On the morning of July 5, invited by Distinguished Professor Yixin Zhao and Assistant Professor Yuetian Chen, Professor Miao Zhong from Nanjing University gave an insightful academic talk entitled “Electro/Photocatalytic for High-value Conversion of Small Molecules such as CO₂” to the faculty and students of Shanghai Jiao Tong University at the 149th Environmental Forum.

In this presentation, Prof. Miao Zhong opened with the research idea on meeting the industrial-scale requirement on the stability of electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction and introduced the development on the synthesis of high-value energy-storage chemicals, such as ethylene and formic acid, respectively via Cu-Al alloy catalysts and Bi-Sn catalysts. Focusing on investigating the mechanism of efficient CO₂ catalytic reduction and the surface/interface process, his team combined multiple spectroscopic in-situ electrochemical characterization, machine learning and theoretical computational methods to clarify the conformational relationship between the atomic structure of the catalyst sites, the local electronic states, and the reaction selectivity and activity. The dynamic evolution of the key intermediates in the reaction process is thus revealed. They also utilized mobile phase reactor to explore the regulation mechanism of catalytic sites, surface interfaces, micro-environment, and other factors on reaction kinetics. Prof. Zhong's talk on the progress in electro/photocatalytic CO₂ reduction to high-value chemicals provides rationale for better understanding not only the catalytic surficial/interfacial process, but also clean energy-driven resourceful conversion of small molecules, which is crucial for achieving green chemistry processing.