Yan JING

Dr. Yan Jing received his Bachelor’s degree in Applied Chemistry from the University of Science and Technology Beijing, China, in 2011. He then moved to the United States to pursue his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Houston, where he worked with Prof. Yan Yao to develop aqueous organic-lithium ion batteries. During the Ph.D., as a research intern at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), Yan built the first 6 V, 15 Ah lead-quinone acid battery. Afterward, he moved from Houston to Boston, joined Prof. Roy G. Gordon and Prof. Michael J. Aziz groups at Harvard to develop redox molecules for low-cost, long-lifetime aqueous organic redox flow batteries and CO₂ capture. Dr. Jing has authored more than 30 publications, including Nature Chemistry, Nature Materials, Nature Communications, JACS, ACS Energy Letters, Chem, Green Chemistry, and ChemSusChem, and has filed five patents. His work has advanced the development of aqueous anthraquinone flow batteries and led to the launch of Quino Energy, a startup company that licensed his patents. Dr. Jing has been collaborating with both academia and industry to accelerate the commercialization of technological innovations. He earned the Presidential Fellowship in 2013 at the University of Houston. In 2021, invited by vanadium redox flow battery pioneer Prof. Maria Skyllas-Kazacos, he worked with Prof. Aziz and Prof. Gordon to co-write “aqueous organic flow batteries” for the book “Flow batteries: from fundamentals to applications”.

Research Interests

Recognizing the catastrophic impacts of global warming and the urgent need to achieve carbon neutrality, innovative technologies are immediately required to decarbonize our economy and remove anthropogenic CO₂ from the atmosphere to mitigate climate change.

While renewable energy sources are replacing fossil fuels without leaving a carbon footprint, their intrinsic intermittency creates mismatches between supply and human demand, necessitating long-duration energy storage systems. Aqueous organic flow batteries show great promise in electrifying the grid sector due to their earth abundance of compositional elements, structural diversity and tunability of redox actives, as well as decoupled energy and power capacity scaling.

To decarbonize the chemical manufacturing sector in a green, inexpensive and scalable manner, the group is exploring the combination of electrochemistry and flow chemistry to electrosynthesize chemicals in continuous-flow reactors.

In addition to electrifying the grid and chemical manufacturing sectors, removing CO₂ from the atmosphere for the hard-to-abate industries is indispensable to limit global warming to 1.5–2 °C above pre-industrial levels. The group is interested in utilizing electro-active materials to selectively capture CO₂ from the air and release pure CO₂ for further sequestration or CO₂ reduction.

The transformative technologies and approaches to societal chanllenges are made possible by advancements in materials science and engineering. Electrochemistry of redox-active materials forms the foundation of those promising technologies.

Selected Publications († denotes equal contribution):

1. Jing, Y.; Gordon, R.G.; Aziz, M.J. Aqueous organic flow batteries. Roth, C., Noack, J., and Skyllas-Kazacos, M. Redox flow batteries. From fundamentals to applications. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH, 2023, 2, ISBN 978-3-527-34922-7.
2. Jing, Y.^†; Zhao, W.E.^†; Goulet, M.-A.^†; Bahari, M.; Fell, E.M.; Jin, S.; Davoodi, A.; Jónsson, E.; Wu, M.; Grey, C.P.; Gordon, R.G.; Aziz, M.J. Electrochemical regeneration of anthraquinones for lifetime extension in flow batteries. Nature Chemistry, 2022, 14, 1103–1109.
3. Jin, S.; Wu, M.; Jing, Y.; Gordon, R.G.; Aziz, M.J. Low energy carbon capture via electrochemically induced pH swing with electrochemical rebalancing. Nature Commun., 2022, 13, 2140.
4. Jing, Y.; Fell, E.M.; Wu, M.; Jin, S.; Ji, Y.; Pollack, D.A.; Tang, Z.; Ding, D.; Bahari, M.; Goulet M.-A.; Tsukamoto, T.; Gordon, R.G.; Aziz, M.J. Anthraquinone flow battery reactants with non-hydrolysable water-solubilizing chains introduced via a generic cross-coupling method. ACS Energy Letters, 2022, 7, 226–235.
5. Jing, Y.^†; Wu, M.^†; Wong, A.A.; Fell, E.M.; Jin, S.; Pollack, D.A.; Kerr, E.F.; Gordon, R.G.; Aziz, M.J. In situ electrosynthesis of anthraquinone electrolytes in aqueous flow batteries. Green Chemistry, 2020, 22, 6084–6092.
6. Tong, L.^†; Jing, Y.^†; Gordon, R.G.; Aziz, M.J. Symmetric all-quinone aqueous battery. ACS Appl. Energy Mater., 2019, 2, 4016−4021.
7. Jin, S.^†; Jing, Y.^†; Kwabi, D.G.; Ji, Y.; Tong, L.; De Porcellinis, D.; Goulet, M-A.; Pollack, D.A.; Gordon, R.G.; Aziz, M.J. A water-miscible quinone flow battery with high volumetric capacity and energy density. ACS Energy Letters, 2019, 4, 1342−1348.
8. Liang, Y.; Jing, Y.; Gheytani, S.; Lee, K.-Y.; Liu, P.; Facchetti, A.; Yao, Y. Universal quinone electrodes for long cycle life aqueous rechargeable batteries. Nat. Mater., 2017, 16, 841–848.
9. Ye, L.^†; Jing, Y.^†; Guo, X.; Sun, H.; Zhang, S.; Zhang, M.; Huo, L.; Hou, J. Remove the residual additives toward enhanced efficiency with higher reproducibility in polymer solar cells. Phys. Chem. C, 2013, 117, 14920–14928.
10. Aziz, M.J.; Gordon, R.G. ; Jing, Y.; Jin, S. Electrochemical CO₂ capture with air stable redox species. US 63/303, 244.
11. Aziz, M.J.; Gordon, R.G. ; Jin, S.; Jing, Y. Electrochemical rebalancing methods for mitigating oxygen-induced imbalance in flow batteries and electrochemical CO₂ capture systems. PCT/US22/41188.
12. Aziz, M.J.; Gordon, R.G.; Goulet, M.A.; Jing, Y.; Wu, M.; Jin, S.; Fell, E.M.; Pollack, D.A. Electrical regeneration of electrolytes. PCT/US22/16193.