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Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry

 

Dr Yongpeng Liu

Leverhulme Research Fellow

Experience

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry
University of Cambridge, Sept. 2024-
Isaac Newton Trust Early Career Fellow at Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry
University of Cambridge, Jan. 2024-Jun. 2024
SNSF Postdoc.Mobility Fellow at Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry
University of Cambridge, Jan. 2022-Dec. 2023
BNF Visiting Research Fellow at Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry
University of Geneva, Sept. 2021-Dec.2021

Education

Ph.D. with Thesis Distinction in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Feb. 2017-Sept. 2021
M.Sc. with Distinction in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
University of Glasgow, Sept. 2015-Dec. 2016
B.Eng. in Materials Science and Engineering
Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Sept. 2011-Jun. 2015

Honors & Awards

2025     Merit Award
University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
2024     Early Career Fellowship (Grant number ECF-2024-230) Link
Leverhulme Trust, United Kingdom
2024     Matching Fund (Grant number 24.08(s))
Isaac Newton Trust, United Kingdom
2024     Early Career Fellowship (Grant number 23.23(g))
Isaac Newton Trust, United Kingdom
2022     Postdoc.Mobility Fellowship (Grant number P500PN_202908) Link
Swiss National Science Foundation, Switzerland
2021     EDCH Top 8% Thesis Distinction
The doctoral program in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, EPFL, Switzerland
Highlighted in EPFL News Link
2021     Best Oral Presentation Award
Virtual Materials Research Society Spring Meeting, Online Conference, United States
2020     Helvetica Best (virtual) Poster Award
3rd Swiss Industrial Chemistry Symposium 2020, Online Conference, Switzerland
Highlighted in in CHIMIA, 2020, 74 (12), 1029. Link and Symposium Website Link
2020     Best Poster Presentation Award Runner-up
Swiss Chemical Society Fall Meeting 2020, Online Conference, Switzerland
Highlighted in Swiss Chemical Society Website Link and EPFL News Link
2019     Chemistry Travel Award
Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences & Swiss Chemical Society, Switzerland
Highlighted in CHIMIA, 2019, 73 (6), 514-517. DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2019.514
2019     Best Poster Award Runner-up
Swiss Chemical Society Photochemistry Symposium 2019, Fribourg, Switzerland
Highlighted in CHIMIA, 2019, 73 (10), 840. DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2019.840 and EPFL News Link
2018     Sustainable Energy & Fuels Poster Prize
nanoGe Fall Meeting 2018 (NFM18), Torremolinos, Spain
Highlighted in EPFL News Link
2018     Best Presentation Award
Energy Materials and Nanotechnology Summit (EMN 2018), Chengdu, China
Highlighted in EPFL News Link
2017     Best Presentation Award
5th Chinese French Symposium on Advanced Materials (CFSAM-5), La Rochelle, France

Independent Reviewers and Editorial Board Members

Early Career Editorial Board Members for Journal of Energy Chemistry and CleanMat

Web of Science Reviewer Records
American Chemical Society: Journal of the American Chemical Society, ACS Energy Letters, ACS Catalysis, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, ACS Electrochemistry, Energy & Fuels, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C; ACS Omega;
Cell Press: Joule, iScience;
Elsevier: Chemical Engineering Journal, Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry;
Royal Society of Chemistry: Journal of Materials Chemistry A; Materials Advances;
Wiley-VCH: Advanced Materials, ChemSusChem, Solar RRL, Advanced Engineering Materials.

Biography

Yongpeng Liu is currently a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow (2024–2027) in Prof. Erwin Reisner's group at the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, where he is also the awardee of the Merit Award (2025), the Isaac Newton Trust Early Career Fellowship (2024), and the Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoc.Mobility Grant (2022–2023).

He earned his PhD degree with distinction in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) under the supervision of Prof. Kevin Sivula and Prof. Néstor Guijarro in 2021. Following this, he joined Prof. Ross Milton's group at the University of Geneva as a BNF Visiting Research Fellow (3-month). He received an MSc degree with distinction in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology from the University of Glasgow in 2016 and a BEng degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2015.

His research focuses on advancing a circular economy by integrating interdisciplinary technologies for sustainable solar-driven chemical synthesis using carbon dioxide and waste materials. He is also an expert in employing operando spectroelectrochemistry to investigate charge carrier dynamics at the semiconductor–liquid junction. He has published over 30 journal articles, including 15 as the (co-)first author in Energy & Environmental Science, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie, ACS Energy Letters, Advanced Functional Materials, Chemical Science, JACS Au, among others.

Publications

Understanding and Mitigating the Degradation of Perovskite Solar Cells Based on a Nickel Oxide Hole Transport Material during Damp Heat Testing
M Dussouillez, S-J Moon, M Mensi, CM Wolff, Y Liu, J-H Yum, BA Kamino, A Walter, F Sahli, L Lauber, G Christmann, K Sivula, Q Jeangros, C Ballif, S Nicolay, A Paracchino
– ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
(2023)
15,
27941
(doi: 10.1021/acsami.3c02709)
Photoelectrochemical CO2 Reduction at a Direct CuInGaS2/Electrolyte Junction
Y Liu, M Xia, D Ren, S Nussbaum, J-H Yum, M Grätzel, N Guijarro, K Sivula
– ACS Energy Letters
(2023)
8,
1645
(doi: 10.1021/acsenergylett.3c00022)
Facile Functionalization of Carbon Electrodes for Efficient Electroenzymatic Hydrogen Production
Y Liu, S Webb, P Moreno-García, A Kulkarni, P Maroni, P Broekmann, RD Milton
– JACS Au
(2023)
3,
124
(doi: 10.1021/jacsau.2c00551)
Covalent Organic Framework Nanoplates Enable Solution-Processed Crystalline Nanofilms for Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Evolution
L Yao, A Rodríguez-Camargo, M Xia, D Mücke, R Guntermann, Y Liu, L Grunenberg, A Jiménez-Solano, ST Emmerling, V Duppel, K Sivula, T Bein, H Qi, U Kaiser, M Grätzel, BV Lotsch
– Journal of the American Chemical Society
(2022)
144,
10291
(doi: 10.1021/jacs.2c0143310291)
High Performance Semiconducting Nanosheets via a Scalable Powder-Based Electrochemical Exfoliation Technique.
RA Wells, M Zhang, T-H Chen, V Boureau, M Caretti, Y Liu, J-H Yum, H Johnson, S Kinge, A Radenovic, K Sivula
– ACS Nano
(2022)
16,
5719
(doi: 10.1021/acsnano.1c10739)
Bulk heterojunction organic semiconductor photoanodes: Tuning energy levels to optimize electron injection
A Sekar, JM Moreno-Naranjo, Y Liu, J-H Yum, BP Darwich, H-H Cho, N Guijarro, L Yao, K Sivula
– ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
(2022)
14,
8191
(doi: 10.1021/acsami.1c21440)
Identifying Reactive Sites and Surface Traps in Chalcopyrite Photocathodes
Y Liu, M Bouri, L Yao, M Xia, M Mensi, M Grätzel, K Sivula, U Aschauer, N Guijarro
– Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English)
(2021)
60,
23651
(doi: 10.1002/anie.202108994)
Photodehydrogenation of Ethanol over Cu2O/TiO2 Heterostructures.
C Xing, Y Zhang, Y Liu, X Wang, J Li, PR Martínez-Alanis, MC Spadaro, P Guardia, J Arbiol, J Llorca, A Cabot
– Nanomaterials
(2021)
11,
1399
(doi: 10.3390/nano11061399)
A semiconducting polymer bulk heterojunction photoanode for solar water oxidation
HH Cho, L Yao, JH Yum, Y Liu, F Boudoire, RA Wells, N Guijarro, A Sekar, K Sivula
– Nature Catalysis
(2021)
4,
431
(doi: 10.1038/s41929-021-00617-x)
Spray Synthesis of CuFeO2 Photocathodes and In-Operando Assessment of Charge Carrier Recombination
F Boudoire, Y Liu, F Le Formal, N Guijarro, CR Lhermitte, K Sivula
– Journal of Physical Chemistry C
(2021)
125,
10883
(doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c02282)
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Research Group

Telephone number

01223 336396 (shared)

Email address

yl862@cam.ac.uk

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