Title: Photocatalysis and Energy Storage for Environmental Remediation
Time: 10:00 to 11:30, Monday, February.26, 2024
Place: F207, School of Mechanical Engineering
Host: ZHAO Changying, Professor (Institute of Engineering Thermophysics)

Biography
Dr Xianfeng Fan is a professor in School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Professor Fan has been working on energy storage, CO2 capture using solid adsorbents and solvents, reaction engineering, photocatalysis for environmental remediation, particulate materials processing through interdisciplinary approaches, multiphase flow in porous materials, pore wetting. He is the Editor-in Chief for Clean Energy Technology and Application, and for Journal of Modern Green Energy, and a member of Scientific Council of the UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre. Professor Fan received the British Foundrymen Award from the Institute of British Foundrymen in 2009, and 3 awards from Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China, and China Nonferrous Metals Industry Corporation. Professor Fan has received about £7.5 million research grants from British Research Councils, EU and industries.

Abstract
In this talk, I will briefly introduce our recent research work on photocatalytic CO2 reduction through the plasmon-thermo coupling based on Au/TiO2-x, water promoted photocatalytic Cβ-O bonds hydrogenolysis in lignin model compounds and lignin biomass conversion to aromatic monomers, and the effect of ionic radius and valence state of alkali and alkaline earth metals on promoting the catalytic performance of La2O3 catalysts for glycerol carbonate production. In photocatalytic CO2 reduction with H2O through plasmon-thermo coupling on Au/TiO2-x, the high selectivity towards C2H6 is explained by the slightly positive-charged Au in Au/TiO2-x under plasmonic excitation and the enhanced *CO stability. For energy storage, we proposed an enhanced two-stage water adsorption process for the development of salt porous composites for advanced thermochemical energy storage.