Surface Reconstruction / Phase Transition in Catalysis

Hui Pan

Institute of Applied Physics and Materials Engineering, University of Macau

Abstract: Catalysis is ubiquitous in chemical industry of all kinds, where the catalysts play critical roles for the chemical reaction rate and product selectivity. In this talk, we are going to explore the roles of surface reconstruction and phase transition in the chemical reactions with a focus on the electrolysis of water, CO2 reduction and nitrate reduction. For the electrolysis of water, we found that crystalline oxide transferred to amorphous in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), and metal hydroxides/oxyhydroxides were formed on the surface of catalyst in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). For the nitrate reduction to ammonia, we noticed that the surface reconstruction strongly depended on the working condition and pre-catalyst. For the CO2 reduction, the surface reconstruction is greatly affected by the electrolyte, and may be beneficial or harmful to the reaction. We conclude that the pre-catalysts need to be well designed for achieving the high performance. The theoretical study is necessary to reveal the reconstruction process.

Bio: 

Dr. Hui Pan is a professor in the Institute of Applied Physics and Materials Engineering at the University of Macau. He got his PhD degree in Physics from the National University of Singapore in 2006. From 2006 to 2013, he worked at National University of Singapore as a Research Fellow, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA) as a Postdoctoral Fellow, and Institute of High Performance Computing (Singapore) as a Senior Scientist, respectively. He joined the University of Macau as an assistant professor in 2013. In his research, a combined computational and experimental method is used to design and fabricate novel nanomaterials for applications in energy conversion and storage (such as electro-/photo-catalysis, water splitting, and NO_x/CO₂ reduction), electronic devices, and spintronics. He has published more than 280 papers in international peer-reviewed journals. The total citation is ~ 17000. Additionally, he is the author of 5 book chapters and the inventor of 4 USA and 12 China patents. His present h-index is 69.