Duan Lele, originally from Jiaozuo, Henan Province, graduated from Dalian University of Technology with a bachelor's and master's degree. In 2011, he received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. From 2012 to 2015, he conducted postdoctoral research at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and the Brookhaven National Laboratory in the United States. In 2015, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor at KTH, and in 2017, he moved to the Department of Chemistry, the Southern University of Science and Technology. In 2023, he joined the Center of Artificial Photosynthesis for Solar Fuels at Westlake University as a tenured Associate Professor. His research interests focus on surface coordination chemistry and catalysis, including (1) the design, synthesis, and mechanistic study of electrocatalysts, (2) the development of key materials for alkaline membrane electrode water electrolysis devices, and (3) the large-scale preparation of graphyne-based carbon materials.

The Duan group focuses on the surface coordination chemistry on two-dimensional carbon materials such as graphyne and graphene, and constructs single-atom, subnano- and nano-catalysts, and systematically studies the catalytic performance, reaction mechanism and structure-activity relationship of catalysts for the conversion of small molecules into green fuels. A series of original achievements have been made as follows:

(1)  A new synthetic strategy has been developed to realize the one-pot preparation of graphdiyne-supported transition metal catalysts, including single-atom, sub-nano and nano catalysts. By studies of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen reduction reactions, the interactions between graphdiyne and the metal atoms were studied, and the structure-activity relationship was clarified.

(2) The catalytic performance and mechanism of heterogeneous catalysts such as single-atom and nanoparticles supported on nitrogen-doped carbon materials toward water splitting and nitrogen reduction reactions were studied. The synergistic catalysis between the Mo single-atom catalyst and nanoparticles promotes the hydrogenation of adsorbed nitrogen.

(3) A new method for surface coordination chemistry of carbon materials was developed, and the electronic regulation and precise construction of secondary coordination spheres of single-atom catalysts on 2D carbon ligands were realized.

1.    Liu, H.; Zou, H.; Wang, D.; Wang, C.; Li, F.; Dai, H.; Song, T.; Wang, M.; Ji, Y.; Duan, L.*, Second Sphere Effects Promote Formic Acid Dehydrogenation by a Single-Atom Gold Catalyst Supported on Amino-Substituted Graphdiyne. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023, e202216739.

2.    Zou, H.; Zhao, G.; Dai, H.; Dong, H.; Luo, W.; Wang, L.; Lu, Z.; Luo, Y.; Zhang, G.*; Duan, L.* Electronic perturbation of Cu single-atom CO₂ reduction catalysts in a molecular way. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2022, e202217220.

3.    Rong, W.; Zou, H.; Tan, S.; Hu, E.; Li, F.; Tang, C.; Dai, H.; Wei, S.; Ji, Y.*; Duan, L.* Few-atom copper catalyst for the electrochemical reduction of CO to acetate: synergetic catalysis between neighboring Cu atoms. CCS Chem. 2022, doi:10.31635/ccschem.022.202201910.

4.    Rong, W.; Zou, H.; Zang, W.; Xi, S.; Wei, S.; Long, B.; Hu, J.; Ji, Y.; Duan, L.* Size-dependent activity and selectivity of atomic-level copper nanoclusters during CO/CO₂ electroreduction. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 466-472.

5.    Yang, J.; Wang, L.; Zhan, S.; Zou, H.; Chen, H.; Ahlquist, M. S. G.; Duan, L.*; Sun, L.* From Ru-bda to Ru-bds: a step forward to highly efficient molecular water oxidation electrocatalysts under acidic and neutral conditions. Nat. Commun. 2021, 12, 373.

6.    Ma, Y.; Yang, T.; Zou, H.; Zang, W.; Kou, Z.*; Mao, L.; Feng, Y.; Shen, L.*; Pennycook, S. J.; Duan, L.*; Li, X.*; Wang, J.* Synergizing Mo single atoms and Mo₂C nanoparticles on CNTs synchronizes selectivity and activity of electrocatalytic N₂ reduction to ammonia. Adv. Mater. 2020, 32, 2002177.     

7.    Zou, H.; Rong, W.; Wei, S.; Ji, Y.*; Duan, L.* Regulating kinetics and thermodynamics of electrochemical nitrogen reduction with metal single-atom catalysts in a pressurized electrolyser. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2020, 117, 29462-29468.

8.    Duan, L.; Bozoglian, F.; Mandal, S.; Stewart, B.; Privalov, T.*; Llobet, A.*; Sun, L. A* Molecular ruthenium catalyst with water-oxidation activity comparable to that of photosystem II. Nat. Chem. 2012, 4, 418-423.

9.    Duan, L.; Araujo, C. M.; Ahlquist, M. S. G.*; Sun, L.* Highly efficient and robust molecular ruthenium catalysts for water oxidation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2012, 109, 15584-15588.

10. Duan, L.; Fischer, A.; Xu, Y.; Sun, L.* Isolated seven-coordinate Ru(IV) dimer complex with HOHOH^- bridging ligand as an intermediate for catalytic water oxidation. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 10397-10399.