하이브리드 에너지촉매 연구

Our team focuses on interfacing (semi)conducting materials with biological machinery. We assemble these hybrid materials into devices for sustainable energy solutions and environmental remediation. Redox chemistry represents an emerging and transformative route for addressing pressing global challenges in energy, climate, and sustainability. Electrocatalytic, photoelectrocatalytic, and photocatalytic platforms have demonstrated CO2 conversion into chemical products such as CO, CH4, C2H4, and CH3OH. However, because of the intrinsic kinetic and thermodynamic complexity of multi-electron CO2 reduction pathways, purely abiotic (semi)conductors remain limited in their ability to synthesize higher-order or functionally complex (e.g., bioplastics, C2+ fuels) with high selectivity. To overcome this limitation, our group investigates hybrid bio-abiotic catalytic interfaces that couple (semi)conducting catalysts with redox-active microorganisms. By integrating the complementary reactivities of biological and abiotic systems, we aim to enable the sustainable valorization of CO2 into structurally complex and high-value chemicals using renewable energy inputs such as sunlight and electricity. Plastics are indispensable in modern society, with more than 390 million tonnes produced annually. However, the majority of end-of-life plastics are incinerated or accumulate in landfills, leading to a substantial economic loss as well as severe environmental burdens. Despite posing ecological risks, plastic wastes represent a chemically energy-rich carbon feedstock. Depolymerization of plastic waste offers a thermodynamically more favorable route, enabling simultaneous pollution mitigation and chemical valorization. Our research focuses on engineering metallic and semiconducting nanomaterials