The Jiao research group is steadfastly devoted to the development of cutting-edge electrochemical technologies that address pressing global issues in energy storage, chemical manufacturing, and food production. Our focus is centered on two primary objectives:

1. Advancing electrochemical systems for carbon utilization by pursuing high-performance CO2 and CO electrolysis, surpassing the efficiency of conventional fossil-based systems. This is achieved through our expertise in state-of-the-art catalyst design and the engineering of electrode-electrolyte interfaces.

2. Exploring innovative synthesis methods for nanostructured materials tailored for energy applications, enabling the creation of materials exhibiting unique morphologies and compositions unattainable by current techniques. These novel nanomaterials hold promise as exceptional electrocatalysts and electrode materials.

By spearheading breakthroughs in these domains, our research group endeavors to mitigate global climate change by delivering clean, sustainable, and eco-friendly energy and chemical solutions, ultimately contributing to a more responsible and greener future.

Non-fossil-based chemical and food production, utilizing resources such as CO2 and H2O, is critical for advancing sustainable and eco-friendly chemical and agricultural sectors. Harnessing solar energy on a terawatt scale through artificial photosynthesis is a highly promising approach in this regard. In our laboratory, we investigate innovative chemistry and cutting-edge nanostructured catalysts for two essential half-reactions: water oxidation and CO2 reduction. Our ultimate objective is to integrate both reactions within a fully operational device, enabling the cost-effective and efficient production of green chemicals. In collaboration with experts across various disciplines, we are also devising hybrid strategies to overcome technical challenges unaddressable by traditional electrocatalysis methods.

Nanostructured materials, particularly nanoalloys, are an important group of materials. Such solids can combine open d-shells, high surface area, well-defined facets, with the result that they exhibit many interesting properties in catalysis, electron transfer, energy conversion and storage, and magnetic devices. We are currently focusing on developing new synthetic methodologies in order to fabricate nanostructured materials that cannot be accessed by traditional approaches. We believe that new materials hold the key to our clean and sustainable energy future.

Process and reactor design are important topics of chemical engineering because they often dominate the overall performance of electrochemical systems. In our laboratory, we not only perform fundamental research on novel catalysts but also design new reaction process and electrochemical reactors for advanced applications. Recent research efforts include prototype development, process engineering and system integration.

Heterogeneous catalysis at the solid/liquid/vapor interface plays an important role in many energy applications, and the ability to observe dynamic structural changes of working catalysts under reaction conditions is invaluable. Such information provides important insights for us to understand key promotion and poisoning phenomena, and allows for tailoring the design of next-generation catalysts. X-ray absorption spectroscopy and Infrared spectroscopy are powerful tools to probe local chemical environment and oxidation state of catalyst under working conditions.