Di-Jia Liu preview image

Di-Jia Liu

Senior Chemist

Di-Jia Liu, Senior Chemist and Principal Investigator, Catalysis and Energy Conversion Theme of the Chemical Sciences & Engineering Division

Biography

Di-Jia (DJ) Liu is a Senior Chemist at CSE. He joined Argonne National Laboratory in 2002 after 12 years R&D at Honeywell International where he last served as Senior Principal Scientist. His current interests cover nanomaterials for fuel cells, electrocatalysis for water splitting, CO2-to-chemical conversion, hydrogen/methane storage, metal-air battery, catalytic reforming for H2 production, advanced x-ray characterization techniques, etc. At Honeywell, he led various projects in fuel cells, automotive and aviation environmental control catalytic system, advanced material characterization and industrial Six-Sigma process improvement.  Dr. Liu holds joint appointments as a Senior Scientist at Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering of University of Chicago. He also serves as the operating agent on behalf of USDOE in coordinating Task 31 (fuel cell materials) activities under International Energy Agency Technology Collaboration Programme on Advanced Fuel Cells (AFC TCP). He is a member of American Chemical Society, Electrochemical Society and American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Liu has numerous scientific publications including six in Science and Nature family, 34 granted US patents.  He received four R&D 100 Awards as the lead inventor (2016, 2019, 2020, 2022), Argonne National Laboratory Board of Governors Distinguished Performance Award, Argonne’s Pacesetter Award, IMPACT Argonne Award, DOE Office of Sciences Outstanding Mentor Award, and DOE Hydrogen Sorption Center of Excellence Team Award. At Honeywell, he was recognized by Corporate Technical Achievement Award in 1998 and 2000 USA Today Quality Cup among many other recognitions. He was elected as the Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2024.

Educations

B. Sc. In Chemistry, Peking University, 1982

Ph. D. in Physical Chemistry, The University of Chicago, 1987

Postdoc fellow, The University of California at Berkeley, 1988-1990

Awards & Recognitions

  • Elected as Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2024
  • Argonne National Laboratory Board of Governors Distinguished Performance Award, 2023
  • Impact Argonne Award for extraordinary effort in developing report on ​“Platinum Group Metal Catalysts - Supply Chain Deep Dive Assessment” on behalf of DOE to Executive Order 140017, 2022
  • R&D 100 Award - ​“PGM-free OER Catalyst as Replacement of Iridium for PEM Water Electrolyzer”, 2022
  • R&D 100 Award - ​“Versatile Method for Preparing Highly Effective Electro-catalysts for CO2 to Chemical Conversion”, 2020
  • R&D 100 Award - ​“Fuel Cell with Ultralow Pt Loading”, 2019
  • R&D 100 Award - ​“Porous Nano-network Catalyst”, 2016
  • DOE Hydrogen Program Team Award by DOE, Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, 2010.
  • Outstanding Mentor Award by Office of Science, U. S. Department of Energy, 2010.
  • Argonne National Laboratory Pacesetter Award , 2006.
  • Honeywell Aerospace Technology Achievement Award , 2001
  • Honeywell Laboratory Special Recognition Award, 2001
  • Honeywell Power Systems Achievement Award, 2000
  • USA Today Quality Cup Award , 2000
  • AlliedSignal Corporate Technical Achievement Award, 1998

Twelve representative publications:

  1. “Direct Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 to C2+ Chemicals: Catalysts, Microenvironments, and Mechanistic Understanding” Shichen Guo, Jianxin Wang, Haozhe Zhang, Chukwunwike O. Iloeje,* Di-Jia Liu*, ACS Energy Letter, 2025, 10, 600−619https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​2​1​/​a​c​s​e​n​e​r​g​y​l​e​t​t​.​4​c​03186
  2. “Modulating CO2 electrocatalytic conversion to organics pathway by the catalytic site dimension”, Haiping Xu, Haiying He, Jianxin Wang, Inhui Hwang, Yuzi Liu, Chengjun Sun, Tao Li, John V. Muntean, Tao Xu, Di-Jia Liu,* J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146, 10357−10366 https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​2​1​/​j​a​c​s​.​3​c​12722  
  3. “La- and Mn-doped cobalt spinel oxygen evolution catalyst for proton exchange membrane electrolysis” Lina Chong, Guoping Gao, Jianguo Wen, Haixia Li, Haiping Xu, Zach Green, Joshua D. Sugar, A. Jeremy Kropf, Wenqian Xu, Xiao-Min Lin, Hui Xu, Lin-Wang Wang, Di-Jia Liu*, Science 380, 609–616 2023,DOI: 10.1126/science.ade1499, https://​www​.sci​ence​.org/​s​t​o​k​e​n​/​a​u​t​h​o​r​-​t​o​k​e​n​s​/​S​T​-​1​2​0​3​/full
  4. “Electrochemical conversion of CO2 to long-chain hydrocarbons” Di-Jia Liu*, Joule 2022 6, 1969–1980
  5. “Metal–Organic Frameworks and Metal–Organic Gels for Oxygen Electrocatalysis: Structural and Compositional Considerations”Hao Wang, Biao-Hua Chen, and Di-Jia Liu*, Adv. Mater. 2021, 2008023
  6. “Highly selective electrocatalytic CO2 reduction to ethanol by metallic clusters dynamically formed from atomically dispersed copper”, Haiping Xu, Dominic Rebollar, Haiying He, Lina Chong, Yuzi Liu, Cong Liu, Cheng-Jun Sun, Tao Li, John V. Muntean, Randall E. Winans, Di-Jia Liu* and Tao Xu, Nature Energy, 5, 623–632, 2020
  7. “Impacts of Imidazolate Ligand to Performance of Zeolitic-Imidazolate Framework-Derived Oxygen Reduction Catalysts”, Hao Wang, Lauren R. Grabstanowicz, Heather M. Barkholtz, Dominic Rebollar, Zachary B. Kaiser, Dan Zhao, Biao-Hua Chen, and Di-Jia Liu*, ACS Energy Lett. 2019, 4, 10, 2500-2507.
  8. “Ultralow-loading platinum-cobalt fuel cell catalysts derived from imidazolate frameworks” L. Chong, J. Wen, J. Kubal, F. Sen, J. Zou, J. Greeley, M. Chan, H. Barkholtz, W. Ding, D.-J. Liu*, Science 2018, 362, 1276–1281
  9. “Advancements in rationally designed PGM-free fuel cell catalysts derived from metal–organic frameworks” (Invited Review) Heather M. Barkholtz and Di-Jia Liu*, Materials Horizons, 2017, 4, 20—37
  10. “High-efficiency non-precious metal catalyst containing metal-organic framework precursor inside of carbon nano-network” J. Shui, C. Chen, L. R. Grabstanowicz, D. Zhao and D.-J. Liu*, Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, 2015, vol. 112, no. 34, 10629–10634
  11. “Highly Efficient Non-Precious Metal Electrocatalysts Prepared from One-Pot Synthesized Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks (ZIFs)” D. Zhao, J. Shui, L. R. Grabstanowicz, C. Chen, S. M. Commet, T. Xu, J. Lu, and D.-J. Liu*, Advanced Materials, 2014, 26, 1093–1097
  12. “Reversibility of anodic lithium in non-aqueous Li-O2 batteries” J.-. Shui, J. S. Okasinski, P. Kenesei, H. A. Dobbs, D. Zhao, J. D. Almer, and D.-J. Liu*, Nature Comm.  2013  4, 2255

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