Fundamental understanding on the solid/liquid interface of photocatalysis

Fundamental Understanding on the Solid/Liquid Interface of Photocatalysis

Background

We investigate the fundamental understanding of photo-driven, multi-reaction processes at solid–liquid interfaces to accelerate the development of high-performance photocatalytic systems. These processes occur at the nanoscale and span multiple time scales, involving photon absorption, charge transport and separation, charge transfer, surface reactions, and mass transport.

Research Direction

Our research focuses on elucidating these coupled photophysical and photochemical processes at the interface, which hosts both reductive and oxidative half-reactions of a nanoscale electrochemical cell. Instead of relying on trial and error, we leverage our understanding of these interfacial processes to design efficient charge separation in our cascade catalysis.

To achieve this goal, we have been working on the following directions:

Charge-Accumulation-Driven Charge Separation in Photocatalysis
Mutually-Dependent Kinetics and Energetics of Photocatalysis
Surface Potential Probing and Energetics Modeling
Digital Twin for Photocatalyst/Liquid Interfaces Characterization

1. Charge-Accumulation-Driven Charge Separation in Photocatalysis

We introduce the concept of “charge accumulation” at semiconductors to study the charge separation processes in the photocatalysis. The accumulation is contributed by asymmetric energetics and asymmetric kinetics.