Operando and In-situ Techniques and Insights into Electrocatalysis

Title: Operando and In-situ Techniques and Insights into Electrocatalysis

Speaker: Dr. Hangjuan Ren (School of Chemistry at Monash University)

Abstract: With growing environmental concerns, the development of clean and renewable energy technologies has become a global priority. Efficient electrochemical and photoelectrochemical processes represent a highly promising approach for sustainable energy conversion, transforming carbon dioxide and water into valuable fuels and chemicals. However, catalyst performance remains a key challenge that limits practical implementation. Understanding how catalysts function under real operating conditions is therefore essential for rational design and optimisation. Traditional ex-situ characterisation provides only static information and cannot capture the dynamic evolution of catalysts and reaction processes under operating conditions. This talk will introduce operando and in-situ characterisation techniques developed to monitor catalytic processes in real time under working conditions. These methods enable the identification of key reaction intermediates and the investigation of charge-transfer dynamics and interfacial phenomena, providing mechanistic insights that guide the design of more efficient and durable systems for electrocatalysis.

Biography: Dr. Hangjuan Ren is a Lecturer in the School of Chemistry at Monash University, appointed in January 2025. She completed her PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney in 2019. After earning her doctorate, Dr. Ren continued her research at UNSW Sydney as a Postdoctoral Research Associate for one year. In 2020, she served as a Research Fellow at the Cambridge CARES Lab, contributing to a collaborative project between the University of Cambridge and the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Ren further advanced her research career as a Research Associate at the Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, in 2021. Dr. Ren has also been a visiting scholar at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and Free University of Berlin. Dr. Ren investigates electrochemical CO2 reduction, water splitting, and operando/in-situ characterisation to advance sustainable energy conversion and environmental catalysis. Her research has been published in Nature Catalysis, Nature Communications and Advanced Materials, etc.