Kai Han

Research: Electroreduction of CO₂ using metal oxide and metal alloy oxide catalysts

CO₂ emission has been identified as a major cause of global warming. Electrochemical conversion of CO₂ and H₂O into valuable fuels and chemicals using renewable electricity is a promising way to address the negative impact of CO₂ emission, and simultaneously store intermittent energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar. Cu-based catalysts are the most studied electrocatalysts for this process due to its ability to produce more desirable products such as ethylene[1,2]. However, it suffers from low selectivity. Other metal oxides such as ZnO_x and MnO_x are less studied but are likely to show some activity because they are reducible oxides and have relatively low CO binding energy[1]. Recent studies has shown that the addition of these metal oxides to CuO_x improves both the activity and selectivity for the gas phase conversion of CO₂ to C1-C4 products. Inspired by this, we aim to investigate supported ZnO_x and MnO_x nanoparticles as catalysts for electroreduction CO₂ and H₂O. The specific focus is on the development of novel approaches to prepare supported ZnOx and MnOx nanoparticles and investigating the impact of the physico-chemical properties of the support, and the particle sizes of the metal oxides catalysts on the activity and selectivity. Advanced characterization techniques (including XPS, SEM, EXAFS/XANES, etc.) will be used to evaluate the structural properties and of the catalysts and to obtain information about the reaction mechanisms. For the electrochemistry test, a traditional three-electrodes cell will be used (Fig. 1).

[1] K. P. Kuhl, T. H, E. R. Cave, D. N. Abram, J. Kibsgaard, T. F. Jaramillo. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 14107-14113.

[2] H. Jung, S. Y. Lee, C. W. Lee, M. K. Cho, D. H. Won, C. Kim, H. S. Oh, B. K. Min, Y. J. Hwang. J. Am. Chem. Soc., Article ASAP. (DOI: 10.1021/jacs.8b11237).

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C.V.

February 2019 – present
Postdoc researcher under the supervision of dr. Peter Ngene and Prof. dr. Petra de Jongh. Topic: Electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 with supported metal oxide nanoparticles

September 2014 – December 2018
PhD degree, University of Twente, the Netherlands
Thesis: Photocatalytic Overall Water Splitting Using Modified SrTiO₃

09/2011 – 06/2014
Master degree in Applied Chemistry, Dalian University of Technology, China
Thesis: Integrate organic complexes with CdTe quantum dots for photocatalytic H2 production

09/2007 – 06/2011
Bachelor degree in Environmental Engineering, Dezhou University, China