Design of Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction and Evolution Reactions Assisted by In Situ Characterizations

ABSTRACT

Improving the kinetics of oxygen electrodes is one of the main challenges for energy conversion and storage technology using hydrogen gas.   Recently, we have worked on catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in hydrogen fuel cells and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in electrolyzers for direct water splitting.  On the ORR electrocatalyst, both faceted, alloy-based low platinum group (PGM) and MOF-derived non-PGM catalysts have been developed [1-7]. They were characterized using rotating disk electrode (RDE) technique and in membrane electrode assembly (MEA). On the OER catalysts, oxygen-deficient perovskite and various pyrochlores were made in pure phase and examined for their OER performance [8-12]. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are among the tools used in our structural studies [1-4], while density functional theory (DFT) calculations are used to understand the atomistic structures favoring the high activity and stability [5, 9].  This presentation will cover, but not limited to, the following topics: in situ study of faceted PtM ORR catalysts, acid-stable pyrochlore OER catalysts, and their structure-property relationships.  

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9.    J. M. Kim,# P.-C. Shih,# K.-C. Tsao, Y.-T. Pan, X. Yin, C.-J. Sun, H. Yang, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2017, 139, 12076-12083. 
10.    J. M. Kim, X. X. Chen, Y.-T. Pan, P.-C. Shih, H. Yang, J. Electrochem. Soc., 2017, 164, F1074-F1080. 
11.    P.-C. Shih, J. M. Kim, C. J. Sun, H. Yang, ACS App. Energy Mater., 2018, online.
12.    J. M. Kim, P.-C. Shih, Y. Qin, Z. Al-Bardan, C. J. Sun, H. Yang, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2018, accepted. 

BIOGRAPHY

Prof. Hong Yang is the Richard C. Alkire Chair in Chemical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).  He received his B.Sc. degree from Tsinghua University (1989), M.Sc. degree from University of Victoria (1994), and Ph.D. degree from University of Toronto (1998, with Geoffrey A. Ozin) and did his postdoctoral research at Harvard University (with George M. Whitesides). He worked at University of Rochester for the first ten years of his academic career and then joined the faculty of UIUC as Full Professor in 2012.  Among his awards and honors, Dr. Yang received one of the two NSERC Canada Doctoral Prizes in Science. He was an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow, a US National Science Foundation CAREER Award winner, a Visiting Chair Professor with Shanghai Jiaotong University, and is an elected Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is a Section Editor for Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering, and serves on several Editorial Boards, including Nano Today, ChemNanoMat, Science China Materials, and Frontiers in Energy. He has given 170+ invited talks, including 29 plenary, keynote and name lectures. His research interests include formation of nanocrystals, catalysis, electrocatalysis, and applications of nanomaterials for energy and sustainability. His group currently work on multiple projects, such as, the development of low-PGM and non-PGM ORR catalysts, battery electrode materials, electrochemical-fixation of nitrogen, and CO2 utilization.