Guest Seminar - Advanced Functional Materials for Clean Energy: Bridging Innovation and Net-Zero Sustainability
Supporting the below United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:支持以下聯合國可持續發展目標：支持以下联合国可持续发展目标：
Achieving carbon neutrality requires transformative advances in materials that enable efficient clean energy conversion, storage, and utilization. This presentation highlights recent progress on various promising materials such as atomically precise noble metal nanoclusters (NMNCs), emerging inorganic hybrid materials, and two-dimensional (2D) materials etc for sustainable energy applications. We discuss the controlled and gram-scale synthesis of mono- and bimetallic nanoclusters and their structure-dependent electrocatalytic performance in water splitting, CO₂ conversion into value-added fuels and chemicals, and green hydrogen and ammonia production. Advances in thermally stable electrolytes and electrode materials for next-generation energy storage systems will also be presented. Finally, current challenges and future opportunities in designing advanced functional materials for accelerating the transition toward carbon-neutral energy systems will be outlined.
Dr. Ahsan completed his PhD from Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, South Korea in 2008. Later he moved to Toyama University, Toyama, Japan for VBL post-doctoral fellowship. He completed his post-doctoral fellowship in year 2010. Dr. Ahsan joined Chemistry and CENT in KFUPM in March 2010. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2016. He moved to Khalifa University in 2019 August. He became full Professor in 2026. He has been visiting faculty in Tokyo University, Nagoya University Japan and EPFL, Switzerland CALTECH and presently CAS (SIAT). He presented more than 80 papers in international conferences and published more than 155 papers in peer reviewed international journals. He is editor of “Metal Chalcogenide Nanostructures for Renewable Energy Materials” book published by Wiley. He also contributed in 7 book chapters and filed 6 patents as co-inventor in USPTO. His research is focused on new materials development for clean energy conversion and storage applications. Dr. Ahsan remained subject editor for International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2017-2020), External Editor of Communications Engineering (NPG: Clean Energy Materials Section), and EBM for Ultrasonics Sonochemistry & Materials Research Bulletin and Nano Research Energy. He is Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and Member of Prestigious Mohammed Bin Rashid Academy of Science (MBRAS).