Profile

Prof Joel AGER

Principal Investigator

Prof Joel Ager graduated from Harvard College in 1982 with an A.B in Chemistry and from the University of Colorado in 1986 with a PhD in Chemical Physics. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Heidelberg, he joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1989.

Prof Ager is a Staff Scientist in the Materials Sciences Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and an Adjunct Professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department, UC Berkeley. He is a Principal Investigator in the Electronic Materials Program, Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP), and Berkeley Educational Alliance for Research in Singapore (BEARS).

Prof Ager was one of the Lead Principal Investigators for CARES' now-complete eCO2EP project, which ran from January 2018 - June 2021.

Read: Cambridge and Berkeley team up in Singapore
Read: Cambridge and Berekeley unravel the complex reaction pathways in zero carbon fuel synthesis

Past Members

Past Members

Research Interest

Dr Ager’s research interests include the fundamental electronic and transport characteristics of photovoltaic materials, development of new photoanodes and photocathodes based on abundant elements for solar fuels production, and the development of new oxide- and sulfide-based transparent conductors.

The Ager Research Group comprises of three intertwined themes:

- Materials and systems for solar to fuel conversion.
- Fundamentals of carrier transport in semiconductors and discovery of new phenomena;
- Discovery of new transparent conductors for photovoltaic and opto-electronic applications;

Key Publications

Google Scholar Profile

Ren, Hangjuan, Mikhail Kovalev, Zhaoyue Weng, Marsha Zakir Muhamad, Hongyang Ma, Yuan Sheng, Libo Sun, et al. 2022. ‘Operando Proton-Transfer-Reaction Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry of Carbon Dioxide Reduction Electrocatalysis’. Nature Catalysis 5 (12): 1169–79. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-022-00891-3.

Barecka, Magda H., Joel W. Ager, and Alexei A. Lapkin. 2021a. ‘Carbon Neutral Manufacturing via On-Site CO2 Recycling’. IScience 24 (6): 102514. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.102514.

Barecka, Magda H., Joel W. Ager, and Alexei A. Lapkin. 2021b. ‘Techno-Economic Assessment of Emerging CO2 Electrolysis Technologies’. STAR Protocols 2 (4): 100889. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2021.100889.

Chen, Gao, Yuanmiao Sun, Riccardo Ruixi Chen, Chiara Biz, Adrian C Fisher, Matthew P Sherburne, Joel W Ager III, Jose Gracia, and Zhichuan J Xu. 2021. ‘A Discussion on the Possible Involvement of Singlet Oxygen in Oxygen Electrocatalysis’. Journal of Physics: Energy 3 (3): 031004. https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7655/abe039.

Li, Haiyan, Yubo Chen, Jingjie Ge, Xianhu Liu, Adrian C. Fisher, Matthew P. Sherburne, Joel W. Ager, and Zhichuan J. Xu. 2021. ‘Active Phase on SrCo 1– x Fe x O 3−δ (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) Perovskite for Water Oxidation: Reconstructed Surface versus Remaining Bulk’. JACS Au 1 (1): 108–15. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacsau.0c00022.

Wu, Tianze, Xiao Ren, Yuanmiao Sun, Shengnan Sun, Guoyu Xian, Günther G. Scherer, Adrian C. Fisher, et al. 2021. ‘Spin Pinning Effect to Reconstructed Oxyhydroxide Layer on Ferromagnetic Oxides for Enhanced Water Oxidation’. Nature Communications 12 (1): 3634. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23896-1.

Wei, Chao, Yuanmiao Sun, Günther G. Scherer, Adrian C. Fisher, Matthew Sherburne, Joel W. Ager, and Zhichuan J. Xu. 2020. ‘Surface Composition Dependent Ligand Effect in Tuning the Activity of Nickel–Copper Bimetallic Electrocatalysts toward Hydrogen Evolution in Alkaline’. Journal of the American Chemical Society 142 (17): 7765–75. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.9b12005.

Chen, Yubo, Haiyan Li, Jingxian Wang, Yonghua Du, Shibo Xi, Yuanmiao Sun, Matthew Sherburne, Joel W. Ager, Adrian C. Fisher, and Zhichuan J. Xu. 2019. ‘Exceptionally Active Iridium Evolved from a Pseudo-Cubic Perovskite for Oxygen Evolution in Acid’. Nature Communications 10 (1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-08532-3.

Liu, Guanyu, Yuan Sheng, Joel W. Ager, Markus Kraft, and Rong Xu. 2019. ‘Research Advances towards Large-Scale Solar Hydrogen Production from Water’. EnergyChem 1 (2): 100014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enchem.2019.100014.

Ager, Joel W., and Alexei A. Lapkin. 2018. ‘Chemical Storage of Renewable Energy’. Science 360 (6390): 707–8. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat7918.

Li, Haiyan, Shengnan Sun, Shibo Xi, YuBo Chen, Ting Wang, Yonghua Du, Matthew Sherburne, Joel W. Ager, Adrian C. Fisher, and Zhichuan J. Xu. 2018. ‘Metal-Oxygen Hybridization Determined Activity in Spinel-Based Oxygen Evolution Catalysts: A Case Study of ZnFe2-XCrxO4’. Chemistry of Materials 30 (19): 6839–48. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b02871.

Achievements