Berlin 2024 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 77: Gerhard Ertl Young Investigator Award Competition

O 77.5: Talk

Thursday, March 21, 2024, 12:30–13:00, HE 101

Topology and chirality driven chemical reactions in multifold chiral semimetals — •Qun Yang and Claudia Felser — Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden 01187, Germany

The interplay between chirality and topology nurtures many exotic electronic properties. For instance, topological chiral semimetals display multifold band crossings with large Chern numbers in the bulk state and superlong topologically robust surface states without resistance and resistant to surface perturbations at the surface, which allows the entire crystal or surface to serve as catalytic active sites. These materials have the potential to revolutionize the design principle of high-performance catalysts for electrochemical energy conversion. In this talk, I will present our recent progress in developing highly efficient water-splitting electrocatalyst based on chiral multifold semimetals through theoretical and experimental studies. We found that these materials break the performance record of normal noble metal electrocatalysts. Through the theoretical band structure calculations incorporating the topological approach, we reveal the interaction mechanism between topological states and catalytic reactions. We found that the monopole-like orbital angular momentum texture driven by the chirality in the materials also offers great potential for exploring the asymmetric adsorption of chiral molecules, paving the way for understanding the asymmetric chemical reactions based on inorganic chiral materials.

Keywords: Density functional theory; Topological chiral semimetal; Chirality-dependent electron transport; Asymmetric catalysis; Orbital angular momentum