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Research Interests

Electrochemical conversion of CO2 to value-added organic molecules, light-matter interaction including spintronics and quantum science, photovoltaics, and solar cells.

Electrochemical Conversion of CO2 to Value-Added Organic Molecules

The conversion of carbon dioxide (CO₂) to value-added multi-carbon (C-C bond) organic compounds through electrocatalytic reduction provides a promising route to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Our group has developed a series of electrocatalysts using our metal-in-lithium method, enabling the conversion of CO₂ into various value-added organic chemicals.

These catalysts include carbon-supported transition and main group metals, varying in size from single atoms to small clusters. These catalysts can electrochemically reduce CO₂ into C₂ and C₃ organic compounds with high single-product selectivity at relatively low potentials.

The reaction mechanism has been extensively studied using operando synchrotron X-ray absorption techniques to reveal the dynamic evolution of the catalytic center. Notably, atomically dispersed catalytic metal atoms aggregate into few-atom clusters under reductive potentials. This evolution, influenced by redox potentials and nanoscale confinement effects of supporting substrates, profoundly impacts reaction pathways toward C-C coupling.

Our work provides atomistic and quantum mechanical-level understanding of the reaction coordination for electrochemical CO₂ reduction to a variety of organic compounds. For more details, refer to:

• Nature Energy, 2020, 5, 623–632
• J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2024, 146, 15, 10357–10366

Additional Research Areas

Our group also works on projects involving light-matter interaction, including spintronics and quantum science, as well as photovoltaics and solar cells. See the for more details.

Representative Publications

Xiao, X., Latt, K.Z., Gong, J. Kim, T.; Connell, J. G.; Liu, Y.; Fry, H. C.; Pearson, J. E.; Wostoupal, O. S.; Li, M.; Soldan, C.; Yang, Z.; Schaller, R. D.; Diroll, B. T.; Hla S. W.; Xu, T. Light-induced Kondo-like exciton-spin interaction in neodymium(II) doped hybrid perovskite. Nature Communication, 2024, 15, 6084.

Xu, H.; Wang, J.; He, H.; Hwang, I.; Liu, Y.; Sun, C.; Zhang, H.; Li, T.; Muntean, J. V. Muntean, Xu, T.; Liu, D.-J. Modulating CO2 electrocatalytic conversion to organics pathway by the catalytic site dimension, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146, 10357–10366

Wostoupal, W. S.; Meyer, J.; Griffith, J.; Rasamani, K. D.; Frank, C. E.; Shevchenko, E.; Lin, X.-M. Lin; Arigong, B. Xu, T.; and Li, J. Advanced VO2/Polymer Nanocomposite Smart Window Films Using VO2 Nanoparticles from High-Throughput Flow Synthesis, ACS Appl. Opt. Mater. 2024

Xu, J.; Patel, P.; Liu, D.-J.; Xu, T.; Liu, C. Understanding the dynamic evolution of atomically dispersed Cu catalyst for CO2 electrochemical conversion using integrated XANES analysis and mechanistic studies, Journal of Catalysis, 2023, 425, 296-305.

Li, M. Park, S. Y.; Wang, J.; Zheng, D.; Wostoupal, O. S.; Xiao, X.; Yang, Z.; Li, X.; Diroll, B. T.; Marks, T. J.; Zhu, K.; Xu, T. Nickel-Doped Graphite and Fusible Alloy Bilayer Back Electrode for Vacuum-Free Perovskite Solar Cells. ACS Energy Letters, 2023, 8, 2940-2945.

Tong, J.; Li, X.; Wang, J.; He, H.; Xu, T.; Zhu, K. Bioinspired stability enhancement in deuterium-substituted organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. Nexus, 2023, 2(5), 160.

Dahunsi, O. J.; Li, B.; Gao, S.; Lu, K.; Xia, F.; Xu, T.; Cheng, Y. One-Step Synthesis of Na–Sn Alloy with Internal 3D Na15Sn4 Support for Fast and Stable Na Metal Batteries, ACS Appl. Energy Mater. 2022, 5, 20–26.

Li, X.; Zhang, F.; Wang, J.; Tong, J.; Xu, T.; Zhu, K.; On-device lead-absorbing tapes for sustainable perovskite solar cells, Nature Sustainability, 2021, 4, 1038–1041.