2016 Danckwerts Lecture | AIChE

The Executive Editors of Chemical Engineering Science and the members of the selection committee are pleased to announce the 2016 Danckwerts Lecture will be presented by Professor G. Q. Max Lu.  

The P. V. Danckwerts Lecture was established in 1985 to honor Prof. Peter V. Danckwerts as a leading scholar in the field of chemical engineering, former Chairman of the Board of Chemical Engineering Science, and the past President of IChemE.  The Danckwerts Lecture is co-sponsored by Elsevier, AIChE, IChemE, and EFCE and is held in alternating years at the ECCE and AIChE meetings.

Engineering Nanocrystalline Photocatalysts for Energy and Environmental Applications

Max Lu, President & Vice-Chancellor, University of Surrey

Nanoparticles and nanocrystals of semiconducting oxides constructed from nanoscale building blocks often possess unique and much improved properties. Such materials are promising in enabling innovative technologies for conversion and storage of renewable energies for the future. With current challenges in climate change and sustainable development, nanotechnology is especially exciting because it provides great opportunities for technological advances in areas of solar power, solar hydrogen production and storage.

This lecture presents latest developments in oxide nanomaterials such as titania as photocatalysts. Materials such as layered titania and single anatase crystals are photoactive materials promising for cheap and efficient solar cells, hydrogen production from water splitting and solar detoxification of water and air.  Latest advances in bandgap engineering of TiO2 for visible light photocatalysis will be highlighted and discussed.