Title: Electrocatalysts of Complex Oxides for the Reduction of Oxygen

Speaker: Prof. Hong Yang

Date/Time: 2023.07.03 15:00-16:30

Location: Yiucheng Lecture Hall (500), Xu Zuyao Building

Inviter:  Prof. Jianbo Wu

Biography

Dr. Hong Yang is the Richard C. Alkire Endowed Chair Professor of Chemical Engineering at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).  He received his B.Sc. degree from Tsinghua University (1989), and Ph.D. degree from University of Toronto (1998). He did his postdoctoral research at Harvard University as an NSERC Canada Postdoctoral Fellow. He worked through the academic ranks at University of Rochester between 2001 and 2011 and joined the UIUC faculty as a tenured Full Professor in 2012. Dr. Yang is an elected Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an NSERC Canada Doctoral Prize recipient and a US National Science Foundation CAREER Award winner.He is an Associate Editor for Science Advances (AAAS) and the Subject Editor on Electrochemical Energy Conversion for Frontiers in Energy run by Higher Education Press, CAE, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He also serves on several editorial boards, including Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering, Nano Today, ChemNanoMat, and Energy Materials Advances. His current research interests include study of synthesis, structure and property relationships, electrocatalysis, and nanomaterials for energy and sustainability applications, green hydrogen production by water electrolyzer and proton exchange membrane fuel cell in particular.

Abstract

Low-temperature water electrolysis plays a critical role in our effort to develop energy conversion and storage processes with net zero or negative carbon impacts.  This process aims to produce green hydrogen from splitting water molecule and needs low-cost, highly active and stable electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). In this presentation, I will focus on the study of structure-property relationship of complex oxides that are in the generic form of AxByOz, where A and B can be a single metal cation or mixed cations, respectively. Perovskite, pyrochlore, spinel, and Ruddlesden-Popper phase solids are among the structures found to be highly active for OER under either acid or base conditions. Defect engineering in these solids is particularly important for the design of high performance OER electrocatalysts. I will discuss the latest results on understanding how to regulate the cation sites and oxygen defect chemistry for enhancing the bond-stability of key catalytic constituents and subsequently OER catalytic performance.  Such information could help in searching for low cost, iridium-free electrocatalysts for hydrogen production.