Overview

Today, there is an urgent need to reduce carbon emissions in response to global warming. The vast abundance and inexhaustibility of solar energy, when coupled with the low carbon footprint of its utilization in comparison with that of fossil fuels, make solar energy an optimal energy source in mitigating society’s greatest challenge in the 21^st century. The XIAO lab mainly studies solar energy-driven catalytic reactions and processes for producing renewable fuels and chemicals from small molecules (H₂O, O₂, N₂, CO₂, CH₄, etc.). The current focus is to develop innovative solid (photo-)catalyst materials and flow reaction systems with high efficiency and durability, and with great potential to scale up, as well as to understand the (photo-)catalytic reactions at different spatial and temporal scales by advanced spectroscopy and spectromicroscopy. Through these studies, we aim to provide promising solutions to establishing carbon-neutral and sustainable processes.