Electrochemical reactions, e.g. oxygen reduction (ORR), hydrogen evolution (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), are key to energy conversion and storage. For example, ORR is a determining step for fuel cells; HER and OER are for water splitting; Combination of ORR and OER can form a metal-air battery. Up to now, platinum (Pt) exhibits the best performance, and Pt/C is the commercial cathode catalyst for the reactions. However, the large-scale use of Pt is not implementable because of the high price and limited supply. Therefore, numerous efforts have been devoted to search for non-Pt catalysts. Carbon is one of the candidates.

We recently demonstrate a new defect mechanism of carbons for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). It is predicted by the first principle calculations that a type of 585 defects on graphene (G585) is more effective than N-doping for ORR, and our experimental investigations show strong support to this theoretical prediction. This new mechanism has also been demonstrated for other electrochemical reactions such hydrogen evolution reactions (HER) and oxygen evolution reactions (OER). It is also demonstrated that the vacancies in metal oxides can promote significantly the OER. The research reveals that the defects may play a universal role for reactivity of electrochemical reactions. Furthermore, the defects on carbons can trap useful metallic species in different scales to further improve the electrochemical activity.

报告题目：How hydrophilic can a hydrophilic surface de？
报告人：汪大洋，中组部千人计划专家、吉林大学无机合成与制备化学国家重点实验室教授
时 间：7月12日 上午10:00 
地 点：CCE大楼 805会议室 
主办单位：化学与分子工程学院 生态化工国家重点实验室培育基地