MAE Colloquium: Professor Xiaolin Zheng

Description

Electrochemical Production of Hydrogen and Hydrogen Peroxide

Xiaolin Zheng

Mechanical Engineering, Energy Science &Engineering, Stanford University

ABSTRACT Hydrogen is indispensable for achieving deep decarbonization of the global economy. Green hydrogen production from renewable electricity, i.e., electrolysis, is expected to play an important role, and yet it is not economical. The green hydrogen cost can be lowered by using less amount of noble metals and/or producing other valuable chemicals simultaneously. In this talk, I will present three examples of improving the rate-limiting oxygen evolution reaction (OER) through material innovation and electrolyte optimization. First, I will discuss the use of metal oxide stabilized Ir sites as an acid-stable catalyst for OER. Then, I will discuss a new class of material, high entropy oxide, as an active and stable catalyst for OER. Finally, I will discuss the production of an alternative chemical H2O2, instead of O2, through catalyst and electrolyze innovation. 

BIOGRAPHY Xiaolin Zheng is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Energy Science and engineering at Stanford University. She received her B.S. in Thermal Engineering from Tsinghua University (2000), her Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University (2006), and her postdoctoral training in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. 

Her research group focuses on the development and testing of novel materials for energy and propulsion applications, ranging from combustion synthesis of novel nanomaterials, designing electrocatalysts and devices to convert water into hydrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen peroxides, to developing new metal/polymer composites as high energy density fuels for propulsion applications.

She is a senior fellow of Stanford Precourt Institute of Energy and a faculty co-director of Stanford Hydrogen Initiative. Her selected awards include the Resonate Award from Resnick Institute at Caltech (2016), Nano Letters Young Investigator Lectureship (2015), MIT Technology Review (2013), one of the 100 Leading Global Thinkers by the Foreign Policy Magazine (2013), Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from the White House (2009).