Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering

Research Areas

Energy Nanomaterials & Devices

Research Interests

PHOTOELECTROCHEMICAL CELLS & PHOTOCATALYSTS FOR SOLAR FUELS
The light harvesting photochemical energy conversion including photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells and photocatalysts is the most promising solar energy storage system by producing the solar fuels such as hydrogen, methanol and carbon monoxide. We have focused on the outperforming light harvest, charge transport and charge transfer properties by tailoring the nanostructures/electronic energy states/surface catalytic kinetics simultaneously. Plasmonic metal nanostructures, heterojunction of metal oxides/nanocarbons, and various metal oxide nanostructures have been rationally designed and fabricated for the efficient energy conversions.

ELECTROCATALYSTS FOR WATER SPLITTING & CARBON CYCLE
For the sake of outstanding surface catalytic kinetics, our research interests also focus on the synthesis of heterojunction novel nanomaterials with rationally designed electronic structures or atomically modified surface properties. The electrochemical water splitting for hydrogen or hydrogen peroxide production and carbon cycle such as carbon dioxide reduction or C1 gas refinery are involved in our research scope.

ORGANIC-INORGANIC HYBRID SOLAR CELLS & OPTOELECTRONICS
Our research scope also involves the photovoltaics, photodetectors and light emitting diodes comprised of organic-inorganic hybrid nanostructures. We have designed and synthesized novel inorganic nanomaterials such as nanocarbons, graphene quantum dots, ultrathin 2D materials, and nanostructured metal oxide films to investigate their unique optoelectronic properties. Especially, various nano-process engineering techniques such as ultrafast sol-flame process, transfer-printing and nano-imprinting lithography have been extensively utilized to achieve outstanding power conversion efficiency of organic-inorganic hybrid solar cells.

Selected Publications

1. Rapid Formation of a Disordered Layer on Monoclinic BiVO4: Co-catalyst-free Photoelectrochemical Solar Water Splitting. ChemSusChem, Vol. 11, No. 5, 933-940 (2018)
2. Enhancing Mo:BiVO4 Solar Water Splitting with Patterned Au Nanospheres by Plasmon-Induced Energy Transfer. Adv. Energy Mater., Vol. 8, No. 5, 1701765 (2018)
3. Ultrafast Flame Annealing of TiO2 Paste for Fabricating Dye-Sensitized and Perovskite Solar Cells with Enhanced Efficiency. Small, Vol. 13, No. 42, 1702260 (2017)
4. Defect-Induced Epitaxial Growth for Efficient Solar Hydrogen Production. Nano Lett., Vol. 17, No.11, 6676–6683 (2017)
5. Delocalized Electron Accumulation at Nanorod Tips: Origin of Efficient H2 Generation. Adv. Funct. Mater., Vol. 26, 4527 (2016)
6. A facile chemical synthesis of ZnO@multilayer graphene nanoparticles with fast charge separation and enhanced performance for application in solar energy conversion. Nano Energy, Vol. 25, 9 (2016)
7. Origin of White Electroluminescence in Graphene Quantum Dots Embedded Host/Guest Polymer Light Emitting Diodes. Sci. Rep., Vol. 5, 11032 (2015)
8. Nano Carbon Conformal Coating Strategy for Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Responses and Long-Term Stability of ZnO Quantum Dots. Nano Energy, Vol. 13, 258-166 (2015)
9. Double-deck Inverse Opal Photoanodes: Efficient Light Absorption and Charge Separation in Heterojunction. Chem. Mater., Vol. 26, No. 19, 5592-5597 (2014)
10. Balancing Light Absorptivity and Carrier Conductivity of Graphene Quantum Dots for High-Efficiency Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells. ACS Nano, Vol. 7, No. 8, 7807-7212 (2013)

Professional Experience

박사후 연구원 (Stanford University, 2015-2018)