You are welcome to attend Moon Gyu Park's PhD defence, in which they will discuss the use of bifunctional oxygen catalysts to enhance Zn-air battery performances.
Abstract
Electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are the critical cathodic and anodic reactions, respectively, in electrically rechargeable Zn-air battery. With a variety of advantages, electrically rechargeable (secondary) Zn-air battery technology has been regarded as highly promising energy applications in consumer electronics, electric vehicles and smart grid storage.
However, it is required to facilitate the slow kinetics of oxygen electrocatalytic reactions by using bifunctionally active and durable oxygen electrocatalyst materials to progress the reactions at practically viable and stable rates. With the use of bifunctional oxygen catalysts, kinetics of ORR and OER can be improved, leading to enhancement of Zn-air battery performances such as higher operating voltage and longer battery cycling life.
In this work, Moon Gyu Park presents novel design strategies of bifunctionally active and durable electrocatalysts possessing robust three-dimensional framework with hierarchical porosity. The work aims for the design and engineering of hierarchically porous transition metal-based electrocatalysts involving high porosity as well as electrocatalytically robust frameworks to improve the oxygen electrocatalytic activities and durability and thereby put the rechargeable Zn-air battery technology at a commercially viable level.
Supervisor: Professor Zhongwei Chen