Research
Organic Functional Materials
Our lab is dedicated to organic functional materials because they provide unparalleled opportunities for precise molecular design. One of the most compelling advantages of organic materials is their ability to be fine-tuned at the molecular level, enabling us to customize their properties for specific applications. By carefully selecting and engineering their structures and chemical connections, we can create materials with an impressive array of functionalities. These include not only catalytic activity and porosity, but also enhanced light-harvesting capabilities and conductivity.
We are particularly focused on utilizing organic materials for energy conversion applications, such as electrochemical CO2 reduction—converting greenhouse gases into valuable chemical feedstock using electricity—and solar-to-chemical conversion through photoelectrocatalysis or photocatalysis. Since efficient charge carrier transport is critical to achieving high performance in these processes, one of our primary goals is to enhance conductivity and charge carrier mobility. We focus on molecular engineering and refining the processing methodologies of these materials, ensuring they are optimized for maximum efficiency in energy conversion applications.
Catalytic Molecules
Conductive Polymers
Covalent Organic Frameworks
Electrochemical CO2 Reduction
Electrochemical CO2 reduction offers a promising industrial solution for converting carbon dioxide (CO2) into value-added chemicals and fuels, such as carbon monoxide (CO), methanol, ethylene, and ethanol, presenting a significant opportunity in the global effort to reduce CO2 emissions and combat climate change. Molecular catalysts have shown great potential in electrochemical CO2 reduction, demonstrating selectivity for CO production and more recently, the ability to produce methanol.
Key challenges in this field includes the development of catalysts capable of efficiently facilitating multi-electron transfer reactions, improving catalyst site isolation and accessibility to enhance turnover frequency, and achieving higher current densities and stability through both catalyst design and electrolyzer engineering. Our lab is dedicated to designing and synthesizing novel molecular catalysts and integrating them into various types of electrolyzers. We are committed to discovering highly efficient molecules that could pave the way for industrial-scale applications.
H-cell
Flow cell
Schematic illustration of different typical CO2 electrolyzers
Solar-to-Chemical Conversion
One of the most compelling features of organic functional materials, particularly organic semiconductors, is their ability to harvest solar energy and generate charges. These charges can be efficiently converted into electricity, as showcased by the remarkable success of organic solar cells. Beyond electricity generation, they can also be harnessed to drive catalytic reactions, enabling the production of fuels or valuable chemicals directly from sunlight. By engineering the chemical structures and nanostructures of these materials to combine both light-harvesting and catalytic abilities—a unique property of organic materials—organic functional materials are poised to play a pivotal role in advancing sustainable energy solutions.
Our goal is to introduce innovative organic materials with unique properties or the ability to drive valuable reactions into the solar-to-chemical platform. By exploring new material designs, we aim to enhance the efficiency of solar-driven processes and unlock new pathways for converting sunlight into valuable chemicals and fuels, ultimately contributing to the development of more sustainable and scalable energy solutions.
