Prof. Liming Dai

Australian Carbon Materials Centre

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Carbon Science and Innovation
University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia

Abstract:

Since our discovery of the first carbon-based metal-free electrocatalyst (C-MFEC, i.e., N-doped carbon nanotubes) for oxygen reduction in fuel cells in 2009, the field of C-MFEC has grown enormously. CMFECs, as alternatives to noble metal-based electrocatalysts, have been widely demonstrated for efficient oxygen reduction, oxygen evolution, hydrogen evolution, carbon dioxide reduction, nitrogen reduction, and many other electrocatalytic reactions. Recent worldwide research effort has shown great potential for applications of C-MFECs in fuel cells for clean energy conversion, metal-air batteries for energy storage, water splitting for hydrogen fuel generation, and other electrochemical processes for value-added chemical production to reduce or even eliminate greenhouse emissions. Further research and development of C-MFECs could revolutionize clean energy and environmental remediation technologies. In this talk, I will summarize some of our work on the development of C-MFECs for clean energy and environmental remediation, along with an overview on recent advances, current challenges, and future perspectives in this exciting field.

Liming Dai

Liming Dai joined University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 2019 as an Australian Laureate Fellow (ARC), Scientia Professor and SHARP Professor at UNSW. He is also Director of the Australian Carbon Materials Centre (A-CMC) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Carbon Science and Innovation. Before joining UNSW, he spent 2 years in the Cavendish Laboratory (1990-1992) and 10 years with CSIRO (1992-2002). He was then an associate professor of polymer engineering at the University of Akron (2002-2004), the Wright Brothers Institute Endowed Chair Professor of Nanomaterials at the University of Dayton (2004-2009), and the Kent Hale Smith Professor in the Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University (2009-2019).

Dr. Dai has published more than 600 referred papers with citations ca.120,000 and an h-index of 171 (Google Scholar) and held about 20 issued patents. He has also published a research monograph on intelligent macromolecules and 5 edited/co-edited books on carbon nanomaterials for advanced energy systems, environmental and biomedical applications, including a recent 2-volume edited book on Carbon-based Metal-free Catalysts by Wiley-VCH. He is a ‘Highly Cited Researchers’ (Materials Science, Chemistry). He serves as an Associate Editor of Nano Energy and Advisory Committee Member of the American Carbon Society. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (USA), Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences, and Member of the Academia Europaea.

Email: l.dai@unsw.edu.au

https://www.acmc.unsw.edu.au/