Future research: Realizing the untapped potential of solar-driven catalysis
My future lab will develop innovative solar-driven processes to generate sustainable fuels and chemicals. Chemicals and fuels production using thermal processes are responsible for a significant fraction of greenhouse gas emissions. Achieving carbon neutrality necessitates practical solutions to change how we make fuels and chemicals today and innovations towards new ways of performing these processes. In the short term, we need to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources to provide thermal heat to run chemical reactions and improve photocatalytic and electrocatalytic conversion efficiency. In the long term, through light-driven control of catalytically active sites and reaction intermediates, we can achieve higher selectivity of desired products, unattainable in traditional thermocatalytic and electrocatalytic approaches. My lab will develop solar-driven devices through catalyst synthesis and reactor engineering. In terms of catalyst synthesis, we will design catalytic materials to convert renewable feedstocks with high activity and selectivity to desired products. In terms of reactor engineering, we will develop devices that derive thermal heat from unconcentrated sunlight.
Current research
Developing a tandem photoelectrochemical/photothermal system to convert CO2 into liquid fuels
Difficult-to-electrify areas, such as aviation, will continue relying on hydrocarbon fuels. In the Liquid Sunlight Alliance DOE Energy Hub, we have developed a tandem photoelectrochemical/photothermal system to convert CO2, water, and sunlight into liquid fuels. In the first step, inside a photoelectrochemical cell, CO2 reduces to ethylene. Here, we focus on a catalyst design to enhance the formation of ethylene and suppress the generation of unwanted products. In the second step, ethylene oligomerizes into higher hydrocarbons inside a photothermal reactor integrated with a selective solar absorber. The solar absorber converts sunlight into thermal heat required for this reaction.
Functionalizing semiconductors with molecular coatings to control selectivity of CO2 reduction processes
Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in aqueous electrolytes presents a selectivity challenge for the CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR). I fabricate metal/semiconductor photocathodes and functionalize them with molecular additives to suppress HER and increase the formation of CO2RR products.
PhD research
Elucidating structure-property relationships in heterogeneous catalysts using colloidally-synthesized metal nanoparticles and X-ray absorption spectroscopy
My PhD work focused on developing novel materials for therm-catalytic applications. By synthesizing catalysts with well-defined properties (size, shape, and composition) and tracking their dynamic nature using X-ray absorption, I studied how a property of a catalyst affects its performance. I then used this knowledge to develop more efficient catalysts for CO2 conversion and automotive exhaust emission control.
