Our Mission
Fossil fuels are a finite resource; moreover, their consumption releases CO2 into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Only when we learn how to capture and utilize CO2 from the atmosphere can we return to greenhouse gas equilibrium. In addition, CO2 is a versatile feed-stock for energy manufacturing, as it can be transformed into a variety of energy-dense carbon-based products.
In our research group we unite experimental and theoretical scientists to address the issues of energy consumption and CO2 conversion via a single unified goal that has been widely acknowledged as an international research priority:
The efficient and cost-effective conversion of renewable energy into stored chemical energy.
The Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction Reaction
(CO2RR) holds promise as a sustainable route for energy conversion by providing relatively high energy conversion efficiency. However, despite recent advances, the practical realization of this reaction still requires the development of catalysts that show high selectivity toward a single CO2RR product at low over-potentials while inhibiting the competing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Achieving this ambitious goal, requires a deep understanding of the catalytic mechanisms. In Catalytic and Functional Materials for Green Energy group we integrate two powerful techniques to achieve a deep understanding of the CO2RR mechanism:
- In-Operando Measurements
- Density Functional Theory (DFT) Computations and Machine Learning Assisted Materials Discovery
We utilize these molecular insights to design, synthesize and develop new electrocatalysts with superior catalytic activity and selectivity for CO2RR.
We started our Lab in the Department of Chemical Engineering at McGill University in January 2019.
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