The group is interested in developing new catalysts for energy conversion, for electro- and thermo- catalysis. Reactions of interest include CO2 reduction (as well as capture) and methane oxidation. New catalysts such as high entropy metals are of interest. Plasma enhanced reactions that can energy efficiently convert hydrocarbons, CO2, Ammonia etc. to utilizable liquid and solid products and hydrogen are areas the group is working on. Other energy conversion platforms such as photo-thermal, photo-voltaic, thermoelectric and ferro/pyro-electric are also of interest from the point of view of materials development and characterization are also of interest.
Important Publications on "Energy conversion and catalysis"
  1. H. Fei, J. Dong, M J. Arellano-Jiménez, G. Ye, N. D. Kim, E. LG Samuel, Z. Peng, Z. Zhu, F. Qin, J. Bao, M. J. Yacaman, P. M Ajayan, Do J. M Tour, “Atomic cobalt on nitrogen-doped graphene for hydrogen generation”, Nature communications, 6(1), 1-8 (2015).
  2. G. Ye, Y. Gong, J. Lin, B. Li, Y. He, S. T Pantelides, W. Zhou, R.Vajtai, P. M. Ajayan, “Defects Engineered Monolayer MoS2 for Improved Hydrogen Evolution Reaction”, Nano letters, 16(2), 1097-1103 (2016).
  3. D. Liu, X. Li, S. Chen, H. Yan, C. Wang, C. Wu, Y. A Haleem, S. Duan, J. Lu, B. Ge, P. M. Ajayan, Y. Luo, J. Jiang, L. Song, "Atomically dispersed platinum supported on curved carbon supports for efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution", Nature Energy, 4(6), 512-518 (2016).
  4. X. She, J. Wu, H. Xu, J. Zhong, Y. Wang, Y. Song, K. Nie, Y. Liu, Y. Yang, M. F Rodrigues, R. Vajtai, J.Lou, D. Du, H. Li, P. M Ajayan, "High Efficiency Photocatalytic Water Splitting Using 2D α‐Fe2O3/g‐C3N4 Z‐Scheme Catalysts", Advanced Energy Materials, 7(17), 1700025 (2017).
  5. J. Wu, R. M. Yadav, M. Liu, P. P Sharma, C. S. Tiwary, L. Ma, X. Zou, X. Zhou, B. I Yakobson, J. Lou, P. M. Ajayan, "Achieving Highly Efficient, Selective, and Stable CO2 Reduction on Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanotubes", ACS nano, 9(5), 5364-5371 (2015).
  6. J. Wu, S. Ma, J. Sun, J. I Gold, C. Tiwary, B. Kim, L. Zhu, N. Chopra, I. N Odeh, R. Vajtai, A. Z Yu, R. Luo, J. Lou, G. Ding, P. JA Kenis, P. M. Ajayan, "A metal-free electrocatalyst for carbon dioxide reduction to multi-carbon hydrocarbons and oxygenates", Nature communications, 7(1), 13869 (2016).
  7. P. P Sharma, J. Wu, R. M. Yadav, M. Liu, C. J Wright, C. S. Tiwary, B. I Yakobson, J. Lou, P. M. Ajayan, X. Zhou, "Nitrogen‐Doped Carbon Nanotube Arrays for High‐Efficiency Electrochemical Reduction of CO2: On the Understanding of Defects, Defect Density, and Selectivity", Angewandte Chemie, 127(46), 13905-13909 (2015).
  8. J. Wu, M. Liu, P. P Sharma, R. M. Yadav, L. Ma, Y. Yang, X. Zou, X. Zhou, R. Vajtai, B. I Yakobson, J. Lou, P. M. Ajayan, "Incorporation of Nitrogen Defects for Efficient Reduction of CO2 via Two-Electron Pathway on Three-Dimensional Graphene Foam", Nano letters, 16(1), 466-470 (2016).
  9. C. Zhang, S. Yang, J. Wu, M. Liu, S. Yazdi, M. Ren, J. Sha, J. Zhong, K. Nie, A. S Jalilov, Z. Li, H. Li, B. I Yakobson, Q. Wu, E. Ringe, H. Xu, P. M. Ajayan, J. M Tour, "Electrochemical CO2 Reduction with Atomic Iron‐Dispersed on Nitrogen‐Doped Graphene", Advanced Energy Materials, 8(19), 1703487 (2018).
  10. X. She, J. Wu, J. Zhong, H. Xu, Y. Yang, R. Vajtai, J. Lou, Y. Liu, D. Du, H. Li, P. M. Ajayan, "Oxygenated monolayer carbon nitride for excellent photocatalytic hydrogen evolution and external quantum efficiency", Nano Energy, 27, 138-146 (2016).
  11. Y. Liu, J. Wu, K. P Hackenberg, J. Zhang, Y Morris Wang, Y. Yang, K. Keyshar, J. Gu, T. Ogitsu, R. Vajtai, J. Lou, P. M Ajayan, B. C Wood, B. I Yakobson, “Self-optimizing, highly surface-active layered metal dichalcogenide catalysts for hydrogen evolution”, Nature Energy, 2(9), 1-7 (2017).
  12. J. Wu, T. Sharifi, Y. Gao, T. Zhang, P. M. Ajayan, “Emerging carbon‐based heterogeneous catalysts for electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide into value‐added chemicals”, Advanced Materials, 31(13), 1804257 (2019).
  13. MA Khan, T.Al-Attas, S. Roy, M. M Rahman, N. Ghaffour, V. Thangadurai, S. Larter, J. Hu, P. M. Ajayan, Md Golam Kibria, “Seawater electrolysis for hydrogen production: a solution looking for a problem?”, Energy & Environmental Science, 14(9), 4831-4839 (2021).
  14. Q. He, Y. Wan, H. Jiang, Z. Pan, C. Wu, M. Wang, X. Wu, B. Ye, P. M. Ajayan, L. Song, “Nickel vacancies boost reconstruction in nickel hydroxide electrocatalyst”, ACS Energy Letters, 3(6), 1373-1380 (2018).
  15. Z. Wang, J. Chen, E. Song, N. Wang, J. Dong, X. Zhang, P. M. Ajayan, W. Yao, C. Wang, J. Liu, J. Shen, M. Ye, “Manipulation on active electronic states of metastable phase β-NiMoO4 for large current density hydrogen evolution”, Nature Communications, 12(1), 5960 (2021).
  16. J. Zhang, J. Wu, X. Zou, K. Hackenberg, W. Zhou, W. Chen, J. Yuan, K. Keyshar, G. Gupta, A. Mohite, P. M. Ajayan, J. Lou, “Discovering superior basal plane active two-dimensional catalysts for hydrogen evolution”, Materials Today, 25(1), 28-34 (2019).
  17. S. Roy, Z. Li, Z. Chen, A. C. Mata, P. Kumar, S. Ch Sarma, I. F Teixeira, I. F Silva, G. Gao, N.V Tarakina, Md Golam Kibria, C. V. Singh, J. Wu, P. M. Ajayan, “Cooperative Copper Single‐Atom Catalyst in 2D Carbon Nitride for Enhanced CO2 Electrolysis to Methane”, Advanced Materials, 25(1), 2300713 (2024).
  18. H. Jiang, W. Yang, M. Xu, E. Wang, Y. Wei, W. Liu, X. Gu, L. Liu, Q. Chen, P. Zhai, X. Zou, P. M. Ajayan, W. Zhou, Y. Gong, “Single atom catalysts in Van der Waals gaps”, Nature Communications, 13(1), 6863 (2022).
  19. S. Castro-Pardo, S. Bhattacharyya, R. M. Yadav, A. P. de C. Teixeira, M Astrid Campos Mata, T. Prasankumar, M. A Kabbani, Md Golam Kibria, T. Xu, S. Roy, P. M. Ajayan, “A comprehensive overview of carbon dioxide capture: From materials, methods to industrial status”, Materials Today, 60, 227-270 (2022).
  20. R. M. Yadav, Z. Li, T. Zhang, O. Sahin, S. Roy, G. Gao, H. Guo, R. Vajtai, L. Wang, P. M Ajayan, J. Wu, “Amine‐functionalized carbon nanodot electrocatalysts converting carbon dioxide to methane”, Advanced Materials, 43(2), 2105690 (2022).