Electrocatalysis

The intermittency of energy supply from renewable and clean resources, such as solar, wind, geothermy, etc, has largely hampered the economic development and reduced the efficiency of energy utilization. Conversing these intermittent and localized energies into energy-dense molecules via electrocatalysis is regarded as a promising pathway to mitigate the intermittency problem. Among a series of electrochemical conversion reactions, water splitting and carbon dioxide reduction can produce clean hydrogen and reduce carbon dioxide emission respectively, therefore drawing a lot of attention from researchers. So far, precious metals are still the most active ones to catalyze the electrochemical conversion of reactants. One research interest of our group is to rationally design efficient non-precious catalysts or largely reduce the usage of precious metals while keeping or even improving the activity of catalysts.

At the lab scale, our group focus on the 3d-5d transition metal based catalysts, including their hydroxides、oxides、phosphides and sulfides. Some single-atom catalysts-related researches are also in the spotlight. These catalysts would be utilized for oxygen evolution reaction (OER), hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR), and etc.

The schematic diagram of our research interests

Recent publications:

1. Daobin Liu, Xiyu Li, Shuangming Chen, Huan Yan, Changda Wang, Chuanqiang Wu, Yasir A. Haleem, Sai Duan, Junling Lu, Binghui Ge, Pulickel M. Ajayan, Yi Luo, Jun Jiang*, Li Song*. Atomically dispersed platinum supported on curved carbon supports for efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Nature Energy 2019, 4, 512-518.
2. Hongliang Jiang, Qun He, Xiyu Li, Xiaozhi Su, Youkui Zhang, Shuangming Chen, Shuo Zhang, Guozhen Zhang, Jun Jiang, Yi Luo, Pulickel M Ajayan, Li Song*. Tracking structural self-reconstruction and identifying true active sites toward cobalt oxychloride precatalyst of oxygen evolution reaction. Advanced Materials 2019, 31, 1805127.
3. Qun He, Dong Tian, Hongliang Jiang, Dengfeng Cao, Shiqiang Wei, Daobin Liu, Pin Song, Yue Lin, Li Song*. Achieving efficient alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction over a Ni₅P₄ catalyst incorporating single-atomic Ru sites. Advanced Materials 2020, 32, 1906972.
4. Qun He, Daobin Liu, Ji Hoon Lee, Yumeng Liu, Zhenhua Xie, Sooyeon Hwang, Shyam Kattel*, Li Song*, Jingguang G. Chen*. Electrochemical conversion of CO₂ to syngas with controllable CO/H₂ ratios over Co and Ni single-atom catalysts. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020, 59, 3033-3037.
　

Energy storage system

The development of electrochemical energy storage materials and the study of energy storage mechanism are very important for the sustainable development of new energy. Our research group focused on a variety of electrochemical energy storage devices such as Li⁺, Na⁺ battery; aqueous Zn²⁺ battery and supercapacitors, etc. We study on the design and development of two-dimensional electrode materials (transition metal sulfides, oxides and carbides, etc.) with promising energy storage performance. The structure of electrode materials was deeply studied by means of various synchrotron radiation spectroscopy (XAFS, XPS, XRD, etc.), and the energy storage mechanism was explored by ex/in situ XAFS, ex/in situ XRD and other characterization methods (ex/in situ Raman, etc.).

Adv. Energy. Mater. 9, 1802977, (2019).

Recent publications:

1. Wang, C., Chen, S. & Song, L. Tuning 2D MXenes by Surface Controlling and Interlayer Engineering: Methods, Properties, and Synchrotron Radiation Characterizations. Adv. Funct. Mater., 2000869, (2020).

2. Wei, S. et al. Dial the Mechanism Switch of VN from Conversion to Intercalation toward Long Cycling Sodium‐Ion Battery. Adv. Energy. Mater., 1903712, (2020).

3. Wang, C., Wei, S., Chen, S., Cao, D. & Song, L. Delaminating Vanadium Carbides for Zinc‐Ion Storage: Hydrate Precipitation and H⁺/Zn²⁺ Co‐Action Mechanism. Small Methods 3, 1900495, (2019).

4. Wang, C. et al. Atomic Cobalt Covalently Engineered Interlayers for Superior Lithium-Ion Storage. Adv. Mater. 30, e1802525, (2018).

Synthesis and device application

Two-dimensional quantum materials, including graphene, h-BN, TMDCs, MXenes, etc., have shown abundance of exotic physical properties and are expected to be applied in electronics and photoelectronic devices with ultra-low power. The exploration of new materials is of importance to physical property engineering and device applications. By combination of theoretical calculations and predictions, we use a variety of growth means including CVD and CVT method to obtain high quality 2D materials, with the help of synchrotron radiation X-Ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and synchrotron radiation angular resolution photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) and other advanced characterization methods, we explore the basic physical properties of materials such as optical, electrical and magnetic properties. For 2D materials showing application potential, we further design and construct on-chip devices for optoelectronic response or electrocatalysis.

ACS Nano 2017, 11, 1371−1379

Recent publications:

1. Guo, He, et al. "Ternary MoSe_2xTe_2−2x alloy with tunable band gap for electronic and optoelectronic transistors." Nanotechnology 2020, 31, 345704

2. Rehman, Zia Ur, et al. "Band structure tailoring in ZrSe₂ single crystal via trace rhenium intercalation." Applied Physics Letters 2019, 115, 213102

3. Zhu, Wen, et al. "Exfoliation of ultrathin FePS₃ layers as a promising electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction." Chemical Communications 2018, 54(35): 4481-4484.

4. Gan, Wei, et al. "A Ternary Alloy Substrate to Synthesize Monolayer Graphene with Liquid Carbon Precursor." ACS Nano 2017,11, 1371-1379.