"Westlake University provides a unique environment in China promoting scientific innovation. It is a great opportunity for me to explore freely my research goals, with less distractions and compromises."
Biography
Professor Hongyu Chen was born in 1976 in Taizhou, China. He obtained his B. Sc. from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 1998, and then Ph.D. from Yale University in 2004. After working as a postdoctoral fellow in Cornell University, he joined Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore in 2006 as Assistant Professor. In 2011, he was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. He served as Deputy Head of Division of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry (CBC); Assistant and then Associate Chair of School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (SPMS); and Associate Dean of College of Science. In 2016, he moved back to China and joined Nanjing Tech University, where he co-founded the Institute of Advanced Synthesis (IAS) and served as Executive Dean. He joined the School of Science, Westlake University in July 2021 as a tenured Professor and serves as Associate Vice President.
Research
Professor Chen’s research interest centers on the advancement of synthetic capability at the nanoscale, more specifically on the development of synthetic methods (similar to organic reactions), understanding the underlying principles, and applying these tools for novel nanostructures and new applications. The research directions include: 1) Control of the solid-solid interface for continual structural modulation from core-shell to Janus nanostructures; 2) Solution manipulation of nanowires to coiled rings, twisted double helices, and braided ropes; 3) Construction of chiral nanostructures; 4) Site-selective multi-step nanosynthesis; and 5) Exploration of new synthetic handles, via sonication, external magnetic field, and matrix stretching.
Professor Chen has published over 140 papers, with over 60 as the corresponding author in high-impact (IF > 10) journals. He was awarded 14 research grants in Singapore and 2 in China. Among the students and postdoctoral fellows trained in his laboratory, 17 have become professors in academia.
Representative Publications
1. Xuejun Cheng, Jie Huang, Ruoxu Wang, Yue Xu, Nan Wu, Jie Zhou*, Xueyang Liu*, Hong Wang*, Hongyu Chen*, “Inorganic-Organic Coprecipitation: Spontaneous Formation of Enclosed and Porous Silica Compartments with Enriched Biopolymers”, Nanoscale, 2023, 15, 2394-2401.
2. Bowen He, Yuntao Wang, Mengmeng Zhang, Yue Xu, Yonglong Zheng, Xi Liu, Hong Wang* and Hongyu Chen*, “Serrated Au Nanoplates via the Sharpening Etching Mode”, Chemistry of Materials, 2022, 34(18), 8213–8218.
3. Yonglong Zheng, Jianpeng Zong, Ting Xiang, Quan Ren, Dongmeng Su, Yuhua Feng, Yawen Wang & Hongyu Chen*, “Turning Weak into Strong: On the CTAB-Induced Active Surface Growth”, Science China Chemistry, 2022, 65(7), 1299-1305.
4. Jianpeng Zong, Quan Ren, Xiaoli Tian, Ting Xiang, Yuhua Feng and Hongyu Chen*, “The Patchy Growth Mode: Modulation of the Au-Au Interface via Phenynyl Ligands”, Science China Materials, 2022, 65(6), 1687-1695.
5. Jianpeng Zong, Xiaohui Song, Ruoxu Wang, Wenjia Xu, Weiwei Zhou, Shuaibin Li, Yuhua Feng* and Hongyu Chen*, “Partial Silica Encapsulation of Fe3O4 Nanoparticles in Reverse Emulsion by Internal Energy Modulation”, Chemistry of Materials, 2021, 33(21), 8460–8468.
6. Junming Zhang, Weichang Xu, Yuan Liu, Sung-Fu Hung, Wei Liu, Zhenhui Lam, Huabing Tao, Hongbin Yang, Weizheng Cai, Hai Xiao, Hongyu Chen*, Bin Liu*, “In Situ Precise Tuning of Bimetallic Electronic Effect for Boosting Oxygen Reduction Catalysis, Nano Letters, 2021, 21(18), 7753-7760.
7. Xuesong Wu, Hongyan Li, Weiyu Wang, Dongmeng Su, Xi Wang, Xiaolin Tao, Yawen Wang*, Hongyu Chen*, “Template-less Synthesis of Coded Au Nanowires”, Nano Letters, 2021, 21(2), 1156-1160.
8. Ruoxu Wang, Fei Han, Bo Chen, Lingmei Liu, Shaoyan Wang, Hua Zhang, Yu Han, Hongyu Chen*, “Liquid nanoparticles: manipulating the nucleation and growth of nanoscale droplets”, Angewandte Chemie-International Edition, 2021, 60(6), 3047-3054.
9. Qiuxian Chen, Wenwen Xin, Qiaozhen Ji, Ting Hu, Jun Zhang, Cheng Shang, ZhiPan Liu, Xueyang Liu*, Hongyu Chen*, “Ultrasonic Bending of Silver Nanowires”, ACS Nano, 2020, 14(11), 15286–15292.
10. Wenjia Xu, Jia Jia, Ti Wang, Chao Li, Bowen He, Jianpeng Zong, Yawen Wang, Hongjin Fan, Hongxing Xu, Yuhua Feng* and Hongyu Chen*, “Continuous Tuning of the Au-Cu2O Janus Nanostructures for Efficient Charge Separation”, Angewandte Chemie-International Edition, 2020, 59(49), 22246–22251.
11. Fei Han, Ruoxu Wang, Bo Chen, Yuhua Feng, Huanzhi Liu, Shaoyan Wang, Dongmeng Su, Hua Zhang and Hongyu Chen*, “Precise Dimerization of Hollow Fullerene Compartments”, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2020, 142(36), 15396-15402.
12. Yan Lu, Xuejun Cheng, Hongyan Li, Jiali Zhao, Weiyu Wang, Yawen Wang* and Hongyu Chen*, “Braiding Ultrathin Au Nanowires into Ropes”, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2020, 142(24), 10629-10633.
13. Jia Jia, Gongyuan Liu, Wenjia Xu, Xiaoli Tian, Shuaibin Li, Fei Han, Yuhua Feng*, Xiaochen Dong* and Hongyu Chen*, “Fine-tuning the Homometallic Interface of Au-on-Au Nanorods and their Photothermal Therapy in NIR-II Window”, Angewandte Chemie-International Edition, 2020, 59(34), 14443-14448.
14. Qian Yang, Lijie Shi, Beibei Yu, Jun Xu, Cong Wei, Yawen Wang* and Hongyu Chen*, “Facile synthesis of ultrathin Pt–Pd nanosheets for enhanced formic acid oxidation and oxygen reduction reaction”, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2019, 7(32), 18846-18851.
15. Jiawei Liu, Shaoyan Wang, Kai Cai, Yefei Li, Zhipan Liu, Lingmei Liu, Yu Han, Hong Wang, Heyou Han* and Hongyu Chen*, “A New Type of Capping Agent in Nanoscience: Metal Cations”, Small, 2019, 15(18), e1900444.
16. Gui Zhao, Yusai Zhou, Jiayi Wang, Zhonghua Wu, Hong Wang* and Hongyu Chen*, “Self-Healing of Polarizing Films via the Synergy between Gold Nanorods and Vitrimer”, Advanced Materials, 2019, 31(18), 1900363.
17. Fei Han, Ruoxu Wang, Yuhua Feng, Shaoyan Wang, Lingmei Liu, Xinghua Li, Yu Han and Hongyu Chen*, “On Demand Synthesis of Hollow Fullerene Nanostructures”, Nature Communications, 2019, 10, 1548.
18. Tao Jiang, Gang Chen, Xiaoli Tian, Shiwei Tang, Jun Zhou, Yuhua Feng* and Hongyu Chen*, “Construction of Long Narrow Gaps in Ag Nanoplates”, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2018, 140(46), 15560-15563.
19. Zhenxing Wang, Bowen He, Gefei Xu, Guojing Wang, Jiayi Wang, Yuhua Feng, Dongmeng Su, Bo Chen, Hai Li, Zhonghua Wu, Hua Zhang, Lu Shao* and Hongyu Chen*, “Transformable Masks for Colloidal Nanosynthesis”, Nature Communications, 2018, 9, 563.
20. Yan Lu, Shenghao Yang, Jun Xu, Zhenzhong Liu, Hong Wang, Ming Li, Yawen Wang*, Hongyu Chen*, “Twisting Ultrathin Au Nanowires into Double Helices”, Small, 2018, 14(34), 1801925.
Contact Us