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Hui Wang is currently on a doctorate programme in Prof. Junwang Tang's Solar Energy Group at the Department of Chemical Engineering of UCL. She received BSc and MSc in Environmental Engineering from Hunan University, focusing on photocatalysts fabrication and application in environmental purification. Her current research focuses on photocatalytic nitrogen fixation to produce ammonia.
Research Project
Title: Photocatalysis ammonia synthesis
Ammonia as the world's second-largest chemical production has a great market for fertilizer production, chemical products, fuel cell and hydrogen storage materials. Ammonia is produced from N2, however, N2is the non-polar gas and the triple bonding has a high bond energy of 945 kJ / mol. What's more, the dissociation energy of the first bond in N2is high and the nucleophilic is weak. Industrial nitrogen fixation is under high temperature and high-pressure conditions, and the annual consumption of energy accounts for about 2% of the world's total consumption with the emission of large amounts of CO2. Looking for green and efficient methods of nitrogen fixation is necessary for sustainable energy and environmental development. Photocatalytic nitrogen fixation is a process that semiconductor catalysts produce photo-generated electrons under light irradiation, combined with protons in water to reduce nitrogen. This process is low energy consumption and less pollution, which is the ideal nitrogen fixation method. However, the researchers of photocatalytic nitrogen fixation research have already developed for 40 years, and the efficiency is still too low level to apply.
Based on the basic steps in the nitrogen fixation, including nitrogen adsorption, electron and proton transfer, and ammonia desorption, the efficient photocatalysts will be fabricated and applied to improve the efficiency of photocatalytic nitrogen fixation.
Education
BSc in Environmental Engineering, Hunan University, China, 2014
MSc in Environmental Engineering, Hunan University, China, 2017
