Integrated Catalytic Pairs: The Minimal Catalytic Units for Driving Complex Chemical Reactions

Lecture Topic: Integrated Catalytic Pairs: The Minimal Catalytic Units for Driving Complex Chemical Reactions
Expert: Liu Bin
Date: April 29, 2025
Time: 09:00
Location: Lecture Hall 1517, Energy Research Institute
Organizer: Energy Research Institute

Speaker Profile:
Liu Bin earned his Bachelor of Engineering (First Class Honors) and Master of Engineering degrees from the National University of Singapore in 2002 and 2004, respectively, and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota, USA, in 2011. After a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, he joined the School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at Nanyang Technological University as an Assistant Professor in June 2012 and was promoted to Associate Professor in March 2017. In February 2023, Professor Liu joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at City University of Hong Kong as a Global STEM Chair Professor. He was recognized as an Emerging Investigator by the Royal Society of Chemistry's Journal of Materials Chemistry A in 2016 and as an Influential Researcher by the American Chemical Society's Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research in 2018. Additionally, he has been listed as a "Highly Cited Researcher" by Clarivate Analytics in the Cross-Field category in 2019 and in the Chemistry category from 2020 to 2024.

Research Expertise: Photoelectro)catalysis and in situ/operando characterization.

Lecture Summary:
Single-atom catalysts, which involve anchoring a single type of active atom onto a host support through various interactions, have attracted significant research attention due to their combined advantages of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts. These include nearly 100% atomic utilization efficiency, well-defined structures, and high catalytic activity/selectivity. However, the uniformity of isolated active sites in single-atom catalysts may limit their application in complex chemical reactions involving multiple reaction intermediates. To address the challenge of single-type active sites in single-atom catalysts, we propose an alternative novel catalyst composed of integrated catalytic pairs. These catalysts are characterized by adjacent binary active centers that not only mutually modulate their electronic structures but also exhibit synergistic catalytic effects, offering the minimal catalytic units for driving complex chemical reactions.

Faculty and students are welcome to attend!