News – Refuel@Queens

2025

September

We are thrilled to welcome our newest group members: Joseph Keenan (MSc student), Hyunwook Kim (PDF), and Aumama Al-Naib (undergraduate students). We look forward to collaborating with you and seeing all that you’ll accomplish! It is also the time for group bubble Tea to kick off the new year!

Our MSc students, Ho Thao Nguyen and Van Tai Nguyen, have been promoted to PhD program. Congratulations!
Our manuscript entitled ” Recoverable operation strategy for selective and stable electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction to methane” led by Fei, Behnam, Cornelius and Hung has been accepted by Nature Energy. Congratulations to all! Time for celebration.

August

The group’s summer gathering included delicious BBQ grilled by our very own Chef Fei and some friendly rounds of beach volleyball!

July

Behnam and Gelson have published their work titled “Selective Electrochemical Production of Ethylene from Bicarbonate Solution“ in Angewandte Chemie. Congratulations!

June

Congratulations to Behnam Khiarak on successfully defending his PhD thesis! We wish you all the best in your next chapter at the University of Toronto.

Hung and Hugh, in collaboration with Zhang’s group, published a perspective entitled “Catalysts for electrochemical CO2 conversion: Material Sustainability perspective” in npj Materials Sustainability. Congratulations!

May

We are excited to welcome our newest members: Phan Pham Duc Minh (Tony) (MSc student) and Tuan Anh (Allan) Bui (MSc student), and Huijie Chen (Mitacs Intern) to the group! We look forward to working with you!
Congratulations to Yueying Li on successfully defending her MSc thesis! We wish you all the best in your next chapter at the NRC.

Congratulations to Laura Sofia Quinones on successfully defending her MSc thesis! We wish you all the best in your next chapter at the Maple Leaf Foods.

Our MSc student, Hung Lai, has been promoted to PhD program. Congratulations!

March

Cornelius, Gelson, and our Mitacs intern, Fatima, have published their work titled “Steering the Selectivity of Electrochemical CO₂ Reduction on the Cu Catalyst via the Interplay between Electrode Morphology and Electrolyte Anion Identity“ in ACS Catalysis. Congratulations to All!

Harry, Tu and our undergraduate student, Hugh, have published “Metal Clusters Catalysts for Electrochemical CO2 reduction” in ACS Catalysis. Congratulations!

January

Congratulations to Cornelius Obasanjo on successfully defending his PhD thesis! We wish you all the best in your next chapter at MIT.

2024

October

Behnam, Fei and Gelson represented our group at CSChE 2024, Toronto.

September

We are excited to welcome our newest members to the group: Ho Thao Nguyen (MSc student), Viet Dai Vo (PhD student), and DJ Campell and Sophia Lazzaro (undergraduate students). We look forward to working with you!

August

Behnam, Fei and Hugh represented our group at ISE 2024, Montreal.

We are excited to welcome our newest members to the group: Dr. Khac Huy Dinh (Postdoctoral Fellow), Rodrigo Rosales Visoso (Mitacs Intern), and Dr. Hossein Esmaeili (Visiting Scientist). We look forward to working with you!

July

Group’s summer gathering with homemade food and outdoor activities!

May

We are excited to welcome our newest members: Tai Van Nguyen (MSc student) and Valentine Grange (Mitacs Intern) to the group! We look forward to working with you!

March

Our paper entitled “Multi-metallic Layered Catalysts for Stable Electrochemical CO2 Reduction to Formate and Formic Acid” led by Tu and Behnam has been published in ChemSusChem. Congratulations!
Anh has been selected as the recipient of the 2024 Q-ACS Excellence Award in Green Chemistry and Sustainability (Postdoctoral Scholar Category). Congratuations!

February

Our work in collaboration with Crudden group has been accepted by ACS Catalysis. In this work, we explored the effect of thermal treatment on catalytic activity of NHC-stabilized Au13 nanoclusters in electrochemical CO2 reduction. Congrats Ngoc, Fei and Shriya.

January

We are excited to welcome our newest MSc student, Hung Lai, to the group! We look forward to working with you!

2023

December

Cao received 2023 Smith Engineering Research Excellence Award.

November

Cao named a highly-cited researcher in Chemistry by Clarivate for the third year in a row.

Dr. Gelson Silva joined us, from the Federal University of São Carlos, as a visisting scientist. Welcome Gelson!

September

Laura won the Best Master Poster Award in the annual Queen’s/RMC ChemEng Poster Session with the project entitled “Selective Electrochemical Nitrate Reduction to Ammonia on CoCu Bimetallic Catalysts“. Well done Laura!

Cao received “Science Breakthrough of the Year 2023” by Falling Walls Foundation.

Our paper on “In-situ oxidation of Sn catalysts for long-term electrochemical CO₂ reduction to formate“ led by Behnam and our undergraduate student, Adam Fell, has been published in Catalysis Today. Congratulations!

Our review paper on “progress and perspective of pulse electrolysis for stable electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction” led by Cornelius has been published in the special issue “2023 Energy and Fuels Rising Stars” of Energy & Fuels.

Elissa Wong, Le Anh Duc Do, and Hugh Warkentin join us for 4th year thesis projects. Welcome everyone!

We are excited to welcome our newest MSc student, Ho Dao, to the group! We look forward to working with you!

August

Our MSc student, Huy Pham, has been promoted to PhD program. Congratulations!
Our Mitacs Interns, Antara Das and Shriya Sharma, have successfully completed their internship in our group. We wish you all the best in your future career!
Jackson and Cao wrote “Moving beyond two-carbon products” as a News & Views article for Nature Energy.

July

Our review paper on “Comparative Analysis of Electrolyzers for Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Conversion” led by Fei has been published in Catalysis Today. Congratulations!

CO2L Technologies, led by Tu and Anh, has been accepted into the Advance-ON program. Congratulations!

June

Our work on electrochemical CO2 conversion to hydrocarbons has been selected as a finalist for the Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs of the Year 2023 in the category Engineering and Technology. This innovation was led by our PhD students, Cornelius Obasanjo and Guorui Gao. Congratulations!
Cao received Prize for Excellence in Research (2022) at the Spring Convocation (Video source: Queen’s University).

We had some fun in our photo shooting session today.

Our work entitled “High-Rate and Selective Conversion of CO2 from Aqueous Solutions to Hydrocarbons” has been published in Nature Communications.

May

Our latest work on “High-Rate and Selective Conversion of CO2 from Aqueous Solutions to Hydrocarbons” led by Cornelius, Fei, and Jackson has been accepted by Nature Communications. Congratulations! Let’s celebrate :D.

We are excited to welcome Shriya and Antara who joined us as Mitacs Globlink Interns.

We are excited to welcome our newest MSc students, Yueying Li and Laura Quinones-Gomez, to the group! We look forward to working with you!

April

Congratulations to Emily, Nathan, and Hamzah on the successful presentation of their thesis projects!
We are excited to welcome our newest PDF, Dr. Anh Tran-Ly, to the group! We look forward to working with you Anh!

Eduardo Dia joined us, from the University of São Paulo, as a visiting PhD student. Welcome Eduardo!

February

Congrats to our MSc student, Luke Kuo who successfully defended his thesis today (Feb 17).

Cao gave a public talk on the paths toward decarbonization of fuels and chemicals during the visit of the German Ambassador to Queen’s.

January

We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Jackson Crane has joined the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Queen’s University as an Assistant Professor. Congrats Jackson! We wish you all the best in the next steps of your career.

2022

December

We are excited to welcome our newest PDF, Dr. Ngoc Thi Kim Dang, to the group! We look forward to working with you Ngoc!

November

Cao named a highly-cited researcher 2022 in Chemistry by Clarivate Web of Science.

October

Our research on Carbon Capture and Utilization was featured by Global News. https://globalnews.ca/news/9213668/queens-university-cardon-dioxide-sustainable-fuel/

Cao gave a TED-style talk at the Voices of the Future Canadian Chemical Engineering Session, CCEC 2022. A recorded version was posted on Youtube.

Our research was featured in Queen’s Gazette this month: https://www.queensu.ca/gazette/stories/using-carbon-dioxide-build-green-future

Ilias’s paper on “Zn-Based Catalysts for Selective and Stable Electrochemical CO2 Reduction at High Current Densities” has been accepted by ACS Applied Energy Materials. Ilias completed this work within his 4-month Mitacs Internship in our group. Well done, Ilias!

Congratulations to our PhD student, Cornelius Obasanjo, on winning the Best Poster Award at the Queen’s Engineering Research Day.

Emily Slosser, Justin King, Nathan Steckle, and Hamzah Esnan join us for 4th year thesis projects. Welcome everyone!

September

Our PhD students, Guorui Gao, Behnam Khiarak, and Cornelius Obasanjo, presented their work at the Annual Queen’s/RMC ChemEng Research Day Poster Session. Great work guys! Congratulations to Cornelius on winning the Best Poster Award!

We are excited to welcome our newest MSc student, Huy Trong Pham, to the group! We look forward to working with you Huy!

August

Congratulations to Anh Tran Ly and Tu Nguyen for winning the Grand Prize in the Summer Pitch Competition, hosted by the Dunin-Deshpande Queen’s Innovation Centre (DDQIC). They receive a seed funding of $30,000 for CO2L Tech. Well done Anh and Tu!

Jackson’s paper on “Strategies for decarbonizing natural gas with electrosynthesized methane” has been published online by Cell Reports Physical Science! Congratulations!

July

Our MSc student, Luke Kuo, demonstrated CO2 capture and conversion technology to high school students. Great work Luke!

Cornelius et al., published “In situ regeneration of copper catalysts for long-term electrochemical CO2 reduction to multiple carbon products” in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A. Congratulations!

Tu’s paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) has been published. In this work, we developed a new strategy to extend the lifetime of Cu catalysts for electrochemical CO2 reduction to multi-carbon products. Congrats Tu!

June

Dinh lab along with Crudden lab , received an RTI from NSERC valued at $150,000 to support Metal Cluster Catalysts for Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Conversion.
Cao has been awarded with the Prize for Excellence in Research -Queen’s University’s highest internal research award. “The Prize for Excellence in Research is awarded by the Vice-Principal (Research Portfolio) and celebrates researchers with distinguished contributions to their fields and who have earned their highest degree in the last 10 years....”
Congratulations to Kim Ngoc on receiving Queen’s Postdoctoral Fellowship. “The objective of the fund is to attract outstanding PDFs to Queen’s. The fund provides two years of salary support for up to ten PDFs who will hold the post-doctoral fellowship at Queen’s University. The fund is valued at $50,000 each year of the funding period for a total of $100,000.”

May

Fatima Gonzalez Marin joined us as a Mitacs Globlink Intern. Welcome Fatima!

Congratulations to Adam Fell on receiving M. Sullivan and Son Limited Scholarship! “Established in December 2005 by the Sullivan family and awarded to a graduating student in Chemical Engineering or Engineering Chemistry in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science or Chemistry in the Faculty of Arts and Science on the basis of outstanding achievement for a research project in Chemistry“. Well done, Adam!

April

Congratulations to Adam, Leah, Nadir, Yueying and Yida on the successful presentation of their thesis projects!
Dinh lab received funding from the New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) Exploration program. This is a collaboration with Yang lab (Chemical Engineering), DiCenzo lab (Biology) and Rodrigue lab (Universite de Sherbrooke). We aim to convert carbon dioxide into biodegradable polymer by combining electrochemistry, microbiology and systembiology.
Our work in collaboration with Crudden group has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS). In this work, we explored the catalytic activity of NHC-stabilized hydrido Au24 nanoclusters in electrochemical CO2 reduction. Congrats Behnam!

March

The CO2L Tech team has been selected to represent Queen’s University at the International Finals of The World’s Challenge. Congrats Anh, Adam and Leah!
Ilias Stamatelos joined us as a Mitacs Globalink Research Award Intern. Welcome Ilias!

February

The CO2L Tech team has been accepted into QICSI 2022 program. Congrats Tu and Anh!

January

Our collaboration with Barz’s group and Grafoid Inc. on wastewater treatment received funding from NSERC and OCE.

2021

December

Cao was selected for the Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology (WIN) Rising Star award 2021. “This prestigious award recognizes outstanding early-career researchers in nanotechnology from around the world, introducing them to the University of Waterloo nanoscience and nanotechnology community.”

November

Cao named a highly-cited researcher 2021 in Chemistry by Clarivate Web of Science. “Recognizing the true pioneers in their fields over the last decade, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in the Web of Science™. Of the world’s scientists and social scientists, Highly Cited Researchers truly are one in 1,000.“

October

Cornelius gave a talk entitled “Cu-Ag bimetallic catalysts for electrochemical CO2 reduction to ethanol” at 71st Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference (CCEC 2021).
Luke gave a talk entitled “Anion effects on electrochemical CO2 conversion stability and selectivity at high current densities” at 71st Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference (CCEC 2021).
Our collaboration with Forschungszentrum Jülich on H2 production receives funding from NSERC.

September

Mohammadreza Azarshab joins us as a master student. Welcome Mohammadreza!

Leah Capodagli, Adam Fell, Yueying Li, Yida Luo and Nadir Niazi join us for 4th year thesis projects. Welcome Leah, Adam, Yueying, Yida and Nadir!

August

Congratulations to Pengtao Yue on receiving scholarship from China Scholarship Council (CSC). Pengtao will be joining our group as a visiting PhD student in 2022.
Dinh group receives funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation John R. Evans Leaders Fund.

July

Jackson Crane joins us as a postdoctoral fellow. Welcome Jackson!

Luke et al., published “Toward efficient catalysts for electrochemical CO₂ conversion to C₂ products” in Current Opinion in Electrochemistry. Congratulations!

June

Sneha Kumaru joins us as a Mitacs GR student. Welcome Sneha!

May

Tu et al., published ” Electrochemical CO2 Reduction to Ethanol: From Mechanistic Understanding to Catalyst Design” in Journal of Materials Chemistry A. Congratulations!

Guorui Gao joins us as a PhD student. Welcome Guorui!

Behnam Nourmohammadi Khiarak joins us as a PhD student. Welcome Behnam!

Hugh Warkentin joins us as a NSERC USRA student. Welcome Hugh!

April

Congratulations to Ben, Mahad, and Ke Xu on the successful presentation of their thesis projects!

February

Jared published “Ethylene Electrosynthesis: A Comparative Techno-economic Analysis of Alkaline vs Membrane Electrode Assembly vs CO₂–CO–C₂H₄ Tandems” in ACS Energy Letters. Congratulations!

2020

December

Ben, Ke Xu, and Mahad did a great job on the midterm presentations for their thesis projects. Congratulations!

September

Tu et al., published “Gas diffusion electrode design for electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction” in Chemical Society Reviews. Congratulations!

Cornelius Obasanjo joins us as a PhD student. Welcome Cornelius!

Luke Kuo joins us as a master student. Welcome Luke!

Benjamin Davies, Ke Xu, and Mahad Asif join us for 4th year thesis projects. Welcome Ben, Ke and Mahad!

August

Tu et al. published “Fundamentals of electrochemical CO2 reduction on Single-Metal-Atom catalysts” in ACS Catalysis. Congratulations!

July

Congratulations to Guorui Gao on receiving scholarship from China Scholarship Council (CSC). Guorui will be joining our group as a PhD student in January 2021.

June

Congratulations to Luke Kuo on receiving NSERC’s Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship. Luke will be joining our group as a Master student this fall.
Cao wrote “Boosting chemical and fuel production” as a News & Views in Nature Catalysis.