Public Research Seminar by Sustainable Energy and Environment Thrust, HKUST(GZ) - Semi-artificial Photosynthesis for Solar Reforming
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This presentation will showcase our recent advancements in the development of novel semiconductors and the construction of bio-hybrids for solar fuel production, employing photoelectrochemistry and photocatalyst approaches. Emerging semiconducting materials such as SrTiO₃, BiVO₄, CNX, CuInGaS₂, ZnFe₂O₄, CuFe₂O₄, -Fe₂O₃, and LaFeO₃ have been explored for direct solar H₂ production, CO₂ conversion, and waste reforming complemented by a set of spectroelectrochemistry such as intensity-modulated photocurrent/photovoltage spectroscopy (IMPS/IMVS), photoelectrochemical impedance spectroscopy (PEIS) and operando Raman/UV-Vis spectroscopy.[3–12] Our findings contribute to the ongoing efforts in addressing the challenges associated with the abiotic-biotic interface in the rational design of efficient and selective solar-driven chemical synthesis systems.
Dr. Yongpeng Liu is currently a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow (2024–2027) in Prof. Erwin Reisner's group at the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, where he is also the awardee of the Merit Award (2025), the Isaac Newton Trust Early Career Fellowship (2024), and the Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoc.Mobility Grant (2022–2023). As principal investigator, he has secured over £330,000 (~HK$3,420,000) in research funding. He earned his PhD degree with distinction in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) under the supervision of Prof. Kevin Sivula and Prof. Néstor Guijarro in 2021. Following this, he joined Prof. Ross Milton's group at the University of Geneva as a BNF Visiting Research Fellow (3-month). He received an MSc degree with distinction in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology from the University of Glasgow in 2016 and a BEng degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2015.
His research focuses on advancing a circular economy by integrating interdisciplinary technologies for sustainable solar-driven chemical synthesis using carbon dioxide and waste materials. He is also an expert in employing operando spectroelectrochemistry to investigate charge carrier dynamics at the semiconductor–liquid junction. He has published 38 peer-reviewed research articles, including 15 as the (co-)first author in Energy & Environmental Science, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie, ACS Energy Letters, Advanced Functional Materials, Chemical Science, and 4 as the corresponding author in Chemical Engineering Journal, JACS Au, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. He served as an early career editorial board member for Journal of Energy Chemistry, CleanMat, and EcoEnergy, and has been an independent reviewer for more than 20 scientific journals. His research has been presented at over 20 international conferences, receiving 7 awards for best oral or poster presentations.
For inquiries, please contact Miss Suggi WU (+86-20-88332966, suggilswu@hkust-gz.edu.cn)