FACULTY

Faculty

At Westlake, we welcome talented people, outstanding scholars, research fellows, and young scientists from all backgrounds. We expect to have a community of 300 assistant, associate, and full professors (including chair professors), 600 research, teaching, technical support and administrative staff, and 900 postdoctoral fellows by 2026.

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Kai Liu, Ph. D.

Kai Liu, Ph. D.

Kai Liu, Ph. D.

School of Engineering

Sustainable and Environmental Engineering (SEE)

School of Engineering

联系

网站: https://water.lab.westlake.edu.cn/

"Whisky is for drinking, water is for fighting over. Water is the most precious resource on earth and 4 million people die from water related disease every year. That’s why at Westlake University, we are working day and night to bring resilient water solutions to this world. Together, we make the difference!"

Biography

Dr. Kai Liu received bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Louisiana State University in 2009. Afterward, he received master’s degree in Chemistry from University of Houston in 2012. A series of environmental disasters occurred in 2011 promoted him to try to solve real environmental problems that are endangering human beings. To that end, he enrolled at Tsinghua University and received Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Engineering. Later he worked at Professor Michael R. Hoffmann’s lab at California Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral researcher. Dr. Kai Liu joined Westlake University in September 2020 as an assistant professor, he is the PI of Water-Energy Resilience Research Laboratory (WATER Lab).

History

2022

Joined the editorial board of Chemosphere

2020

Assistant Professor at School of Engineering, Westlake University

2016

Post-doctoral fellowship, California Institute of Technology

PhD in Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Environment, Tsinghua University

1999

BS in Chemistry, Department off Chemistry, Louisiana State University

Research

Dr. Kai Liu’s research focused on water-energy nexus. He employs a wide spectrum of physiochemical methods to unveil the catalytic mechanism of electrocatalysts. By elucidating the relationship between the structure of electrocatalysts and their catalytic performance, he designed and synthesized functionalized nanomaterials for the rapid sensing and removal of organic contaminants from the aqueous environment.


The current research interests of WATER Lab include:

1. Designing selective electro- and photoelectro-catalysts for water treatment and energy related applications.

2. Understanding the electron transfer mechanism in electro- and photoelectro-catalysis in environmental relevant conditions.

3. Developing AI enabled smart water treatment technologies with online water quality monitoring system.

4. Geographical diversity of emerging aqueous contaminants.


Opening: WATER Lab is recruiting Ph.D. students, postdoctoral scholars, and research associates. Candidates with backgrounds including but not limited to material science, environmental chemistry, electrochemistry, wastewater treatment, machine learning are strongly recommended to apply. Interested candidates are welcome to send CV to liukai@westlake.edu.cn.

Representative Publications

1. Xu, LH; Liu WP; Liu, K*. “Single Atom Environmental Catalysis: Influence of Supports and Coordination Environments” Adv. Funct. Mater. 2304468, 2023. DOI:10.1002/adfm.202304468

2. Cheng, Y; An, Q; Qi ,H; Li, R; Liu, W; Gu, B; Liu, K*. “Temporal Trends of Legacy and Emerging PFASs from 2011 to 2021 in Agricultural Soils of Eastern China: Impacts of Stockholm Convention” Environ. Sci. Technol. 57: 9277-9286. 2023. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c07873

3. Zhang, S.; Leng, W; Liu, K*. “Unconventional Rate Law of Water Photooxidation at TiO2 Electrodes” Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 25: 12891-12899, 2023. DOI: 10.1039/D3CP00095H

4. Lin, S; Qi, H; Hou, P; Liu, K*. “Resource Recovery from Textile Wastewater: Dye, Salt, and Water Regeneration Using Solar-Driven Interfacial Evaporation” J. Clean. Prod. 391: 136148-136156, 2023. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.136148.

5. Huang, C; Gao, W; Zheng Y; Wang W; Zhang Y; Liu, K.*. “Universal machine-learning algorithm for predicting adsorption performance of organic molecules based on limited data set: Importance of feature description” Sci. Total Environ. 859: 160228-160238, 2023. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160228. 

6. Liu, K; Yu, ML; Wang, HY; Wang, J; Liu, WP; Hoffmann, M*. “Metal-Organic Frameworks Derived Multi-Phase Porous Electrochemical Catalysts for Sustainable Electro-Fenton Degradation of Herbicides” Environ. Sci. Technol. 53: 6474-6482, 2019. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.9b01143

7. Liu, K; Yu, Joseph Che-Chin; Dong, H; Wu, Jeffrey C. S.; Hoffmann, M*. “Degradation and Mineralization of Carbamazepine Using an Electro-Fenton Reaction Catalyzed by Magnetite Nanoparticles Fixed on an Electrocatalytic Carbon Fiber Textile Cathode” Environ. Sci. Technol. 52: 12667-12674, 2018. DOI: 10. 1021/acs.est.8b03916

8. Gao, YX; Liu, K; Kan, R; Xia, J; Yu, G*; Deng, SB. “A comparative study of rigid and flexible MOFs for the adsorption of pharmaceuticals: Kinetics, isotherms and mechanisms” J. Hazard. Mater. 359:248-257, 2018. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2018.07.054

9. Zhao, L; Xie, JQ; Guo, FJ; Liu, K*. “Enantioseparation of napropamide by supercritical fluid chromatography: Effects of the chromatographic conditions and separation mechanism” Chirality 30:661-669, 2018. DOI: 10.1002/chir.22836

10. Liu, K; Gao, YX; Liu, J; Zhao, Y; Zhang, K; Yu, G*. “Photoreactivity of Metal Organic Frameworks in Aqueous Solutions: Metal Dependency of Reactive Oxygen Species Production” Environ. Sci. Technol. 50: 3634-3640, 2016. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b06019

11. Liu, K; Zhang, S; Hu, X; Zhang, K; Roy, A; Yu, G*. “Understanding the Adsorption of PFOA on MIL-101(Cr)-Based Anionic-Exchange Metal-Organic Frameworks: Comparing DFT Calculations with Aqueous Sorption Experiments” Environ. Sci. Technol. 49:8657-8665, 2015. DOI: 10.1021/acs. est.5b802


Contact Us

Email: liukai@westlake.edu.cn

We currently have opening for graduate students, postdocs, research associate/assistant professors in the field of environmental and energy catalysis.

Please visit https://www.yilongzou-lab.com/join-us-1 for more information.