(2jg) Hybrid Materials for Clean Energy and Sustainability

Research Interests – In this poster, I will present an overview of my research during my Ph.D and current post doc times, where I focused on developing hybrid materials for clean energy generation and carbon dioxide capture from the air. In my Ph. D research, I identified that the poor stability of halide perovskites photovoltaics presents as the major bottleneck, and I utilized my chemistry and material engineer knowledges to understand the structure-property relationship with Synchrotron X-ray scattering characterization tools. I next build a more robust materials, namely 2D perovskites to further enhance the device performance and operational stability. In my post doc research, I will share how I designed the direct air capture materials and integrated them into a passive device for automatic CO₂ capture with minimized human involvement. I will also present my proposed future research topics. They are: (1) solar-driven catalysis for clean energy generation, (2) spin-polarize materials for artificial photosynthesis and (3) optoelectronics synapse for neuromorphic computing applications.

Teaching Interests – I would be eager to teach any of the core undergraduate or graduate courses in chemical engineering and materials science. That said, I would be especially interested in teaching undergraduate organic, inorganic, and general chemistry classes, I plan to demonstrate the interdisciplinary nature of modern chemistry using examples from the scientific literature and current research focus. For example, students will learn how the semiconductor and device are manufactured, the chemistry behind the battery technology in the newest electric vehicles, how solar panel absorbs sunlight and generate electricity, and what types of analytical and metrology instruments to characterize the material and device properties. I provide many examples that will demonstrate how multidisciplinary fields like chemistry, chemical engineering and material science can work in tandem to address serious questions. In order to reinforce these points, as well as to emphasize safety and technique, experimental demonstrations will be used liberally throughout the course. Finally, coursework will emphasize critical thinking and identify the problem and problem-solving skills that students equip themselves for unknown challenges in their future careers both in academics and industry.