(2gw) Carbon Capture and Organic Transformations Enabled By Photochemical and Electrochemical Methods for Sustainability

Mitigation of climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions has become one of the greatest challenges of our time. Combustion of coal and fossil fuels has led to anthropogenic CO₂ emissions of >37 GT/yr and has resulted in high CO₂ levels in the atmosphere (>414 ppm as of 2021). Therefore, there is a broad and emerging need for efficient CO₂ capture, storage, and utilization technologies. Beyond that, there is a carbon footprint associated with every chemical we use. As a result, the synthesis of chemicals and materials in a sustainable manner that eliminates the carbon footprint should be sought.

My future research program aims to develop self-sustainable carbon capture and utilization systems and syntheses of chemicals and materials in a sustainable way using renewable electricity. In particular, my lab will be interested in exploring the following themes:

(1) Direct use of solar energies for carbon capture from the air utilizing molecular photoswitches and/or photoacids that capture and release CO­₂ selectively by the light.

(2) Integration of electrochemical carbon capture and conversion to fuels and value-added chemicals using redox-active ligands.

(3) Electrochemical organic transformations in water for the green and sustainable synthesis of chemicals and materials.

I earned my PhD in Chemistry with Timothy F. Jamison at MIT. While there, I explored synthetic methodologies using photoredox catalysis in a multi-phasic continuous flow system for the novel strategies to use CO₂. I pioneered a highly reducing photoredox catalysis to effectively produce CO₂ radical anion, which is hard to obtain by traditional methods, to couple with amine to yield α-amino acids. In addition, CO₂ radical anion strategy was effective to obtain β-selective hydrocarboxylation of styrenes. Furthermore, aliphatic ketyl radicals were also obtained and coupled with styrenes under the similar conditions. This work produced a series of publications, including one in Nature Chemistry and JACS both highlighted by Synfacts. During graduate studies, I had received Korean government fellowship for two years and Amgen fellowship for one year.

Subsequently, in order to study electrochemical systems, I joined the lab of T. Alan Hatton in Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT as a postdoctoral associate. My postdoctoral research focuses on the development of electrochemical reversible CO₂separation processes, particularly from ambient air (414 ppm CO₂ in the presence of oxygen and water). I enabled electrochemically mediated direct air capture of CO₂ in aqueous solutions by designing and characterizing a novel redox-active amine. This work produced publication in JACS selected as a supplementary journal cover and one international patent has been filed. In addition, I developed a platform to engage hydrophobic organic redox-active compounds to the aqueous electrochemical system and showcased one capturing CO₂ from non-pretreated air in continuous flow. I envision that this method will open up the possibility to search for myriad of hydrophobic redox-active compounds (e.g., phenazine and phenothiazine derivatives) in water via proton coupled electron transfer in redox systems. The manuscript is currently under review and a US provisional patent has been filed. All these efforts led me to contribute to nine peer-reviewed journal publications (six of them as a first-author), one first-authored review paper, and one book chapter.

Teaching interests

As a future faculty member, I aim to support growth and achievement of students through education, particularly by integrating teaching and research. As a teaching assistant, I have taught several experimental chemistry classes. To build upon my teaching experiences, I completed the Kaufman Teaching Certificate Program at MIT which offers practice-based workshops intended for developing evidence-based teaching skills.

My multi-disciplinary training in pharmacy, chemistry, and chemical engineering enables me to teach a broad range of topics, as needed. To expand my range of teaching topics, I took classes “Electrical Energy Systems” and “Transport Processes” after transitioning to the Department of Chemical Engineering for my postdoctoral research. I am interested in teaching chemical engineering undergraduate or graduate core courses (such as transport processes, chemical kinetics, separation processes, and reactor/reaction engineering), specialized courses (drug development, pharmaceutical engineering, electrochemical energy systems, polymer science, and membrane separations) and experimental courses (environmental or chemical engineering unit operations).

During my Ph.D. program, I had the experience of starting new classes as a TA. I would like to design a new class about redox reaction engineering courses that covers both photochemical and electrochemical processes stemming from my future research at your institution.

Representative publications:

1. Seo, H.; Hatton, T. A. Electrochemical direct air capture of CO₂ using neutral red as reversible redox-active material manuscript under review
2. Seo, H.; Rahimi, M.; Hatton, T. A. Electrochemical Capture and Release of CO₂ with a Redox Active Amine J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144, 5, 2164-2170 [Supplementary Cover Art]
3. Seo, H.; Jamison, T. F. Catalytic Generation and Use of Ketyl Radical from Unactivated Aliphatic Carbonyl Compounds Org. Lett. 2019, 21, 24, 10159-10163
4. Seo, H.; Liu, A.; Jamison, T. F. Direct β-Selective Hydrocarboxylation of Styrenes with CO₂ Enabled by Continuous Flow Photoredox Catalysis J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 13969-13972 [highlighted by Synfacts]
5. Seo, H.; Katcher, M. H.; Jamison, T. F. Photoredox Activation of Carbon Dioxide for Amino Acid Synthesis in Continuous Flow Nature Chemistry 2017, 9, 453-456 [highlighted by Synfacts] [highlighted by ChemSusChem]

Contact Information

Hyowon Seo

Hatton Group, Chemical Engineering

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139

hseo@mit.edu (617-620-0836)