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Abstract:
　　Electrocatalysis of small molecules is of great importance in energy conversion and storage devices. Electrode materials play the critical role in determining the efficiency and the cost of these devices. Great effort has been given in recent years to exploring the new and efficient electrode materials. This presentation will introduce our recent studies and progress on metal and oxide electrode materials. The topics include bimetallic nanoparticles, oxides, surface segregation, electrolyte effect, thermodynamics of materials, and etc.For example, bimetallic nanoparticles with controlled size, composition, and structure are very interesting for energy conversion and storage reactions. The ability to direct bimetallic nanoparticle catalysts to express desirable surface morphology and composition is a crucial step toward effective heterogeneous catalysis applications. Many developments on surface morphology control of nanomaterials have been reported, including high frequency electrodeposition, multi-step growth, preferential faceting, and temperature controlled synthesis. Surface composition, on the other hand, has been challenging to manipulate, especially for electrocatalysis, where precise control over surface composition is essential.

Biosketch：
　　Dr. Zhichuan XU received his PhD degree at 2008 and B.S. degree at 2002 in Chemistry from Lanzhou University, China. His PhD training was received in Lanzhou University (2002-2004), Institute of Physics, CAS (2004-2005), and Brown University (2005-2007). Since 2007, he worked in State University of New York at Binghamton as a Research Associate and from 2009 he worked in Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Postdoctoral Researcher. In Oct. 2012, Dr. Xu joined the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University as an assistant professor. Dr. Xu's research interests include electrochemistry fundamentals, catalysis, energy storage, sensors, and etc.