Prof. Zhenbin WANG obtained his BEng and MEng degrees from the Harbin Institute of Technology and the University of Science and Technology of China in 2011 and 2014, respectively. He earned his Ph.D. in NanoEngineering from the University of California, San Diego, in 2018, where he was honored with the Chancellor's Dissertation Medal, Gareth Thomas Materials Excellence Award, and Henry Booker Prize. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Catalysis Theory Center of the Technical University of Denmark before joining CityU.

Prof. WANG's research centers around leveraging first-principles calculations, high-throughput computation, and artificial intelligence to expedite the discovery and development of novel materials that can effectively combat worldwide challenges in clean energy and environmental sustainability. His current interests include studying and designing catalyst materials for electro/photo-catalysis, as well as developing materials informatics and machine learning models for general energy applications. With his cutting-edge research, Prof. WANG strives to contribute to a sustainable future by advancing the field of materials science and engineering.

Research Expertise

First-principles calculation, molecular dynamics simulation; data-driven materials design, high-throughput computation and machine learning
Materials informatics, including materials database, automated workflow, and analysis toolkit
Materials/catalyst theory, electro-/photo(electro)catalysis, energy storage and conversion

Recent Publications

1. A. Xu?, S.-F. Hung?, A. Cao?, Z. Wang?, N. Karmodak, J. E. Huang, Y. Yan, A. S. Rasouli, A. Ozden, E. H. Sargent et al., Copper/alkaline earth metal oxide interfaces for electrochemical CO2-to-alcohol conversion by selective hydrogenation, Nature Catalysis, 5, 1081–1088 (2022).
2. R. Wang, Z Wang*, L. Zhang, Q. Wang, Z. Zhao, W. Huang, J. Shi. Computation-Aided Discovery and Synthesis of 2D PrOBr Photocatalyst, ACS Energy Letters, 2022, 7, 1980–1986.
3. S. Li, M. Amachraa, C Chen, Z. Wang*, S. P. Ong, R.-J. Xie. Efficient near-infrared phosphors discovered by parametrizing the Eu(II) 5d-to-4f energy gap, Matter, 5, 1924–1936, June 1, 2022.
4. S. Pan, H. Li, D. Liu, Rui Huang, Xuelei Pan, Dan Ren, Jun Li, Mohsen Shakouri, Z. Wang*, M. Graetzel, X. Zhang et al., Highly efficient and stable noble-metal-free catalyst for acidic water oxidation, Nature Communications, 13, 2294 (2022)
5. A. Cao?, V. Bukas?, V. Shadravan?, Z Wang?, H. Li, J. Kibsgaard, I. Chorkendorff, Jens K. N?rskov, Non-traditional promoters in ammonia synthesis - introducing a spin promotion effect, Nature Communications, 13, 2382 (2022).
6. Z. Wang, M. T. Tang, A. Cao, K. Chan, J. K. N?rskov. Insights into hydrogen evolution reaction on 2D transition metal dichalcogenides, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2022, 126, 11, 5151–5158.
7. Y-R. Zheng?, J. Vernieres?, Z. Wang?, K. Zhang?, D. Hochfilzer, K. Krempl, J. K. N?rskov, I. Chorkendorff. Monitoring oxygen production on mass-selected Iridium-Tantalum oxide catalysts, Nature Energy, 7, 55–64 (2022).
8. Z. Wang, Y.-R. Zheng, J. Montoya, D. Hochfilzer, I. Chorkendorff, and J. K. N?rskov. Origins of the Instability of Non-precious HER Catalysts at Open Circuit Potential, ACS Energy Letters, 2021, 6, 6, 2268–2274.
9. Z. Wang, X. Guo, J. Montoya, J. K. N?rskov. Predicting aqueous stability of solid with computed Pourbaix diagram using SCAN functional, Npj Computational Materials, 2020, 6, 160.
10. Z. Wang, Y-R. Zheng, I. Chorkendorff, J. K. N?rskov. Acid-Stable Oxides for Oxygen Electrocatalysis, ACS Energy Letters, 2020, 5, 9, 2905–2908.
11. M. Amachraa?, Z. Wang?, C. Chen, S. Hariyani, H. Tang, J. Brgoch, S. P. Ong. Predicting Thermal Quenching in Inorganic Phosphors, Chemistry of Materials, 2020, 32, 14, 6256–6265.
12. S. Li, Y. Xia, M. Amachraa, N. T. Hung, Z. Wang*, S. P. Ong, R. J. Xie. Data-Driven Discovery of Full-Visible-Spectrum Phosphor, Chemistry of Materials, 2019, 31 (16), 6286-6294.
13. Z. Wang, J. Ha, Y. H. Kim, W. B. Im, J. McKittrick, S. P. Ong. Mining Unexplored Chemistries for Phosphors for High-Color-Quality White-Light-Emitting Diodes, Joule, 2018, 2 (5), 914-926.
14. Z. Wang, W. Ye, I. H. Chu, S. P. Ong. Elucidating structure–composition–property relationships of the β-SiAlON:Eu2+ phosphor. Chemistry of Materials, 2016, 28(23), 8622-8630.
15. Z. Wang, I. H. Chu, F. Zhou, S. P. Ong. Electronic structure descriptor for the discovery of narrow-band red-emitting phosphors. Chemistry of Materials, 2016, 28(11), 4024-4031.