Research

Nanomaterials

Controlled synthesis of nanomaterials via wet-chemistry route has been developed rapidly during the past decades. Nowadays, people are more concerned about the "structure-property" relationship for functional nanomaterials, as well as the programmable synthesis of hybrid nanostructures and their application in "practical" scenarios.

Our studies focus on finely tunable solution preparation, mechanism, and potential application of functional nanomaterials, including

• Metal/Metal oxide nanomaterials; 

• Rare-earth-based nanocrystals and their derivatives; 

• Inorganic-oganic hybrid materials.

Energy-Convertion Reactions

People's demand for sustainable & clean energy is growing every day. However, we're still looking for cost-effective solutions to high-efficiency conversion & storage of sustainable & clean energy. One promising way is to directly store the energy of sunlight into chemical fuels, which can be utilized to do "available work" efficiently in fuel-cell stacks.

Our researches cover:

• Optimized catalysts for PEMFCs;

• Nanocatalysts for water-splitting reactions.

Catalysis

Catalysts play an indispensable role in energy-conversion reactions. In this part, our efforts focus on the development of functional nanomaterials for electrochemical catalysis and photocatalysis, such as water splitting, carbon dioxide reduction, and nitrogen fixation, etc. Our research reveals that the synergistic effect between different components of hybrid nanomaterials will greatly promote their catalytic performance to these important reactions.

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Our efforts are currently devoting to the following two important reactions:​

• Carbon dioxide reduction;

• Nitrogen reduction.