DrHaihui Joy Jiang

Our group combines chemistry, physics, materials science and engineering to solve important problems, ranging from exploring lightning and the chemical origin of life, to developing electrified chemical processes and mitigating climate change.

We work on plasma (air gap)-electrochemical synthesis, magneto-electrochemistry, and zero-carbon polymers as three innovations for a lower carbon future. 

Lightning and the Chemical Origin of Life

What are the early steps in the chemical origin of life on Earth, prior to the existence of complex organic molecules and biology? Could Earth have relied on fallen meteorites carrying alien species, or could lightning storms have turned an inorganic Earth and its inert atmosphere into chemically reactive building blocks for early life to emerge, survive, and evolve? Our group tests the “Frankenstein” scenario, experimentally simulating lightning strikes under a prebiotic Earth-like environment on the bench top. We explore reaction pathways uniquely enabled by plasma- and radical- chemistry, as well as the role of reactive interfaces (e.g., mineral surfaces or volcanic aerosols) in electrochemical synthesis, under geologically plausible conditions.

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Plasma-electrochemical synthesis for a clean future

Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer produced by the Haber-Bosch process provides food security for half of the global population (4 billion people) today. However, this industrial process accounts for 1.4% of global CO2 emissions, 1-2% of the world’s total energy consumption, and nearly 40% of world’s hydrogen fuels every year. Using renewably generated plasmas to drive radical reactions at reactive interfaces, our group designs green and scalable methods to electrify chemical synthesis and simplify synthetic routes that are otherwise energy intensive or pollutive. Inorganic chemistry projects include making nitrogen fertilizers, fuels, and sanitation products from air and water. Organic chemistry projects include plasma driven cross-coupling reactions, aromatic functionalization, and olefin oxidation reactions.

More info on our research areas: https://www.hjj-group.com/research