Harvesting energy from the waste (for instance, waste heat, waste water) is of tremendous scientific and technological interest and can improve the overall efficiency of energy conversion processes. We are focused on two important energy conversion technologies including thermoelectrics and microbial fuel cells, which can convert waste heat and chemical energy to electricity, respectively. Our research aims to develop highly efficient energy conversion devices by engineering new materials with chemically tunable nanostructures to control and optimize carrier transport, reaction kinetics and thermodynamics in materials. This research will in turn offer the guidelines of material and structure design for new-generation, low-cost and high-performance clean energy conversion devices.
A. Designing Nanoscale Heterostructures for Thermoelectrics
B. Nanostructures-based Microbial Fuel Cells
