Catalysis for energy storage
CH-421
Welcome to the class!
Mid-term: Nov 6, 2025
Final-Exam: December 18, 2025.
Teacher: Xile Hu (xile.hu@epfl.ch)
Teaching assistant: Jiaming Tian (jiaming.tian@epfl.ch)
Summary of class:
This course covers the fundamental and applied aspects of electrocatalysis related to renewable energy conversion and storage. The focus is on catalysis for hydrogen evolution, oxygen evolution, and CO2 reduction reactions. Both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts are discussed, with an emphasis on the mechanistic understanding of these reactions.
- News forum (Forum)
- Student suggestions about the course (Forum)
- Problem set October 16 (File)
- Problem set 1 answers (File)
- Last year's mid term with answers (File)
Note: Here I will post from time to time some reading materials that go beyond the scope of the normal time span of this course. They include NEWS, Perspectives, and Reviews of topics related to energy and climate science. If you have an interesting paper to share, please let me know and I will post it here as well.
- What Happened to Global Warming? Scientists Say Just Wait a Bit (File)
- Carbon dioxide removal is not a current climate solution — we need to change the narrative (File)
- CO2 as a control knob for the climate (File)
- Carbon sequastration (File)
- algae biofuel reading (File)
First Chapter: Introduction
Second Chapter: Molecular catalysis for HER
- Chapter II - Course materials (File)
- Overpotential in organic solvents (File)
- Questions on paper of overpotential in organic solvents (File)
- Answers to paper on overpotentials (File)
- Class exercise: calcualte overpotential for Fe porphyrin catalyst (File)
- Discussion: strength and weakness of molecular HER catalysts (File)
Third Chapter: Molecular catalysis for OER
- Chapter III - Course materials (File)
- In class exercise OER mechanism (File)
- In class exercise answers (File)
Fourth Chapter: Molecular catalysis for CO2RR
Fifth chapter: Heterogeneous Catalysis for HER
- Chapter V - course materials (File)
- HER computational paper (File)
- HER computational paper questions (File)
- COmputational HER answers (File)
- Paper MOS2 HER (File)
- Questions, HER MoS2 paper (File)
- Analysis of MoS2 paper (File)
- IN class exercise her hetero (File)
- Answers to in class questions (File)
Sixth Chapter: Heterogeneous Catalysis for OER
- Chapter 6 - course materials (File)
- Perspective in OER catalysts, sections 1, 2, 4, 8, 10 (File)
- Questiosn on the perspective paper (File)
- Benchmark OER catalysts (File)
- Questions benchmark paper (File)
- IN class exercise oer (File)
- In class hetero oer answers (File)
Chapter 7: Heterogeneous catalysis for CO2RR
Last Year's exams
Books and other course related materials
- Electrochemical methods (File)
- Introduction to electrocatalysis (File)
- METHODS FOR ELECTROCATALYSIS (File)