Jiaqi Yu, Ph.D.

Education:

B.Eng.: Nanomaterials and Engineering, Soochow University (China)

Ph.D.: Chemistry, Iowa State University

Postdoctoral fellow: Northwestern University

Field of interest: inorganic materials, heterogeneous catalysis, electrochemistry

Research focus: The “Framework et al.” (Yu) group studies inorganic frameworks and their derivatives to advance catalysis science from fundamental mechanistic insights to real-world applications. We design inorganic frameworks and leverage their (a) well-defined coordination, (b) spatially isolated sites, and (c) flexibility for post-synthetic modification to explore three research directions:

(1) developing a new chemical separation approach­–Reversible Bond Activation Separation (RBAS)–that applies catalytic kinetics principles to address challenging separation problems, e.g., hydrogen isotope separation (nuclear fission waste management and fusion recycling) and petrochemical separations

(2) advancing catalytic mechanism understanding through quantitative kinetics studies of active sites in heterogeneous thermocatalysis, incorporating optical spectroscopy, temperature-programmed reactions, and pulse reactions into kinetics measurements

(3) expanding the scope of electrocatalysis by leveraging thermocatalytic fundamentals, specifically exploring spatial separation of redox chemistry and modulation of applied potential as a function of time, with alkane dehydrogenation and hydrogenolysis as proof-of-concept examples

Representative publications:

Google Scholar link: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=91ISqrEAAAAJ&hl=en

7. Yu, J. ^‡; Musgrave, C. B. ^‡; Chen, Q.^‡; Yang, Y.; Tian, C.; Hu, X.; Su, G.; Shin, H.; Ni, W.; Chen, X.; Ou, P.; Liu, Y.; Schweitzer, N. M.; Meira, D. M.; Dravid, V. P.; Goddard III, W. A.; Xie, K.; Sargent, E. H. A Ruthenium-Substituted Polyoxoanion serves as Redox Shuttle and Intermediate Stabilizer in Selective Electrooxidation of Ethylene to Ethylene Glycol, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2024, 146 (47), 32660-32669 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.4c11891

6. Yu. J. ^‡; Yan, Y. ^‡; Lin, Y. ^‡; Liu, H.; Li, Y.; Xie, S.; Sun, S.; Liu, F.; Zhang, Z.; Li, W.; Oh, J.; Lin, Z.; Qi, L.; Wang, B.; Huang, W. Improved High-Current-Density Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Kinetics on Single-Atom Co Embedded in an Order Pore-Structured Nitrogen Assembly Carbon Support, Nanoscale Horiz., 2024 DOI: 10.1039/D4NH00299G

5. Yu, J.; Yin, Y.; Huang, W. Engineered interfaces for heterostructured intermetallic nanomaterials. Nat. Synth., 2023, 2, 749-756 DOI: 10.1038/s44160-023-00289-4

4. Yu, J.; Le, T.; Jing, D.; Stavitski, E.; Hunter, N.; Lalit, K.; Leshchev, D.; Resasco, D. E.; Sargent, E. H.; Wang, B.; Huang, W.; Balancing elementary steps enables coke-free dry reforming of methane. Nat. Commun., 2023, 14, 7514 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-43277-0

3. Yu, J.; Notestein, J. M.; Sargent, E. H. Operando investigations of strong metal-support interaction during catalysis, Matter, 2023, 6 (8), 2544-2547 DOI: 10.1016/j.matt.2023.06.003

2. Yu, J.; Yu, S.; Qi, Z.; Fang, X.; Kim, T.-H.; Zhou, L.; Zhang, S.; Huang, W. Synthesis of PtSn4 Intermetallic Nanodisks Through a Galvanic Replacement Mechanism. Chem. Mater., 2022, 15 (34), 6968-6976 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.2c01381

1. Yu, J.; Kolln, A. F.; Jing, D.; Oh, J.; Liu, H.; Qi, Z.; Zhou, L.; Li, W.; Huang, W. Precisely Controlled Synthesis of Hybrid Intermetallic–Metal Nanoparticles for Nitrate Electroreduction. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2021, 13 (44), 52073-52081 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c09301