Overview of Research in Ya-Wen Zhang's Group

Research Interests: Rational Design, Controllable Synthesis, Ordered Assembly, Catalytic Properties and Structure-Function Relationships of Rare Earth & Noble Metal Nanostructures

Research Direction: Rare Earth and Noble Metal Nanomaterial Chemistry

1. Shape and Composition Tunable Metal Nanocatalysis

- Exploring new synthetic strategies towards shape and composition control

- Studying catalytic reactivities using model reactions

2. Metal / Metal Oxide Interfacial Interactions in Nanocatalysis

- Constructing metal / metal oxide supported catalysts from diverse nanoscale building blocks

- Understanding the interfacial effects (e.g. charge transfer, defect migration, phase segregation) in model catalytic reactions

Research Strategy: Experimentation + Theoretical Modeling