Dr. Ming Zhao received his BS and ME degrees in Materials Science and Engineering in 2012 and 2015, respectively, both from Nanjing University. In 2019, he obtained his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Younan Xia at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His Ph.D. research was mainly focused on the phase engineering of nanomaterials for heterogeneous catalysis. Since 2019, Dr. Zhao became a Postdoctoral Associate in Prof. Peng Chen’s group at Cornell University. His postdoc work centered on the development of novel operando imaging techniques and their implementation in investigating catalysis and energy-related applications. In March 2023, Dr. Zhao joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at NUS as an assistant professor.
Research Interests
The current research focus of the Zhao Group is on bridging the knowledge and technical gaps in making new catalysts toward sustainability. Particularly, the interdisciplinary research area covers: i) fabricating novel nanocatalysts via phase engineering for heterogenous catalysis, ii) utilizing single-molecule fluorescence imaging to rationalize and improve the functionality of nanomaterials in catalysis and energy, and iii) advancing operando imaging techniques for the real-time study of sustainability-related reactions.
Selected Publications
-
Pengliang Sun, Ziyi Li, Tianli Wu, Keying Su, Jing Cao, Wenbin Jiang, Min Bi, Xiong Zheng, Zhiheng Lyu, Xuan Yang, Yinguang Chen, Ming Zhao, Site-Specific Functioning of CuN3–PdS3 Janus Dual-Atom Sites Enable Near-Unity Faradaic Efficiency for Nitrate Electroreduction to Ammonia, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2026, e1513379.
-
Keying Su, Biao Huang, Xinyao Fang, Zhengjie Chen, Youyu Tian, Ming Zhao, High-Entropy Alloy Nanomaterials with Well-Designed Nanostructures for Electrocatalytic Applications, Nano Letters, 2026, 26, 27, 8600–8621.
-
Biao Huang, Xinyu Che, Jianbin Luo, Jing Cao, Deqi Fan, Min Bi, Fukai Feng, Lei Huang, Chin Yi En, Yu Zhang, Zhiheng Lyu, Ming Zhao, Simultaneously engineering the amorphous phase and branch morphology of high-entropy alloy nanomaterials for enhanced ethylene glycol oxidation, Advanced Materials, 2026, 38, e73384.
-
Ying Xie, Qingdian Yan, Xinyu Chen, Jianbin Luo, Wenbin Jiang, Deqi Fan, Yu Zhang, Xue Wang, Ming Zhao, Morphology-Dependent Reconstruction Generates One-Dimensional Catalysts for Durable Urea-Assisted Water Electrolysis at Industrial Current Density, Advanced Functional Materials, 2026, 36, 56, e76582.
-
Weiwei Yang, Liangyong Jia, Jing Cao, Yuqing Miao, Bingbao Mei, Ruizhuo Ouyang, Jianbin Luo, Xiaoyi Dou, Tianli Wu, Yuhai Dou, Chao Wu, Jinchen Fan, Ming Zhao, Lanthanides Regulate the Oxide Pathway Mechanism of RuO2 to Boost Acidic Oxygen Evolution, Nano Letters, 2026, 26, 3873–3881 (Supplementary Cover).
-
Wenbin Jiang, Song Lin Zhang, Jing Yang, Shengnan Hu, Delong Duan, Jerry Zhi Xiong Heng, Ziyu Wang, Weiwei Yang, Xinyang Liu, Qingdian Yan, Mingsheng Zhang, Wen-Ya Wu, Jingcong Hu, Jiakai Li, Ning Ding, Siew Lang Teo, Chui Yu Chan, Ming Lin, Hong Liu, Xian Jun Loh, Yong-Wei Zhang, Zhaolin Liu, Enyi Ye, Yujie Xiong, Ming Zhao, Phase-Regulatable Synthesis of Single-Atom Alloy Nanocages for Efficient Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2025, 147, 35293–35303.
-
Xinyu Chen, Min Bi, Qingdian Yan, Deqi Fan, Biao Huang, Bianjing Sun, Chenchen Qin, Chuntao Chen, Dongping Sun, Qian He, Ming Zhao, Cerium Single Atom-Engineered Amorphous/Crystalline Nanosheets for Enhanced Alkaline Water Electrolysis, Advanced Materials, 2025, e08893.
-
Xinyu Chen, Bianjing Sun, Qun Song, Zengbin Wang, Chenchen Qin, Muhammad Amjad Majeed, Chuntao Chen, Dongping Sun, Kai Zhang, Ming Zhao, Tuning the hydrogen bond network inside the Helmholtz plane for industrial hydrogen evolution, Advanced Functional Materials, 2025, 2503701.
-
M. Zhao, W. Li, M. Yang, Z. Zhao, R. Ye, X. Mao, P. Padgett, P. Chen, Long-range enhancement of micropollutant adsorption on metal-promoted photocatalysts. Nature Catalysis, 2024, 7, 912-920.
-
M. Zhao, Y. Xia, Crystal-Phase and Surface-Structure Engineering of Ruthenium Nanocrystals. Nature Reviews Materials 2020, 5, 440‒459.
Teaching
-
MLE3101A, Materials Characterization
-
MLE5240, Light-Harvesting Materials for Sustainability
-
MLE5221, Design Materials for Renewable Fuels and Clean Water