MSE Colloquium: Dr. Mingzhao Liu, Structural Engineering and Optimization for Solar Fuel Harvesting Photoelectrodes

Abstract

Driven by a strong desire for clean and renewable fuel, efficient methods for solar-to-fuel conversion have been sought after for a long time. Solar water splitting within a photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell, also known as artificial photosynthesis, is one of the most promising methods. To date the key problem remains how to maximize the conversion efficiency using low-cost, earth abundant materials. In this talk I will discuss multicomponent metal oxide photoelectrodes, in which one can independently optimize the photon absorption, charge carrier transport, and interfacial carrier transfer processes for high efficiency water splitting. I will demonstrate that, through the development of photoelectrodes of highly crystalline metal oxides such as bismuth vanadate, zinc oxide, and iron oxide, we are able to study the materials’ intrinsic properties separately from the defect states. The talk will also cover our most recent results on the study of photocatalyst surface layers, through synchrotron X-ray techniques such as X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES). 

Bio

Dr. Mingzhao Liu received his bachelor degree from Peking University in 2002 and his doctoral degree from The University of Chicago in 2007, both in chemistry. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, he joined the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) of Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) as an Assistant Scientist in early 2012 and is promoted to Scientist in 2017. Since 2014 Dr. Liu has been appointed as an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering of Stony Brook University.