Professor Wan Lijun, President of University of Science and Technology of China, and Professor of the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, gave a talk titled “Electrochemistry in Energy Conversion and Storage: Materials and Interfacial Structure” at a City University Distinguished Lecture on 21 April.

In his presentation, Professor Wan pointed out that electrode materials were playing key roles in energy conversion and storage devices, and it was important to understand the electrochemical process taking place at the electrolyte / electrode interface in order to modify and create new electrocatalysts.

He introduced the nanostructured electrocatalysts for direct methanol fuel cells and the nanostructured electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries. He revealed the experimental results, demonstrating that platinum (Pt) and Pt-based nanostructured materials had better electrocatalytic properties than the bulk platinum catalyst.

He also introduced the in-situ electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy which was used to monitor the interfacial process of the nanostructured materials and reveal the structural change of an electrode surface and absorbents on an electrode surface.

More than 200 students, teaching staff and academics attended the lecture. Professor Lu Jian, Vice-President (Research and Technology) and Dean of Graduate Studies, welcomed and introduced Professor Wan before the presentation started.