| A High-Performance Ruddlesden-Popper Perovskite for Bifunctional Oxygen Electrocatalysis University of Alberta | Publication | 2020-11-04 | Subiao Liu, "Chong Sun", "Jian Chen", Jing Xiao, Luo, J. |
| Accelerating photoelectric CO2 conversion with a photothermal wavelength-dependent plasmonic local field University of Alberta | Publication | 2021-07-14 | Chenyu Xu, "Xuhan Zhang", Mengnan Zhu, "Li Zhang", Pengfei Sui, "Renfei Feng", "Yanwei Zhang", Luo, J. |
| Bi2O3 Nanosheets Grown on Carbon Nanofiber with Inherent Hydrophobicity for High- Performance CO2 Electroreduction in a Wide Potential Window University of Alberta | Publication | 2021-10-21 | Shao-Qing Liu, "Ehsan Shahini", "Min-Rui Gao", "Lu Gong", Pengfei Sui, Tang, T., Zeng, H., Luo, J. |
| Directionally maximizing CO selectivity to near-unity over cupric oxide with indium species for electrochemical CO2 reduction University of Alberta | Publication | 2022-01-01 | Pengfei Sui, Subiao Liu, Chenyu Xu, Jing Xiao, "Nanqi Duan", "Renfei Feng", Luo, J. |
| Electrochemically reconstructed perovskite with cooperative catalytic sites for CO 2-to-formate conversionPerovskites are the promising catalysts for various reactions, yet their structure evolutions and the composition-function relation in the carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) are not fully explored. In this study, we report that the reconstructed BaBiO3 (BBO) perovskite is able to facilitate CO2-to-formate (FA) conversion by both A- (Ba) and B- (Bi) site elements through the cooperative but distinct catalytic mechanisms. Specifically, the electrochemical reductions of BBO trigger the complete rearrangement of atoms with rapid kinetics at catalytically relevant voltages, giving rise to electricity-induced Bi metallene (eBBO) that efficiently generates FA with high selectivity and partial current densities. Moreover, the reconstructed BBO simultaneously enables Ba2+ release to the electrolyte, and the time-resolved FTIR and in situ Raman analysis collectively reveal that the Ba2+ adsorption enables easier CO2 adsorption, thereby leading to enhanced CO2-to-FA conversion. This work is of direct significance in elucidating the cooperative catalysis between A- and B- site elements in perovskites for room-temperature CO2RR. University of Alberta | Publication | 2022-06-01 | Mengnan Zhu, Bo-Wen Zhang, Min-Rui Gao, Pengfei Sui, Chenyu Xu, Lu Gong, Zeng, H., Shankar, K., Bergens, S., Jing-Li Luo |
| Electronic Delocalization of Bismuth Oxide Induced by Sulfur Doping for Efficient CO2 Electroreduction to Formate University of Alberta | Publication | 2021-06-09 | Shao-Qing Liu, "Min-Rui Gao", "Ren-Fei Feng", "Lu Gong", Zeng, H., Luo, J. |
| Hexagonal Zn nanoplates enclosed by Zn(100) and Zn(002) facets for highly selective CO2 electroreduction to CO University of Alberta | Publication | 2020-07-15 | Jing Xiao, Minrui Gao, Subiao Liu, Luo, J. |
| Hierarchically Assembling Cobalt/Nickel Carbonate Hydroxide on Copper Nitride Nanowires for Highly Efficient Water Splitting University of Alberta | Publication | 2021-03-17 | Shao-Qing Liu, Minrui Gao, Subiao Liu, Luo, J. |
| In-situ generated hydroxides realize near-unity CO selectivity for electrochemical CO2 reduction University of Alberta | Publication | 2022-04-01 | Jing Xiao, Subiao Liu, Pengfei Sui, Xincheng (Alex) Hu, "Lu Gong", Zeng, H., Luo, J. |
| Interface-Induced Electrocatalytic Enhancement of CO2-to-Formate Conversion on Heterostructured Bismuth-Based Catalysts University of Alberta | Publication | 2021-11-16 | Pengfei Sui, Chenyu Xu, Mengnan Zhu, Subiao Liu, "Qingxia Liu", Luo, J. |
| Tuning local carbon active sites saturability of graphitic carbon nitride to boost CO2 electroreduction towards CH4 University of Alberta | Publication | 2020-04-17 | "Zhou Chen", Minrui Gao, "Ya-Qian Zhang", "Nanqi Duan", "Tingting Fan", Jing Xiao, Jiawei Zhang, "Yunyun Dong", "Jianhui Li", "Xiaodong Yi", Luo, J. |
| Understanding the light-induced oxygen vacancy in the photochemical conversionThe formation of light-induced oxygen vacancy (VO) is detected and confirmed on the surface of various metal-oxide-based semiconductors under mild reaction conditions with low cost energy source (sunlight). This self-structural transformation of the materials can bring about new characteristics and functionalities, which has inspired many researchers to explore the applications of light-induced VO in the photochemical conversion. In this perspective, generating and maintaining the light-induced VO are discussed based on some of the important work in the field of photochemical conversion. The effects and utilizations of the light-induced VO are revealed including the models proposed to explain mechanism. Then, the electric current measurements and key challenges of the light-induced VO are also summarized in a comprehensive introduction. Finally, some important aspects and questions in terms of the future research of light-induced VO are emphasized via discussing the potential contribution and development. And the schematic of future developments for light-induced VO is provided based on loop-locked materials design, light engineering and mechanism investigation. University of Alberta | Publication | 2023-01-27 | Chenyu Xu, Luo, J. |
| Unravelling Structure Sensitivity in CO2 Electroreduction to Near-Unity CO on Silver Nanocubes University of Alberta | Publication | 2020-02-05 | Subiao Liu, "Chong Sun", Jing Xiao, Luo, J. |
| 2021 Future Energy Systems Research Symposium digital poster competition | Award | 2021-09-24 | Mengnan Zhu |
| Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship | Award | 2021-09-01 | Pengfei Sui |
| Best Poster AwardJing Xiao presented “Efficient CO2 Electroreduction on Silver Sulfide Nanowires in Ionic Liquid,” at the International Conference on Electrochemical Energy Science and Technology, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, Aug. 13 - 17, 2018 and received "The Best Poster Award". University of Alberta | Award | 2018-08-13 | "Jing Xiao", "Subiao Liu", Luo, J. |
| Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students AbroadChinese Government Award for the students with exceptional performance in research field. | Award | 2021-12-01 | Shao-Qing Liu |
| FGSR Graduate Student Online Conference Award | Award | 2021-05-01 | Pengfei Sui |
| FGSR Graduate Student Online Conference Award | Award | 2021-05-01 | Shao-Qing Liu |
| Future Energy Systems Opportunity Award | Award | 2021-05-26 | Chenyu Xu |
| Alternative fuel cell technologies for cogenerating electrical power and syngas from greenhouse gases University of Alberta | Activity | 2018-05-08 | Meng Li, Bin Hua, Luo, J. |
| Charge-accumulation-induced mixed photocorrosion in the Z-scheme PEC system University of Alberta | Activity | 2020-11-23 | Chenyu Xu, Mengnan Zhu, Pengfei Sui, Bergens, S., Shankar, K., Luo, J. |
| Developing perovskite-based electrocatalysts for efficient energy storage and conversion University of Alberta | Activity | 2017-07-27 | Bin Hua, "Ya-Qian Zhang", Meng Li, Luo, J. |
| Efficient standalone solar fuels production for CO2 conversion driven by CuxO@rGOTo reduce CO2 and produce solar fuels, a standalone PEC system has been established by combining photoanode with photocathode. A stable BiVO4 photoanode has been constructed by sputtering. And a simple electrodeposition method is proposed to fabricate photocathode based on CuxO. A built-in electric field has been obtained by the p-n junction, which is formed between p-type Cu2O and n-type Cu-doped Cu2O. Graphene oxide (GO) and metal Mo layer has been added to improve the internal transfer and external transfer of energy carrier, respectively. Finally, an efficient photocurrent of more than 0.5 mA/cm2 has been achieved. H2, CO, HCOOH and CH4 could be produced with 0.165 mA/cm2. University of Alberta | Activity | 2019-10-24 | Chenyu Xu, Mengnan Zhu, "Pengfei Sui", Luo, J. |
| Electrochemically Dismantled Perovskite with Cooperative Catalysis for CO 2-to-Formate ConversionElectrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2RR) driven by sustainable energy resources holds great promise for realizing the zero net emission of CO2 by converting them to value-added fuels.1–4 For the past few years, substantial efforts have been devoted to boosting CO2RR using different nanostructured catalysts. However, the complicated synthesis procedures and low product yields are usually associated with many of these catalysts, which hinder their scalability. More importantly, many catalysts suffer from the low catalytic activities, high overpotentials, and unsatisfactory selectivity, which collectively impede the large-scale applications of CO2RR technique. In this study, we pursue initiating the CO2 conversion on perovskite-based catalysts BaBiO3 (BBO) to selectively produce formate (FA). The structural/phase evolution of BBO under cathodic potentials, the catalytic performances of electrochemical and photoelectrochemical reduction of CO2RR, and the effect of non-active A-site element (Ba) will be investigated in detail.
Herein, BBO perovskite is fabricated by annealing the sol-gel Ba2+/Bi3+ nitrate mixture at high temperatures. Extensive physical characterizations show that under negative potentials, BBO pre-catalysts undergo irreversible structural and phase transformations, giving rise to Bi metallene with atomic-scale thickness and enlarged surface area, as supported by X-ray diffraction analysis and transmission electron microscopy (Figure 1a, and 1b). Using the fully electrochemically reduced BBO, a near-unity selectivity towards formate (FA) can be achieved at the potential of – 1.2 V vs. RHE in 0.1M KHCO3 solution with the typical H-type electrochemical cell. By coupling the state-of-the-art BiVO3 photoanode to the BBO dark cathode, FA can be generated at a of 80.0 % at a cell voltage of 2.5 V in a PEC cell. Contrarily, only < 1.0 % can be detected at 2.5 V without solar irradiation. Meanwhile, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) analysis suggests that A-site elements (Ba2+) are simultaneously released from the BBO lattice and diffuse to the electrolyte as a result of the complete reduction of BBO. The effect of Ba2+ - containing electrolytes on the CO2RR product distributions have been studied, and the results show that Ba2+ can either facilitate or impede FA production depending on both the external potential and the concentration of Ba2+ (Figure 1c). Specifically, high Ba2+ concentration and more negative potentials (i.e., 25 mM Ba2+ and -1.1 - -1.3 V vs. RHE) tend to favor HER over CO2RR due to the formation of BaCO3 precipitates, whereas low Ba2+ concentrations and more positive potentials (i.e., 2.5 and 7.5 mM Ba2+ and -0.9 - -1.1 V vs. RHE) can significantly enhance the selectivity towards FA. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that suitable barium ion adsorption promotes CO2-to-FA conversion by regulating the adsorption strength of *OCHO and *HCOOH intermediates. Our study utilizes both A- and B- site elements in BBO to benefit CO2 conversion, which may be extended to other perovskite electrocatalysts for CO2RR. University of Alberta | Activity | 2021-10-01 | Mengnan Zhu, Bowen Zhang, Minrui Gao, Chenyu Xu, Pengfei Sui, Zeng, H., Shankar, K., Bergens, S., Luo, J. |
| Electronic Regulation of Bismuth Oxide Via Sulfur Doping for Efficient CO2 Electroreduction to Formate University of Alberta | Activity | 2021-10-13 | Shao-Qing Liu, Luo, J. |
| Enhanced CO2 Adsorption Capability for Highly Selective Electroreduction of CO2 to Formate University of Alberta | Activity | 2021-10-19 | Pengfei Sui, Minrui Gao, Chenyu Xu, Subiao Liu, Mengnan Zhu, Luo, J. |
| High performance nanoparticle-based alloy catalysts for efficient CO2 conversion University of Alberta | Activity | 2018-08-13 | Meng Li, Bin Hua, Luo, J. |
| Maximizing the Formate Formation of CO2 Electroreduction Via Boosting Charge Transfer Ability University of Alberta | Activity | 2022-06-01 | Pengfei Sui, Chenyu Xu, Mengnan Zhu, Subiao Liu, Luo, J. |
| Photoelectrochemical Reduction of CO2Poster presentation on "Photoelectrochemical Reduction of CO2" at the 2018 Future Energy System research symposium on March 14th, 2018. University of Alberta | Activity | 2018-03-14 | Sheng (Shawn) Nian Zhang, Meng Li, Shankar, K., Bergens, S., Luo, J. |
| Shape-Controlled Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO2 over Silver Nanostructures University of Alberta | Activity | 2018-08-13 | "Subiao Liu", Luo, J. |
| Shape-engineered CO2 electroreduction over silver nanostructures University of Alberta | Activity | 2018-09-30 | "Subiao Liu", Luo, J. |
| Smart Controls of Architecture and Composition toward High Performance Electrocatalysts for Energy Storage University of Alberta | Activity | 2017-10-13 | Bin Hua, "Ya-Qian Zhang", Meng Li, Luo, J. |
| Steering the selectivity of CuO to near unity of CO with in species for CO2 electroreduction University of Alberta | Activity | 2020-11-23 | Pengfei Sui, Subiao Liu, Chenyu Xu, Jing Xiao, "Renfei Feng", Luo, J. |
| Steering the Selectivity of CuO to Near-Unity of CO with Indium Species for CO2 Electroreduction University of Alberta | Activity | 2021-10-19 | Pengfei Sui, Subiao Liu, Chenyu Xu, Luo, J. |
| Switchable CO2 Electroreduction Induced by the Bismuth Moiety with Tunable Local Structures on Graphene University of Alberta | Activity | 2022-05-29 | Mengnan Zhu, Bowen Zhang, Shankar, K., Bergens, S., Luo, J. |
| Syngas Production via Photoelectrochemical Reduction of CO2 with H2OPoster presentation titled "Syngas Production via Photoelectrochemical Reduction of CO2 with H2O" at the 2018 FEGRS research symposium on July 4th, 2018. University of Alberta | Activity | 2018-07-04 | Sheng (Shawn) Nian Zhang, Meng Li, Shankar, K., Bergens, S., Luo, J. |
| Tunable Syngas Production via Photoelectrochemical Reduction of CO2 Using Cu2O-SnO2 Z-Scheme Photocatalyst University of Alberta | Activity | 2018-08-13 | Sheng (Shawn) Nian Zhang, Meng Li, Shankar, K., Bergens, S., Luo, J. |
| Investigation of Efficient Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 to CO over Zn- and Cd-based Catalysts | Publication | 2021-01-01 | Jing Xiao |
| Investigation of highly efficient Bismuth-based electrocatalysts for CO2 electroreduction to formate | Publication | 2023-03-01 | Shao-Qing Liu |
| Cost-Effective Catalysts for the Electrochemical and Photoelectrochemical Reduction of Carbon DioxideThe growing consumption of fossil resources has rapidly depleted fuel availability and increased CO2 emission, which presents two of the most prominent crises in the modern era. CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) at ambient conditions using electrochemical (EC) and photoelectrochemical (PEC) methods are promising ways to reducing CO2 emission while producing storable fuels and chemicals that can be later consumed on demand. To date, highly selective electrochemical conversion of CO2 to CO, an essential precursor in Fischer-Tropsch processes, require heavily on the use of precious metals while operating at a significant high overpotential. Photocathode-driven PEC conversion of CO2 can achieve one step conversion of solar energy to chemical energy, but issues such as toxicity, poor selectivity and stability, large external bias potential remain unresolved. On the other hand, photoanodes are well studied in water splitting researches, which can be integrated with CO2RR electrocatalysts in a photoanode-driven CO2 reduction system. In this thesis, a novel, simple, and low-cost Cu2O-SnO2 core-shell nanocrystal electrocatalyst was first designed. The electrocatalyst achieved over 90% Faradaic efficiency for CO2-to-CO conversion at overpotentials of 890 mV and 390 mV in 0.1 M KHCO3 and 0.5 M KHCO3, respectively, which are comparable to those achieved on the precious metals. To further reduce the cell overpotential, a photoanode-driven PEC system is demonstrated through combining Cu2O-SnO2 electrocatalyst as a dark cathode and an n-Si/Ni photoanode, achieving a 400-mV reduction in overpotential at 5 mA cm-2 when compared to an electrochemical system. The designed PEC cell obtained a photo-assisted efficiency ( | Publication | 2019-06-01 | Sheng (Shawn) Nian Zhang |
| A facile surface chemistry approach to bifunctional excellence for perovskite electrocatalysis University of Alberta | Publication | 2018-04-29 | Bin Hua, Meng Li, Luo, J. |
| A Rational Design of Cu2O-SnO2 Core-Shell Catalyst for Highly Selective CO2-to-CO Conversion University of Alberta | Publication | 2019-04-16 | Sheng (Shawn) Nian Zhang, Meng Li, Bin Hua, "Nanqi Duan", Shaochen Ding, Bergens, S., Shankar, K., Luo, J. |
| Activating p-Blocking Centers in Perovskite for Efficient Water Splitting University of Alberta | Publication | 2018-12-13 | Bin Hua, Meng Li, Wanying Pang, "Weiqiang Tang", "Shuangliang Zhao", Jin, Z., "Yimin Zeng", Babak Shalchi Amirkhiz, Luo, J. |
| Boosting the stability of perovskites with exsolved nanoparticles by B-site supplement mechanism University of Alberta | Publication | 2022-08-08 | Bowen Zhang, Mengnan Zhu, Minrui Gao, "Xiuan Xi", "Nanqi Duan", "Zhou Chen", "renfei feng", Zeng, H., Luo, J. |
| Carbon dioxide valorization via formate electrosynthesis in a wide potential window University of Alberta | Publication | 2022-05-20 | Pengfei Sui, Minrui Gao, Subiao Liu, Chenyu Xu, Mengnan Zhu, Luo, J. |
| Hot hole transfer from Ag nanoparticles to multiferroic YMn2O5 nanowires enables superior photocatalytic activity University of Alberta | Publication | 2022-01-01 | Kazi Alam, Sergey Gusarov, Mustafa Supur, Pawan Kumar, Alexander E Kobryn, Kai Cui, Richard L McCreery, Shankar, K. |
| Nanosecond Laser Confined Bismuth Moiety with Tunable Structures on Graphene for Carbon Dioxide Reduction University of Alberta | Publication | 2023-04-17 | Mengnan Zhu, "haoqing Jiang", Bowen Zhang, Minrui Gao, Pengfei Sui, "renfei feng", Shankar, K., Bergens, S., Gary J Cheng, Luo, J. |
| Silver sulfide anchored on reduced graphene oxide as a high –performance catalyst for CO2 electroreduction University of Alberta | Publication | 2019-04-23 | "Li Zeng", "Jun Shi", Luo, J., "Hanxin Chen" |
| Unlocking nanotubular bismuth oxyiodide toward carbon-neutral electrosynthesis University of Alberta | Publication | 2023-02-18 | Pengfei Sui, Minrui Gao, Mengnan Zhu, Chenyu Xu, Yicheng Wang, Subiao Liu, Luo, J. |
