Sen Zhang

About

Sen Zhang is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Virginia and an Eminent Researcher in the Commonwealth of Virginia. He received his B.S. from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2008 and his Ph.D. from Brown University in 2013. Following his doctoral studies, he was a NatureNet Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania from 2013 to 2016. His research group focuses on the development of inorganic nanoscale and sub-nanoscale materials with atomically precise surfaces, interfaces, and ordered architectures that exhibit notable physicochemical properties and enable emerging applications. His work combines materials synthesis, advanced characterization, and functional device engineering and simulation to derive new design principles and synthetic methodologies for critical materials used in catalysis, magnetism, plasmonics, and biosensing. Key areas of his research include synthetic methodology for atomically precise materials, catalysis for clean energy and environmental sustainability, and the development of functional magnetic and plasmonic nanomaterials. His contributions aim to elucidate fundamental mechanisms of inorganic solid nucleation and growth, understand structure-property relationships in catalysts, and design materials for energy conversion and environmental applications.

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Nanotechnology
• Materials science
• Chemical engineering
• Physical chemistry
• Optoelectronics
• Organic chemistry
• Inorganic chemistry
• Chemical physics
• Electrical engineering

Selected publications

• Non-iridium-based electrocatalyst for durable acidic oxygen evolution reaction in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis

  Nature Materials · 2022-10-20 · 922 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Surface Activation and Ni‐S Stabilization in NiO/NiS₂for Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction

  Angewandte Chemie International Edition · 2022-06-22 · 323 citations

  article

  Abstract Manipulating the active species and improving the structural stabilization of sulfur‐containing catalysts during the OER process remain a tremendous challenge. Herein, we constructed NiO/NiS 2 and Fe−NiO/NiS 2 as catalyst models to study the effect of Fe doping. As expected, Fe−NiO/NiS 2 exhibits a low overpotential of 270 mV at 10 mA cm −2 . The accumulation of hydroxyl groups on the surface of materials after Fe doping can promote the formation of highly active NiOOH at a lower OER po…

  PublisherDOI

• Oxygen evolution reaction over catalytic single-site Co in a well-defined brookite TiO2 nanorod surface

  Nature Catalysis · 2020 · 295 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Programmable Synthesis of Multimetallic Phosphide Nanorods Mediated by Core/Shell Structure Formation and Conversion

  Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2020 · 87 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  with uniform one-dimensional (1-D) structure provides us a platform to unambiguously screen the M synergistic effects in improving the electrocatalytic activity, as exemplified by the oxygen evolution reaction. This new approach mediated by core/shell nanostructure formation and conversion can be extended to other multicomponent nanocrystal systems (metal alloy, mixed oxide, and chalcogenide, etc.) for diverse applications.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Electrocatalytic Water Oxidation by a Trinuclear Copper(II) Complex

  ACS Catalysis · 2021 · 75 citations

  We report a trinuclear copper(II) complex, [(DAM)Cu3(μ3-O)][Cl]4 (1, DAM = dodecaaza macrotetracycle), as a homogeneous electrocatalyst for water oxidation to dioxygen in phosphate-buffered solutions at pH 7.0, 8.1, and 11.5. Electrocatalytic water oxidation at pH 7 occurs at an overpotential of 550 mV with a turnover frequency of ∼19 s–1 at 1.5 V vs NHE. Controlled potential electrolysis (CPE) experiments at pH 11.5 over 3 h at 1.2 V and at pH 8.1 for 40 min at 1.37 V vs NHE confirm the evoluti…

  DOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Modulating Single-Atom Catalytic Centers in Well-Defined Metal Oxide Nanocrystal Surfaces for Oxygen Evolution Reaction

  NSF · $354k · 2020–2024

• One-Dimensional Functional Nanocrystals with Non-Precious-Metal Cores and Precious-Metal Shells

  NSF · $334k · 2018–2022

Frequent coauthors

• Xiaoyu Huang

  Anhui Medical University

  148 shared

• Shouheng Sun

  Brown University

  109 shared

• Guolin Lu

  Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry

  103 shared

• Yongjun Li

  Thermal Power Research Institute

  73 shared

• Huiyuan Zhu

  66 shared

• Chun Feng

  59 shared

• Jingni Zhang

  Union Hospital

  52 shared

• Shaojun Guo

  Peking University

  49 shared

Labs

• Sen Zhang LabPI

Education

• PhD, Chemistry

  Brown University

  2014

• B.S., Polymer Science and Engineering

  University of Science and Technology of China

  2008

Awards & honors

• NSF CAREER Award (2022)
• Research Excellence Award, University of Virginia (2021)
• CAPA Distinguished Junior Faculty Award, Chinese-American Ch…
• Scialog Collaborative Innovation Award for Negative Emission…
• Rising Star 2020, Frontiers in Chemistry, Frontiers (2020)

Similar researchers at University of Virginia

• Jarrod Martoh-101
• Lin Puh-75
• David S. Cafisoh-60