Qing Zhao
Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering
Office
- 210 Cullinane
- 617.373.5892
Lab
- 259 Cullinane
Related Links
Research Focus
Computational catalyst and material design for sustainable energy applications.
About
Joined the Chemical Engineering Department in January 2022.
We are an interdisciplinary group working at the interface with computational chemistry, materials science, sustainable energy, and machine learning. Our research leverages and develops computational tools (first-principles methods and machine learning models) to design new catalysts and materials (heterogeneous catalysts, nanoparticles, and polymers) for sustainable energy applications (electrochemical CO2 reduction, water splitting, solar cell, and battery).
Education
- Postdoctoral Research Associate, Princeton University, 2018-2021
- PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018
- MS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014
- BS, Shanghai Jiao Tong University & Purdue University, 2012
Honors & Awards
2018 ACS Chemical Computing Group Excellence Award
Research Overview
Computational catalyst and material design for sustainable energy applications.
We are an interdisciplinary group working at the interface with computational chemistry, materials science, sustainable energy, and machine learning. Our research leverages and develops computational tools (first-principles methods and machine learning models) to aid the discovery of new materials (heterogeneous catalysts, nanoparticles, and polymers) for sustainable energy applications (electrochemical CO2 reduction, water splitting, solar cell, and battery). Our group employs first-principle methods, especially density functional theory and embedded correlated wavefunction theory, to understand reaction mechanisms of heterogenous catalysis, surface chemistry of quantum dots, and structure-property relationships of nanostructured materials. We also develop end-to-end artificial intelligence models to dramatically accelerate catalyst and material design towards the realization of new and clean energy!
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- Zhao, Q.; Martirez, J. M. P.; Carter, E. A. Charting C-C Coupling Pathways in Electrochemical CO2 Reduction on Cu(111) Using Embedded Correlated Wavefunction Theory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2022, 119, e2202931119. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2202931119
- Zhao, Q.; Martirez, J. M. P.; Carter, E. A. Electrochemical Hydrogenation of CO on Cu(100): Insights from Accurate Multiconfigurational Wavefunction Methods. The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 2022, 13, 10282-10290. doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c02444
- Zhao, Q.; Martirez, J. M. P.; Carter, E. A. Revisiting Understanding of Electrochemical CO2 Reduction on Cu(111): Competing Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer Reaction Mechanisms Revealed by Embedded Correlated Wavefunction Theory. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2021,143, 6152-6164. doi.org/10.1021/jacs.1c00880
- Zhao, Q.; Zhang, X.; Martirez, J. M. P.; Carter, E. A., Benchmarking an Embedded Adaptive Sampling Configuration Interaction Method for Surface Reactions: H2 Desorption from and CH4 Dissociation on Cu(111). Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, 2020, 16, 7078-7088. doi.org/10.1021/acs.jctc.0c00341
- Zhao, Q.; Carter, E. A. Revisiting Competing Paths in Electrochemical CO2 Reduction Reaction on Copper via Embedded Correlated Wavefunction Theory. Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, 2020, 16, 6528-6538. doi.org/10.1021/acs.jctc.0c00583
- Zhao, Q.; Kulik, H. J. Stable Surfaces That Bind Too Tightly: Can Range-Separated Hybrids or DFT+U Improve Paradoxical Descriptions of Surface Chemistry? The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 2019, 10, 5090-5098. doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b01650
- Zhao, Q.; Kulik, H. J. Electronic Structure Origins of Surface-Dependent Growth in III-V Quantum Dots. Chemistry of Materials, 2018, 30, 7154-7165. doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b03125
- Zhao, Q.; Kulik, H. J. Where Does the Density Localize in the Solid State? Divergent Behavior for Hybrids and DFT+U. Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, 2018, 14, 670-683. ACS Editors’ Choice, Most read article in JCTC in 2018. doi.org/10.1021/acs.jctc.7b01061
Aug 04, 2023
Developing a Computer Model for Carbon Dioxide Conversion
ChE Associate Professor Richard West, ChE/COS Assistant Professor Magda Barecka, and ChE Assistant Professor Qing Zhao were awarded a $500K grant for “Accelerating Electrocatalyst Innovation: High-Throughput Automated Microkinetic, Multiscale, and Techno-economic Modeling” as part of the Creating Revolutionary Energy and Technology Endeavors (CREATE) Exploratory Topic managed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).
Jan 03, 2022
New Faculty Spotlight: Qing Zhao
Qing Zhao joins the Chemical Engineering department in January 2022 as an Assistant Professor.