Speaker: Prof. YANG Peidong  

Time: 2019.6.14, 15:30-17:00   

Venue: Multifunction Hall, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences   

Bio: 

Peidong Yang is a Chemistry professor, S. K. and Angela Chan Distinguished Chair Professor in Energy at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a senior faculty scientist at Materials and Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

Prof. Yang is known particularly for his work on semiconductor nanowires and their photonic and energy applications including artificial photosynthesis. He is the director for California Research Alliance by BASF and one of the co-directors for the Kavli Energy Nanoscience Institute at Berkeley. He is the founding dean for School of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University. He cofounded three companies: Nanosys Inc, Alphabet Energy Inc; Infinity Innovation Inc. 

Dr. Yang received his B.A. in Chemistry from the University of Science and Technology in China in 1993. He then received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University in 1997, and did his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Soon after, he joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the recipient of MacArthur Fellowship, E. O. Lawrence Award, ACS Nanoscience Award, MRS Medal, Baekeland Medal, Alfred P. Sloan research fellowship, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Young Investigator Award, National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award, MRS Young Investigator Award, Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics, ACS Pure Chemistry Award, and Alan T. Waterman Award.  He is the 2014 Thomas Reuters Citation Laureate for Physics. 

Abstract: 

Semiconductor nanowires, by definition, typically have nanoscale cross-sectional dimensions, with lengths spanning from hundreds of nanometers to millimeters. These subwavelength structures represent a new class of semiconductor materials for investigating light generation, propagation, detection, amplification, modulation as well as energy conversion and storage. After more than two decade of research, nanowires can now be synthesized and assembled with specific compositions, heterojunctions, and architectures. This has led to a host of nanowire photonic and electronic devices. Nanowire also represents an important class of nanostructure building blocks for photovoltaics as well as direct solar-to-fuel conversion because of their high surface area, tunable bandgap, and efficient charge transport and collection. In this talk, I will present a brief history of nanowire research for the past two decades and highlight the synthesis of nanowires using well-defined chemistry. These semiconductor nanowires are then used for artificial photosynthesis, where solar energy is converted and stored in chemical bonds in a solar driven CO2 fixation process.