On April 19, 2024, Chair Professor, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Professor Jinwoo Lee, Deputy Editor of Chemical Engineering Journal, was invited to the School of Materials Science and Engineering to give a lecture on Direct Access to Functional Porous Materials for Energy. Conversion and Storage: Electrocatalysts in Porous Architectures Academic report, the report was chaired by Professor Huang Minghua, Director of the Department of Polymer Materials.
Prof. Jinwoo Lee presented his team's recent work on the synthesis of porous materials for energy conversion and storage applications, single-atom catalysts for fuel cells and water decomposition reactions, and their applications in lithium-sulfur batteries. A new method for controlling multi-scale porous inorganic nanostructures using blends of block copolymers and homopolymers is first described, which is simple and effective, allowing precise control of pore structure and size, particle shape, particle size, and chemical composition (including metal oxides, metal nitrides, and conductive carbon). On this basis, Professor Jinwoo Lee's team further integrated the single atomic site into the porous material, and systematically studied a series of feasible strategies to optimize and adjust the kinetic activity of Fe-N4 sites, effectively improving the catalytic activity of the catalyst in catalyzing HOR, ORR and other reactions. At the same time, they applied a single atom catalyst to lithium-sulfur batteries, and synthesized iron-nitrogen co-doped carbon microspheres (Fe-N-C) with ultra-high pore volume as sulfur carriers, which solved the problem of performance attenuation caused by multi-lithium sulfide shuttle. In addition, Professor Jinwoo Lee's team has also developed porous materials with multistage pore structures and used them for high-sulfur loads and functional membranes in Li-S batteries.
The report aroused strong interest of teachers and students present, many teachers and students actively asked questions on the preparation and application of functional porous carbon materials, and carried out interactive exchanges, and the atmosphere was very warm. This lecture is one of the series of lectures of Ocean University of China, sponsored by the Graduate School of the University and undertaken by the School of Materials Science and Engineering.
Text/Photo: Qiu Shuai
