Detail:

Abstract:
　　The photo- and electro-catalysts play a critical role in clean energy generation and conversion technologies. Although the precious metal-based materials are widely recognized as superior catalysts for energy applications, their large-scale commercial use has been hindered by their expensive and scarcity nature. The development of high performance, plentiful and cheap nonprecious-metal catalysts is therefore vital for the commercial viability of clean energy future. Unfortunately, the most of nonprecious metal materials in their pristine forms possess little or no catalytic activity. As such, the unlocking the catalytic potential of nonprecious metal materials has become the most important scientific task of the research field, but highly challenging.
　　This presentation intends to report three broadly applicable approaches to unlock the catalytic activities of transition metal oxides and graphitic carbon materials, including surface atomistic manipulation, crystal facet control and heteroatom doping. A number of examples from our recent investigations will be used to demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of such approaches.

Biosketch：
　　Prof. Zhao obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees at North-eastern University in 1987 and 1994, respectively, and completed his Ph.D. at University of Wollongong in 1994. He joined Griffith University, Australia as Lecturer in 1997. He was promoted to a Professor and Chair of Griffith Commercialisation Laboratory in 2005, and Chair Professor in 2010. Prof. Zhao Zhang’s current research interests focus on environmental and energy nanomaterials, theoretical & applied electrochemistry, photocatalysis & photoelectrocatalysis, analytical chemistry and field-based water quality monitoring techniques. He has published 300 papers and 50 worldwide patents. Over $12 million research funds have been awarded over the past 5 years by various governmental, industrial and commercial funding bodies. The major grants include: Australia Research Council (ARC) Discovery Projects, ARC-Linkage Projects, ARC LIEF Projects, CRC for Water Quality and Treatment Project, National Flagship Project, Urban Water Security Research Alliance Project, Commercial Ready Projects and Venture Capital Funds.