Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology · Energy
Professor Hainan Sun's research lab specializes in the design and development of advanced electrocatalysts for sustainable energy conversion, with a primary focus on electrochemical water splitting for green hydrogen production. The lab explores novel active sites—particularly high-valence metal cations and unconventional catalytic centers—in both noble and non-noble metal-based materials to enhance catalytic activity, selectivity, and durability. A key research direction involves bridging fundamental electrocatalysis with industrial-scale applications, including the use of small molecules as alternative substrates to improve energy efficiency and enable simultaneous pollutant degradation or chemical synthesis. The lab also investigates the biological interactions of nanomaterials, particularly nanoparticle-induced cytotoxicity, to guide the safe design of nanomaterials for energy and biomedical applications.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Electrochemical water splitting represents one of the most promising technologies to produce green hydrogen, which can help to realize the goal of achieving carbon neutrality. While substantial efforts on a laboratory scale have been made for understanding fundamental catalysis and developing high‐performance electrocatalysts for the two half‐reactions involved in water electrocatalysis, much less attention has been paid to doing relevant research on a larger scale. For example, few such researc
Abstract Electrochemical water splitting is a critical energy conversion process for producing clean and sustainable hydrogen; this process relies on low‐cost, highly active, and durable oxygen evolution reaction/hydrogen evolution reaction electrocatalysts. Metal cations (including transition metal and noble metal cations), particularly high‐valence metal cations that show high catalytic activity and can serve as the main active sites in electrochemical processes, have received special attentio
Recent progress in doped ruthenium oxides as high-efficiency electrocatalysts for the OER, in which various types of dopants and design strategies are summarized, with an emphasis on the establishment of the structure–activity relationship.
Abstract Electrochemical water splitting represents a promising technology for green hydrogen production. To design advanced electrocatalysts, it is crucial to identify their active sites and interpret the relationship between their structures and performance. Materials extensively studied as electrocatalysts include noble‐metal‐based (e.g., Ru, Ir, and Pt) and non‐noble‐metal‐based (e.g., 3d transition metals) compounds. Recently, advancements in characterization techniques and theoretical calc
Nanoparticles (NPs) are widely used in a variety of fields, including those related to consumer products, architecture, energy, and biomedicine. Once they enter the human body, NPs contact proteins in the blood and interact with cells in organs, which may induce cytotoxicity. Among the various factors of NP surface chemistry, surface charges, hydrophobicity levels and combinatorial decorations are found to play key roles inregulating typical cytotoxicity-related bioeffects, including protein bin
Abstract Electrochemical water splitting is a promising technique for the production of high‐purity hydrogen. Substituting the slow anodic oxygen evolution reaction with an oxidation reaction that is thermodynamically more favorable enables the energy‐efficient production of hydrogen. Moreover, this approach facilitates the degradation of environmental pollutants and synthesis of value‐added chemicals through the rational selection of small molecules as substrates. Strategies for small‐molecule
Cell death is crucial to human health and is related to various serious diseases. Therefore, generation of new cell death regulators is urgently needed for disease treatment. Nanoparticles (NPs) are now routinely used in a variety of fields, including consumer products and medicine. Exhibiting stability and ease of decoration, gold nanoparticles (GNPs) could be used in diagnosis and disease treatment. Upon entering the human body, GNPs contact human cells in the blood, targeting organs and the i
Abstract Tuning material properties by modulation of the arrangement of atoms is a fundamental and effective strategy in materials science. Structurally long‐range ordered materials are increasingly finding utility for electrocatalytic applications. Such ordered structures can achieve unique functions that increase the electrocatalytic activity compared to corresponding electrocatalysts with a disordered structure. Effective strategies for designing high‐performance electrocatalysts based on str
The outstanding OER performance of a perovskite can be achieved by the strategy of introducing multi-element synergy and building an ordered structure.
Electrochemical water splitting is one of the most promising techniques for producing high-purity hydrogen without carbon emissions. To commercialize this attractive technique, designing cost-effective, highly efficient, and stable electrocatalysts is desired. Perovskite oxides have been widely applied in many fields as efficient and low-cost catalysts due to their flexible compositions and structures, offering considerable opportunities and strategies to design desired electrocatalysts. In this
Owing to the low theoretical potential of the urea oxidation reaction (UOR), urea electrolysis is an energy-saving technique for the generation of hydrogen. Herein, a hierarchical structure of CuO nanowires decorated with nickel hydroxide supported on 3D Cu foam is constructed. Combined theoretical and experimental analyses demonstrate the high reactivity and selectivity of CuO and Ni(OH)<sub>2</sub> toward the UOR instead of the oxygen evolution reaction. The hierarchical structure creates a sy
The objective of this study was to identify the major volatile compounds and their relative concentrations in flowers of different chrysanthemum cultivars and their wild relatives. The volatile organic components of fresh flowers were analyzed using a headspace solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. In total, 193 volatile organic components were detected; the major scent components were monoterpenoids and oxygenated monoterpenoids, which accounted for 68.5
Simple disordered perovskite oxides have been intensively exploited as promising electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) towards their application in water splitting, reversible fuel cells, and rechargeable metal-air batteries. Here, the B-site cation-ordered double perovskites Ba<sub>2</sub> Bi<sub>x</sub> Sc<sub>0.2</sub> Co<sub>1.8-x</sub> O<sub>6-δ</sub> , with two types of cobalt local environments, are demonstrated to be superior electrocatalysts for OER in alkaline soluti
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