On May 3rd, the journal Nature published the latest research findings of Professor Mai Liqiang’s team and its cooperators, an article entitled "Constrained C2 adsorbate orientation enables CO-to-acetate electroreduction". Professor Mai Liqiang, Professor Pang Yuanjie from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Professor E. H. Sargent from the University of Toronto are the corresponding authors, and Zhang Weiwei, a postdoctoral researcherfrom WUT is the co-author.

The goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality is not only the inherent requirement for sustainable and high-quality development in China, but also the inevitable choicefor the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind. It is of extremely strategic significance for the transition and storage of renewable energy and the mitigation of climate change to transform carbon dioxide into carbon-based fuel or chemicals with high added value in utilizing low-grade renewable energy and the method of catalyzing electrolysis with carbon dioxide.

Figure 1 Theoretical calculations

Figure 2 Structural characterization of Cu/Ag-DA nanoparticles under TEM

Figure 3 XAS analysis

Figure 4 CO electroreduction of Cu/Ag-DA materials at pressure

Liqiang Mai, Chief Professor, Ph.D. supervisor, and the Dean of the School of Materials Science and Engineering, is committed to the research on nanomaterials and devices for energy conversion and storage. Mai has proposed the conjecture of bicontinuous electron/ion transport, initiated a universal model of in-situ investigation of bicontinuous electron/ion transport with single nanowire devices, and advanced the theory of bicontinuous electron/ion transport that regulates the kinetics of electrochemical reactions. He has broken through the batch preparation technique of storage materials and devices in bicontinuous electron/ion transport structure and achieved the transformation and application of research results of materials and devices in bicontinuous electron/ion transport structure. Mai has published more than 500 SCI-indexed papers, cited over 50,000 times, including Nature (2), and Nature and Cellsub-journals(20) as first author or corresponding author, and Nature(1), Science(1), and Nature, Science, and Cell sub-journals(6) as co-author. He also obtains 138 authorized invention patents, 28 of which have been transferred or licensed. Mai has published a monograph and was invited to give 32 plenary lectures and keynote lectures at important conferences such as the annual meeting of the American Materials Society. Mai has undertaken over 30 national projects such as the National Key Scientific Research Instrument Project.

Written by: Chen Gang, Wang Xuanpeng

Rewritten by: Mei Mengqi

Edited by: Li Tiantian

Source: School of Materials Science and Engineering