainable chemistry. We are exploring these new electrode and electrolyte materials for electrocatalysis and applications in water splitting for generation of hydrogen fuel, oxygen reduction for fuel cells and lithium-air batteries, and gas sensors. Professor Zhao has published five book chapters and 8 patents and more than 100 peer-reviewed articles in top-tier multidisciplinary journals including Nature Group journals, which have attracted over 3000 citations.