Overview
In today’s world, we face escalating environmental challenges and increasing societal concerns. Two of the most pressing issues are plastic waste pollution and climate change driven by CO₂ emissions. To address these challenges, our multidisciplinary research group will employ advanced methodologies that harness renewable energy to reduce CO₂ emissions, transition toward H₂-based energy, and mitigate plastic pollution.
Our research will focus on fundamental challenges in chemistry, such as the selective activation of C−H bonds in aliphatic compounds, the conversion of thermodynamically stable CO₂, and the activation of O−H bonds in H₂O. We will leverage renewable energy sources, including solar energy, together with state-of-the-art chemical approaches, such as photocatalysis, cooperative catalysis, structure-defined heterogeneous catalysts, and novel quantum dot (QD) photocatalysts. These strategies will generate highly reactive yet selective species, enabling us to overcome activation barriers and achieve our research objectives.
Plastic Upcycling through Post-Polymerization Functionalization
Plastic waste has become a global crisis due to its non-biodegradable nature, overwhelming landfills, polluting oceans, and resulting in significant energy loss. However, this abundant and inexpensive—yet diverse and unconventional—chemical feedstock can be harnessed to generate valuable materials. Our lab will focus on the precise functionalization of commodity polymers through C–H bond activation, enabling the upcycling of plastic waste into value-added polymers and facilitating the compatibilization of immiscible polymers to maximize material reusability.
Converting CO2 to Value-Added Molecules
The urgent need to mitigate climate change has spurred research on converting CO₂ into value-added compounds. Direct transformation of CO₂ into useful organic molecules offers both economic and environmental benefits. Our group will focus on developing sustainable catalysts for CO₂ conversion to high-value chemicals, thereby advancing the field and broadening its practical applications. To improve the overall efficiency of CO₂ utilization, we aim to design heterogeneous photocatalytic systems based on colloidal semiconductor nanoparticles (CSNPs, also known as quantum dots, QDs). In addition, we will investigate enantioselective CO₂ incorporation reactions by introducing chirality into the catalysts.
Ambient-condition dehydrogenation and hydrogenation
The urgent need to drastically reduce CO₂ emissions is driving the transition toward a sustainable, H₂-based economy. A major challenge in this transition is the efficient storage of H₂. Recent advances in science and technology have enabled the use of chemically bound forms—known as liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs)—for H₂ storage. To address the high enthalpy associated with the dehydrogenation of H₂-rich molecules, our goal is to incorporate solar energy as a sustainable alternative in the catalytic system, allowing H₂ release under ambient conditions. For the reverse hydrogenation process, we aim to develop advanced chemical systems that can directly utilize H₂O as a hydrogen source.