Semiconductor Design for Photoelectrochemical Energy Conversion

 

Semiconductor Design for Photoelectrochemical Energy Conversion

 

Date: 20^th May, 2026 (Wednesday)

Time: 5 - 6 pm (HKT)

 

Venue: Lecture Theatre P3, Chong Yuet Ming Physics Building

 

 

Dept of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

 

Lianzhou Wang recently joined The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) as a Global STEM chair professor in June 2025. Before joining PolyU, he was professor and Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow in the School of Chemical Engineering and Director of Nanomaterials Centre, at The University of Queensland, Australia. His research focuses on the design and application of semiconductor nanomaterials for renewable energy conversion and storage including photocatalysts for solar fuel production, low-cost solar cells and rechargeable batteries. He has published > 650 articles in high quality journals including Science, Nature Energy, Nature Nanotech, and others, with a H-index of 140. He is elected fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA), the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE), and the Academia Europaea (MAE), and has been named on the Clarivate’ Highly Cited Researchers list numerous times.

Semiconductor nanomaterials hold the keys for efficient solar energy harvesting and conversion processes like photocatalysis and photoelectrochemical reactions. In this talk, we will give a brief overview on our recent progress in designing semiconductor nanomaterials for photoelectrochemical energy conversion including solar hydrogen generation and low-cost solar cells. In more details, we have been focusing on a few aspects; 1) artificial photosynthesis reaction mechanism, light harvesting, charge transfer and surface reaction engineering of low-cost semiconductors for solar driven hydrogen and valuable chemical production; 2) the working mechanism and stability improvement of perovskite quantum dots and lead-free tin-based perovskite solar cells; 3). The design of ultra-stable perovskite-MOF composites with improved light emitting performance and photocatalysis. The resultant material systems exhibited efficient photocatalytic performance for value-added chemical production and improved power conversion efficiency in solar cells, which underpin sustainable development of solar energy conversion technologies towards carbon neuralization.