Haimei Zheng
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Chemistry
Turning carbon dioxide into fuels and useful chemicals requires catalysts, materials that speed up the reaction. Copper-based catalysts containing a second metal are promising for this, but they do not stay still during use: their surfaces rearrange and drift away from the structure they started with.
- Fields
Chemistry
Materials Science
Physics
- Topics
CO2 reduction
electrocatalysis
copper nanocatalysts
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2028
What they work on
- Fabricate electrochemical liquid cells with precisely controlled electrode potentials that allow high-resolution, real-time transmission electron microscope imaging of catalysts during carbon dioxide reduction.
- Capture atomic and morphological transformations of well-defined copper-metal bimetallic nanocatalysts, such as copper-palladium and copper-silver, with different structural configurations during the carbon dioxide reduction reaction.
- Resolve the atomic structure and chemical bonding of reaction intermediates using low-dose cryogenic electron microscopy imaging and spectroscopy, and track oxidation state changes across catalyst ensembles with operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy.
- Correlate observed surface restructuring with catalytic activity and product selectivity by combining electrochemical performance testing with theoretical modeling through collaborations.
More about the research
Because those changes govern how well a catalyst works and how long it lasts, this project sets out to watch the rearrangement happen atom by atom while the reaction is running.
Why it matters
Converting carbon dioxide into fuels and chemicals depends on catalysts that are efficient, durable, and selective for the desired product. By revealing how copper-based bimetallic catalysts restructure while working, this research could guide the rational design of longer-lasting, more selective catalysts for energy applications.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
David Flaherty
Georgia Institute of Technology, GA·Chemistry
Synthesize gold-rich alloy nanoparticles containing palladium, platinum or rhodium at diameters of about 1–2, 6 and 10 nm, and track how gas adsorption and reactions restructure them over extended periods.
Vignesh Sundaresan
University of Mississippi, MS·Chemistry·Early-career
Fabricate monolithic nanopore electrode arrays with precisely defined pore size and interconnectivity to test how nanoscale confinement and mass transport govern the efficiency and product selectivity of hydrogen evolution and carbon dioxide reduction.
Phillip Christopher
University of California-Santa Barbara, CA·Chemistry
Determine the experimental conditions under which individual adsorbed molecules on metal nanoparticle surfaces can be sensed by in situ atomic resolution transmission electron microscopy using newly developed high-sensitivity electron detectors.
The school
University of California-Berkeley: 46 labs on PI Pages, $1.1B a year on research, 825 research doctorates a year.
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