November 29 - December 2, 2021
Boston, Massachusetts
December 6 - 8, 2021 (Virtual)
2021 MRS Fall Meeting

Symposium EN11-Electrocatalytic Materials to Sustainably Convert Atmospheric C, H, O and N into Fuels and Chemicals

Converting atmospheric molecules, including H2O, CO2, N2, O2, etc., into valuable chemicals or fuels driven by renewable electricity or sunlight represents a green and sustainable route compared to traditional chemical engineering processes. Those molecules have C, H, O, N as the most basic elements, which can be reconstructed to a variety of commodity chemicals. As the chemical conversions require different electrocatalysts to improve the energy efficiencies and production rates, rational designs of catalytic materials and deep understandings or reaction mechanisms therefore play the central role in driving the development of this field. This proposed symposium will mainly focus on C, H, O, N elements’ cycles driven by electrochemical and photoelectrochemical catalysis, including 1) CO2 conversion and fuel molecule oxidation; 2) water splitting and fuel cell electrocatalysis; 3) H2O2 electrolysis; 4) N2 reduction and ammonia oxidation; and 5) catalyst/bacteria nexus. Each topic will include catalytic materials design, characterizations, and experimental/theoretical reaction mechanism studies.

Topics will include:

  • Water splitting and fuel cell catalysis
  • Electrochemical and photoelectrochemical ammonia synthesis and oxidation
  • Catalyst/bacteria nexus
  • Theoretical study of reaction mechanisms in electrocatalysis

Invited Speakers:

  • Caroline Ajo-Franklin (Rice University, USA)
  • Elizabeth Biddinger (The City College of New York, USA)
  • Rafaella Buonsanti (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland)
  • Yi Cui (Stanford University, USA)
  • Marta Hatzell (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
  • Yu Huang (University of California, Los Angeles, USA)
  • Feng Jiao (University of Delaware, USA)
  • Paul Kenis (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)
  • Nikolay Kornienko (Université de Montréal, Canada)
  • Nuria Lopez (Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia, Spain)
  • Shelley Minteer (The University of Utah, USA)
  • Carlos Morales-Guio (University of California, Los Angeles, USA)
  • Daniel Nocera (Harvard University, USA)
  • Camille Petit (Imperial College London, United Kingdom)
  • Ted Sargent (University of Toronto, Canada)
  • Yang Shao-Horn (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
  • Ifan Stephens (Imperial College London, United Kingdom)
  • Jin Suntivich (Cornell University, USA)
  • Hailiang Wang (Yale University, USA)
  • Gang Wu (University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, USA)
  • Peidong Yang (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
  • Jenny Zhang (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)

Symposium Organizers

Haotian Wang
Rice University
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
USA

Chong Liu
The University of Chicago
Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering
USA

Samira Siahrostami
University of Calgary
Canada

Wilson Smith
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
USA

Topics

abundant carbon dioxide durability efficiency graphene in situ nanoscale oxide renewable