​Please click the link below to join the webinar:

https://kaust.zoom.us/j/94091377003

Abstract: The production of hydrogen by water electrolysis suffers from the kinetic barriers in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) that limits the overall efficiency. As spin-dependent kinetics exist in OER, the spin alignment in active OER catalysts is critical for reducing the kinetic barriers in OER. However, most active OER catalysts go for surface reconstruction to oxyhydroxides that have dynamic open-shell orbital configurations with disordered magnetic moments, without showing an apparent long-range interatomic ferromagnetism; thus, controlling the spin alignment of these active catalysts is challenging. In this presentation, I will introduce our recent progress in finding the spin pinning effect to make the spins in active oxyhydroxides more aligned for higher intrinsic OER activity. The spin pinning effect is found at the interface of oxide_FM/oxyhydroxide. The spin pinning effect can promote spin selective electron transfer on OER intermediates to generate oxygens with parallel spin alignment, which facilitates the production of triplet oxygen and increases the intrinsic activity of oxyhydroxide by ~ 1 order of magnitude. Under spin pinning, the spins in oxyhydroxide can become more aligned after magnetization as long-range ferromagnetic ordering is established on the magnetic domains in oxide_FM. The spin polarization process in OER under spin pinning is also believed to be sensitive to the existence of active oxygen ligand (O(-)) in oxyhydroxide. When the O(-) is created in 1^st deprotonation step under high pH, the spin polarization of ligand oxygens will be acilitated, which reduces the barrier for subsequent O-O coupling and promotes the O₂ turnover. 

BiographyZhichuan is a professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University. He received his PhD degree in Electroanalytical Chemistry and B.S. degree in Chemistry from Lanzhou University, China. His PhD training was received in Lanzhou University, Institute of Physics, CAS, and Brown University. Since 2007, he worked in State University of New York at Binghamton as a Research Associate and from 2009 he worked in Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Postdoctoral Researcher. Dr. Xu has received several awards such as Chun-Tsung Endowment Outstanding Contribution Award - Excellent Scholar at 2018 and the Zhaowu Tian Prize for Energy Electrochemistry by International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE) in 2019. He was awarded Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) on Nov. 2017. He served as the president of ECS Singapore Section. Dr. Xu is a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics, Web of Science (2018, 2019, and 2020).

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• CONTACTAliyah Fakim
• EMAILaliyah.fakim@kaust.edu.sa

​Please click this link to join the webinar:

https://kaust.zoom.us/j/98440011880

Abstract: Recently, new opportunities to deploy metal organic frameworks in membrane separation and devices have rapidly emerged. Overcoming some of the challenges of synthesizing thin, coherent films as well as integration with polymeric substrates have meant that the unique properties of MOFs can now be exploited in form factors which are viable for potential industrial applications as well as a platform to control enzymatic reactions. The high compatibility of nanosize MOF particles in polymer matrix allows fabrication of ultrathin mixed matrix coatings on porous supports which provide mechanical stability. Applications range from enhancing gas separation with functionalized UiO-66 to pervaporation desalination where defect engineered MOFs can enhance water transport for dewatering of high salinity brines. 

We also explored several approaches in facilitating pure MOF film formation on polymeric membrane substrates. First, functionalization of polymer substrates with sol-gel coatings allows more facile attachment of ligands to promote MOF nucleation as well as providing a rigid exo-skeleton for thin MOF layers to grow.  This has resulted in submicron ZIF-8 films to be readily grown for gas separation applications. Another approach is to use bioinspired polydopamine/polyethylenimine (PDA-PEI) coatings which can also nucleate thin ZIF-8 films. The ease of MOF deposition with the PDA-PEI approach in itself opens up new opportunities in spatial patterning MOFs on surfaces to exploit both the optical properties of thin MOF films as well as biomedical devices with spatially imprinted MOF-enzyme complexes for sensing. 

Biblioagraphy: Vicki Chen is the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology at The University of Queensland.  The faculty has over 7,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolled in its programs and an extensive research portfolio and engagement with industry. She is a graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and from the University of Minnesota with a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering. Prior to joining the University of Queensland, she was the head of the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). At UNSW, she was the director of the UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology (2006 – 2014). Her research interests span water/wastewater treatment, gas separation, nanomaterials, and membrane manufacturing. She has published over 192 journal papers and 12 book chapters. She also led multi-institutional projects, including a collaboration with the European Union Framework programme in advanced desalination. She was the 2017 Barrer Centre Distinguished Lecturer at Imperial College and council member of the Aseanian Membrane Society (2007 – 2014). Her research sponsors ranged from government to SMEs and multinational industrial partners and include the Australian Research Council, Australian Low Emission Coal R&D, Coal Innovation New South Wales (CINSW), Simplot, Beijing OriginWater, Printed Energy, Dairy Innovation Australia, Bluescope Steel, Sydney Water, BASF, the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Polymer, and the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gases Technologies (CO2CRC).

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• CONTACTFawwaz Elahi
• EMAILfawwaz.elahi@kaust.edu.sa

​ Zoom link: https://kaust.zoom.us/j/97352129718

ABSTRACT: The demand for renewable energy resources has become increasingly urgent due to global warming and related environmental issues.  Renewable energy systems require an energy storage solution because they are intermittent in nature. Among various alternatives, rechargeable aqueous zinc ion batteries (RAZIBs) with merits of cost-effectiveness, high safety, and environment-friendliness attracted great promise for grid-scale energy storage. Inspired by these merits, great efforts have been devoted to designing and fabricating Zn-based energy storage devices. However, the suitable cathode materials for RAZIBs and the details of the Zn2+ storage mechanism and have not been fully understood. Several methods have been proposed to tackle the issues for both at the cathode and anode side of the ZIB in this dissertation, including cathode structure engineering, interlayer strategy, and zinc anode protection.

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• CONTACTJing Guo
• EMAILjing.guo.1@kaust.edu.sa

​In the early 21^st century, oil and gas production in the U.S. was conjectured to be in terminal-irreversible decline. But, thanks to the advancement of hydraulic fracturing technologies over the last decade, operators are now able to produce two-thirds of U.S. oil and gas output from almost impermeable shale formations. Despite the enormous success of the 'shale revolution', there are still debates about how long shale production will last and if there will be enough to subsidize a meaningful transition to 'greener' power sources. Most official pronouncements of shale oil and gas reserves are based on purely empirical curve-fitting approaches or geological volumetric calculations that tend to largely overestimate the actual reserves. As an alternative to these industry-standard forecasting methods, we propose a more reliable, 'transparent', physics-guided and data-driven approach to estimating future production rates of oil and gas in shales. Our physics-based scaling method captures all essential physics of hydrocarbon production and hydrofracture geometry, yet it is as simple as the industry-favored Decline Curve Analysis (DCA), so that most engineers can adopt it. We also demonstrate that our method is as accurate as other analytical methods and has the same predictive power as commercial reservoir simulators but with less data required and significantly faster computational time. To capture the uncertainties of play-wide production, we combine physical scaling with the Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) statistics. So far, we have implemented this method to nearly half a million wells from all major U.S. shale plays. Since the results of our analyses are not subject to bias, policy-makers ought not to assume that the shale production boom will last for centuries.

Zoom Link:

:https://kaust.zoom.us/j/91729166919

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• CONTACTWardana Saputra
• EMAILWardana .saputra@kaust.edu.sa