Sung-Fu Hung Group

Today is our 2021 Year-End Party. We tasted the delicious hot pot with fresh seafood and various meats. Every members have dedicated theirselves to this lab, so that our lab can be perfect gradually. We also prepare Red Envelopes (the convention for the Lunar New Year) to members. We hope that the students can do the experiments and research smoothly and keep smile in the coming year. Happy Lunar New Year.

Today is our 2021 Lab Outing. We go outing to Tainan, where is the early-developed city in Taiwan and has many gorgeous local dishes. We drive there and view many scenery along the way, including the Houlong Cape of Good Hope, the Qingshui Highway Rest Area, the Lukang Mazu Temple, the Budai Harbor Fish Market, and the Ten-Drum Rentou Culture Creative Park. We have numerous wonderful memories of this journey.

Congratulate Pei-Hsuan, Feng-Yi, Yi-Hsuan, and Guan-Lin on completing 26 hours​ VLSI training courses - Nano Metrology Technology and passing the examinations. We hope that they have learned knowledge regarding SEM, TEM, XRD, XPS, and AFM, and utilize what they learned to their researches.

Today is Yi-Hsuan's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, YI-HSUAN!!! She got so many blessing and the shaving foam. LoL. Her colleagues remember that she does not like the cake, so they prepare one bucket of fried chicken rather than a cake. She also receive a gorgeous birthday gift. We are very glad to see they have built good friendship.

We welcome Wen-Yang to join a newbie's lab. She is the fifth student joining our group, so we have a bigger team now. This is a new beginning for her to study the material science and chemistry. We hope that the students in our lab can do decent research and have a wonderful time during their master period. We will do our best to help Wen-Yang obtain her Master degree. 

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She writes, "She believes that life needs ongoing investigation, and we should not be afraid to start again." We hope that her advisor can help her figure out her life aim.

We welcome Hsin-Jung, Wen-Jing, Zih-Yi, and Tsung-Ju to join Hung's lab. We have four new blood, so we are a ten-person team now. This is a milestone for Hung's lab. We have enough funding, decent space and instruments, excellent students. We are ready to do impressive researches. Let's see what we can achieve in the near future. We still hope that the students in our lab can do decent research and have a wonderful time during their master period. Let's go, Hung's lab!!!

We congratulate Prof. Hung on the achievement of fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), AdvanceHE, UK. 

FHEA can be granted if one is able to provide evidence of broadly based effectiveness in more substantive teaching and supporting learning roles and can demonstrate a broad understanding of effective approaches to learning and teaching support as a key contribution to high quality student learning.

We look forward to the advancement of Prof. Hung as an educator.

Today is Pei-Hsuan's birthday. We wish Pei-Hsuan have an awesome Birthday Party. Although she did not acquire the shaving foam on her face, she received two birthday gifts from her colleagues - her favorite Winnie-the-Pooh mug and pot. Her colleagues prepared the environment-friendly electronic candle. We have demonstrated the high-tech birthday party!!! 

We welcome Hsin-Jung, Wen-Jing, Zih-Yi, and Tsung-Ju in the Welcome Party. Due to the difficult period, We prepared many delicious food in our lab instead of eating out. We had Korean fried chicken, the roast duck, beef bourguignon, pork knuckles, fried shrimp ball with pineapple, fried fishes, sliced cold chicken, et al. We also had many beers. We hope they have a wonderful time.

Prof. Hung published "Unraveling the Origin of Sulfur-doped Fe-N-C Single Atom Catalyst for Enhanced Oxygen Reduction Activity: Effect of Fe-spin State Tuning" in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. as the corresponding author. Pei-Hsuan Chen and Yi-Hsuan Lu were listed as the co-authors. Thanks for their contributions to the in-situ XAS measurement.

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The following is the publication information:

Chen, Z.-Y.; Niu, H.; Ding, J.; Liu, H.; Zuo, W.; Han L.; Guo, Y.;* Hung, S.-F.;* Zhai, Y.* Unraveling the Origin of Sulfur-doped Fe-N-C Single Atom Catalyst for Enhanced Oxygen Reduction Activity: Effect of Fe-spin State Tuning. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 25404-25410.

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https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202110243

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Abstract:

Heteroatom doped atomically dispersed Fe1-NC catalysts have been found to show excellent activity toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). However, the origin of the enhanced activity is still controversial because the structure-function relationship governing the enhancement remains elusive. Herein, sulfur(S)-doped Fe1-NC catalyst was obtained as a model, which displays a superior activity for ORR towards the traditional Fe-NC materials. 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy revealed that incorporation of S in the second coordination sphere of Fe1-NC can induce the transition of spin polarization configuration. Operando 57Fe Mössbauer spectra definitively identified the low spin single-Fe3+-atom of C-FeN4-S moiety as the active site for ORR. Moreover, DFT calculations unveiled that lower spin state of the Fe center after the S doping promotes OH* desorption process. This work elucidates the underlying mechanisms towards S doping for enhancing ORR activity, and paves a way to investigate the function of broader heteroatom doped Fe1-NC catalysts to offer a general guideline for spin-state-determined ORR.

Prof. Hung published "Boride-Derived Oxygen-Evoluton Catalysts" as the co-first author in Nature Communications. Feng-Yi Wu and Pei-Hsuan Chen were listed as the co-authors. Thanks for their contributions to the in-situ XRD measurement.

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The following is the publication information:

Wang, N.;† Xu, A.;† Ou, P.;† Hung, S.-F.;† Ozden, A.; Lu, Y.-R.; Abed, J.; Wang, Z.; Yan, Y.; Sun, M.; Xia, Y.; Han, M.; Han, J.; Yao, K.; Wu, F.-Y.; Chen, P. H.; Vomiero, A.; Seifitokaldani, A.; Sun, X.; Sinton, D.; Liu, Y.; Sargent, E. H.; Liang, H. Boride-Derived Oxygen-Evolution Catalysts. Nature Commun. 2021, 12, 6089. (†These authors equally contribute to this work).

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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26307-7

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Abstract:

Metal borides/borates have been considered promising as oxygen evolution reaction catalysts; however, to date, there is a dearth of evidence of long-term stability at practical current densities. Here we report a phase composition modulation approach to fabricate effective borides/borates-based catalysts. We find that metal borides in-situ formed metal borates are responsible for their high activity. This knowledge prompts us to synthesize NiFe-Boride, and to use it as a templating precursor to form an active NiFe-Borate catalyst. This boride-derived oxide catalyzes oxygen evolution with an overpotential of 167 mV at 10 mA/cm2 in 1 M KOH electrolyte and requires a record-low overpotential of 460 mV to maintain water splitting performance for over 400 h at current density of 1 A/cm2. We couple the catalyst with CO reduction in an alkaline membrane electrode assembly electrolyser, reporting stable C2H4 electrosynthesis at current density 200 mA/cm2 for over 80 h.

Today is Hsin-Jung's birthday. His colleagues have prepared an awesome Birthday Party and a gorgeous gift to him. As he desires to ride a backhoe in the future, his colleagues gave him an electronic multi-function backhoe. We wish that he practices well using this gift and takes a license to a BIG one in the future.

In comparison with lab gathering at the end of 2020 (6 members), we have 15 members joining the party this year. We exchanged gifts relating to the office. We voted for the "special" gifts. The members who gave the most special gifts underwent the special events, including the mysterious drinks and the break-up of the plastic wrap by face. We have a wonderful time at this lab gathering.