【讲座题目】Fundamental challenges and Catalysts development in Solar Energy Conversion

【讲座时间】2017年12月22日(星期五) 14:00-16:00

【讲座地点】北京校部主楼B606

【主 讲 人】 Dr Junwang Tang is Director of UCL Materials Hub, Professor of Materials Chemistry and Engineering in the Department at UCL, and a Fellow of the RSC.

Dr Junwang Tang received his PhD in Physical Chemistry in 2001. After that, he took a JSPS fellow in Japan and senior research associate in Imperial College London. In 2009, he joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at University College London as a Lecturer and then promoted to Senior Lecturer, Reader and Full Professor.

He currently leads a research team including postdoctoral researchers, academic visitors and research students with financial support from UK EPSRC, Leverhulme, Royal Society, RAE, Newton Fund, EU PF7, Qatar and so on. His research interests encompass structure-controlled nanomaterials synthesis by a flow system powered by microwave irradiation, solar H₂ synthesis from water, CO₂ capture and conversion to a renewable fuel, photocatalytic environmental purification and microwave catalysis. Such studies are undertaken in parallel with the mechanistic understanding and device optimisation to address the renewable energy supply and environmental purification. His research has led to >110 papers with >7200 citations, 10 patents and many invited lectures over the last several years. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Advanced Chemical Engineering, an Associate Editor of Asia-Pacific Journal of Chemical Engineering, an Editor of the Frontiers in Energy Research, the guest Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Photoenergy, 2012 and Associate Editor of Chin J. Catalysis apart from sitting on the editorial board of other international journals. He is the Vice President of the Chinese Society of Chemical Science and Technology in the UK, Honorary Lecturer at Imperial College London, Adjunct Professor in, Northwest Polytech University, Nanjing Tech University and Chinese Academy of Sciences.

【内容简介】

Solar energy utilization is currently rather limited due to its low intensity and intermittence although it has the strong potential to meet the increasing global energy demands. Solar energy to electricity by solar panels has been on market for decades while large scale storage of electricity is a big barrier for such technology. In parallel solar energy conversion and storage into a high-density energy medium, e.g H₂ via water splitting has thus been attracting substantial interest over the last decade, which can provide not only renewable H₂ fuel but also a carbon-zero economy. The key in this technology is an efficient photocatalyst. The current low efficiency in water splitting to H₂ fuel process is contributed to both fast charge recombination and large bandgap of an inorganic semiconductor, which will be first illustrated in the lectrue.^1,2

Stimulated by our recent research outcomes on the charge dynamics in inorganic semiconductor photocatalysts,² we developed novel materials strategies for solar driven hydrogen synthesis by polymer photocatalysts. One is to mitigate the charge recombination by improving the degree of polymerization of a polymer e.g. C₃N₄. With respect to it, one successful example of pure water splitting in a suspensions solution under visible light has been demonstrated for the first time.^3,4 The other strategy is to narrow the bandgap of carbon nitrides by bandgap engineering. The material prepared via an oxygen rich organic precursor has a dark color, resulting into an efficient H₂ production from water by UV and visible, even IR light with a quantum yield (QY) of 10% at 420 nm, which is the first example of a polymer photocatalyst working in such long wavelength for H₂ fuel production.⁵ The charge dynamics in these polymer photocatalysts were also systematically investigated.⁶ Finally, a device composed this low-cost polymer will demonstrate the efficiency of these strategies for solar to H2 fuel synthesis.^7,8 In addition, a few new photocatalysts developed for water treatment will also be presented.^9,10

References

1. C. Jiang, S. J.A. Moniz, A. Wang, T. Zhang, J. Tang, Chem Soc Rev , 2017 DOI: 10.1039/c6cs00306k

2. J. Tang, J. R. Durrant and D. R Klug , J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2008, 130 (42) 13885-13891.

3. D.J. Martin, P.J.T. Reardon, S.J.A Moniz, J. Tang. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2014, 136, 12568-12571.

4. D.J. Martin, K. Qiu, S.A. Shevlin, A.D. Handoko, X. Chen, Z. Guo, and J. Tang. Angewandte Chemie International Edition   2014, 53, 9240-9245.

5. Y. Wang, M.K. Bayazit, S.J Moniz, Q. Ruan, C. Lau, N. Martsinovich, J. Tang, Energy Environ Sci, 2017, 10, 1643-1651

6. R. Godin, Y., Wang, M. A., Zwijnenburg, J. Tang, J. R. Durrant, J. Am. Chem. Soc . 2017, 139  (14),  5216–5224

7.  Q., Ruan, W. Luo,, J. Xie,, Y. Wang,, X. Liu,, Z. Bai,, CJ. Carmalt,, J. Tang, Angewandte Chemie International Edition , 2017, 28, 8221-8225.

8. X., An, T., Li, B., Wen, J., Tang, Z., Hu, LM. Liu, J., Qu,  Advanced Energy Materials , 2016, 6, 1502268.

9. X., An, H., Liu, J. Qu,, S. J. A., Moniz, J. Tang, New Journal of Chemistry , 2015, 39, 314-320.

10. S. J. A., Moniz,, S. A., Shevlin, X., An, Z X., Guo, J. Tang, Chemistry-A European Journal, 2014,, 47, 15571-15579.