Graduate Seminar: John Chen

Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada

Advanced Non-precious Oxygen Catalysts for Metal-Air Batteries

 

Abstract

Metal-air batteries have been considered promising as next generation energy storage systems for powering vehicles, residential applications and portable electronic devices due to their high energy density and low cost. Widespread commercialization of rechargeable metal-air batteries hinges, however, on further reduction in materials cost, improvements of component durability, and increase in overall efficiency. For the oxygen catalysts of metal-air batteries, the longstanding goals have been low cost, high catalytic activity and viable durability. This talk will address the main challenges of the oxygen electrocatalysts and how surface structures and chemical compositions of catalysts affect the electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER).
 

Bio

John (Zhongwei) Chen is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at University of Waterloo. His current research interests are in the development of nanomaterials for PEM fuel cells, metal-air batteries and lithium-ion batteries, particularly in nanostructured low-Pt, non-precious metal catalysts and nanocomposite membranes. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical and Environmental Engineering from the University of California-Riverside in 2008. Prior to joining the faculty at Waterloo, he was also as a visiting scientist in the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) at New Mexico, USA. He has published 3 book chapters, more than 50 peer reviewed journal articles. These publications ahve earned him to date nearly 1500 citations. He is also listed as inventor on three US patents, with one licensed to a startup company in California. He has been awarded the Engineering Research Excellence Award at the University of Waterloo in 2011 and the Early Researcher Award by Ontario's provincial government in 2012.