Low-cost and versatile electrochemical approaches to enable precise structure and property control of porous nanomaterials for energy and environmental applications

Speaker: Yang Yang Li, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Physics and Materials Science City University of Hong Kong Abstract: This talk focuses on one major challenge present in the field of nanomaterials, which is on how to achieve elaborate nanostructures (e.g., photonic structures) on a large (e.g., industrial) scale with sufficient precision and low cost. Here we present economical bottom-up approaches to fabricate nanomaterials with structural precision, good scalability, and desirable properties, particularly promising for energy and environmental applications. Our approaches build on the well-established electrochemical techniques, applicable to a wide range of materials and functions, e.g., to fabricate nanoporous metallic films with flexible porosity profiles (e.g., sine waves) along the film thickness direction, or to modify metal oxides. Theoretical simulation work will be presented for understanding the structure-property correlations, particularly for novel photonic devices. Applications with much improved performance enabled by these porous nanomaterials, from optical sensors, photocatalysts, lithium ion batteries, to supercapacitors, will be discussed. Biography: Yang Yang Li received a B.S. from Peking University in 1998, a M.S. from the National University of Singapore in 2000, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego in 2014. After working as a research scientist at the Hitachi Chemical Research Center, she started her independent faculty career at the City University of Hong Kong in 2007. Her current research interest focuses on materials electrochemistry for energy- and environmental-related applications, and theoretical simulation for understanding the structure-property correlations.