Education

2007-2012 Ph.D. in Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh

2004-2007 Master's Degree in Physical Chemistry, Fudan University

2000-2004 Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry, Wuhan University

Experience

2022-Present Junior Researcher, Hefei National Laboratory

2021-Present Associate Researcher, University of Science and Technology of China

2016-2021 Research Associate, University of Science and Technology of China

2012-2015 Postdoctoral Fellow, Northwestern University   

Overview of Academic Research

Dr. Zhang is mainly engaged in theoretical and computational chemistry study on energy and material transformation, focusing on rational design of single-atom catalysts, mitigating side reactions in photocatalytic water splitting, and improving efficiency of energy conversion of photo-responsive organic molecules and other core challenges.

His major achievements include:

* Revealed neighboring effects in active sites of single-atom catalysts and the associated impacts on catalytic reactions theoretically for the first time

* ‌Proposed van der Waals heterojunctions composed of sp2-type carbon materials for resolving the separation of reduction and oxidation reactions in photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reactions for the first time

* ‌Elucidated the role of electrophilicity of chemical groups in regulating important energy transfer processes such as excited state electron transfer and intersystem scampering in organic molecules

Research Directions:

Adsorption, transformation, and transport of substances at the surface and interface

Spin modulation of molecular excited states

Major Honors and Awards

2020 Award for Excellence in Research at USTC (first class)

2019 Award for Excellence in Research at USTC (first class)

Representative Publications

1. Li, Q.-K. et al. Cooperative Spin Transition of Monodispersed FeN3 Sites withinGraphene Induced by CO Adsorption. J. Am. Chem. Soc. ‌140, 15149-15152 (2018).

2. Liu, R. et al. Promoting Intersystem Crossing of a Fluorescent Molecule via Single Functional Group Modification. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 10, 1388-1393 (2019).

3. Ye, S. et al. Artificial Intelligence-based Amide-II Infrared Spectroscopy Simulation for Monitoring Protein Hydrogen Bonding Dynamics. J. Am. Chem. Soc. ‌146, 2663-2672 (2024)