Congratulations to Dr Yijiao Jiang for being awarded the Young Researcher Award at the  6th Asia Pacific Congress on Catalysis (APTCAT – 6) in Taiwan. Dr Jiang’s work on “Directing the Photocatalytic Activity of TiO2 based Catalysts by Engineering Surface Active Sites” has been selected among the 750 abstracts submitted to the 2013 Conference. A monetary award of $21,000 (NT$) will be presented to Dr Jiang during the conference.

Dr Jiang has been working on the design and optimisation of photocatalysts for application in VOC removal and CO2 reduction to produce valuable chemicals. The work that she will be presenting at the APCAT-6 conference looks at the correlations between the structure of the catalyst and its photoactivity. She showed that the level of terminal hydroxyl groups on the TiO2 surface is vital for defining its photocatalytic activity, with low terminal hydroxyl group content accounts for the high activity. By controlling the intrinsic distribution of native hydroxyl groups on the TiO2 surface during the synthesis of highly active bare and F-doped TiO2 photocatalyst, a remarkably higher photocatalytic activity signified by 100% photodegradation rate and no catalyst deactivation was observed. Her work shows the feasibility of the wide application of the cost-friendly TiO2 through rational active site engineering.