Abstract
Nanoparticles and nanocrystals of semiconducting oxides constructed from nanoscale building blocks often possess unique and much improved properties. Such materials are promising in enabling innovative technologies for conversion and storage of renewable energies for the future. With current challenges in climate change and sustainable development, nanotechnology is especially exciting because it provides great opportunities for technological advances in area of solar power, solar hydrogen production and storage.
This talk highlights the latest developments in oxide nanomaterials such as titania as photocatalysts. Materials such as layered titania and single anatase crystals are photoactive materials promising for cheap and efficient solar cells, hydrogen production from water splitting and solar detoxification of water and air. Latest advances in bandgap engineering of TiO2 for visible light photocatalysis will be highlighted and discussed.
About the speaker
Prof Max Lu received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Queensland in 1991. He was lecturer at Nanyang Technological University from 1991 to 1994. He returned to the University of Queensland in 1994, and is currently Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) and the Foundation Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Functional Nanomaterials.
Prof Lu’s research expertise is in nanoparticles and nanoporous materials for clean energy and environmental technologies. His current research interests include photoactive materials for solar cells and hydrogen production, and energy storage materials. With over 500 journal publications in high impact journals including Nature, JACS, Angew. Chem. and Adv. Materials, he is co-inventor of 20 international patents. He is one of the ISI Highly Cited Researchers in Materials Science with over 21000 citations (with h-index of 74). He served on Expert Advisory Groups of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council in Australia. He serves as editor and editorial board member for 12 international journals including Advanced Energy Materials, Carbon, Nanoscale and Journal of Colloid and Interface Science. He is also the immediate past Chairman of the Institution of Chemical Engineers Board in Australia.
Prof Lu received numerous prestigious awards including the Orica Award, RK Murphy Medal, Le Fevre Prize, ExxonMobil Award, the Top 100 Most Influential Engineers in Australia in 2004, 2010 and 2012, and the China International Science and Technology Cooperation Award. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and the Australian Academy of Science.
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