The Institute recently hosted a seminar titled “Multiscale hybrid design to tune catalyst activity” delivered by Prof. Xingke Cai (蔡興科) from Shenzhen University as the speaker, and the event was hosted by Prof. Qing Li.
Prof. Xingke Cai is a Professor at Shenzhen University, specializing in material engineering for energy related application. With over 55 first/corresponding author publications in top-tier journals such as Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, Chemical Society Reviews, and Journal of the American Chemical Society, and more than 5,000 citations, Prof. Cai brought extensive expertise and insight to the seminar.
In his presentation, he clearly addressed the key challenges in multi-electron electrocatalytic reactions, such as sluggish kinetics, high overpotentials, and low energy-conversion efficiencies. He detailed how the electronic structure of active sites can be tuned through heteroatom incorporation to accelerate reaction kinetics. Prof. Cai further explained the implementation and validation of three progressively precise structural strategies—interfacial hybridization, intrinsic doping, and atomically precise hybridization—through well-designed material systems.
The seminar concluded with an engaging and interactive discussion. Our students and researchers actively exchanged ideas with Prof. Cai, exploring the subtleties and future directions of these catalytic strategies. The event provided an excellent platform for in-depth academic exchange, leaving the audience with a deeper appreciation of how precise electronic structure modulation can advance electrocatalytic technology.
