 Dr. Zhong received his Ph.D. from Xiamen University; Postdoctoral Fellow, Fritz-Haber Institute, and University of Minnesota; Associate Scientist, Microanalytical Instrumentation Center, Iowa State University/Ames Laboratory; 3M Faculty Research Award; National Science Foundation CAREER Award.
Our research interests are in the interdisciplinary areas of materials, analytical, electrochemistry, catalysis, and emerging nanotechnology fields. The overall direction is the design, fabrication, characterization, and application of novel nanostructured materials, miniaturization strategies and tools for solving real-world problems in chemical/biological sensors, catalysis, micro/nano-electronics, energy, and biomedical devices. Our current research explores both fundamental and applied aspects in this general direction. The most recent projects explore molecularly-engineered nanomaterials with novel sensing, catalytic, optical, magnetic, and electronic functions, and probe the mechanistic details of chemistry and biochemistry at surfaces and interfaces.
One example of our approaches involves exploration of core-shell nanoparticles as building blocks towards functional nanostructures. The manipulation of size, shape, surface and interparticle spatial properties leads to novel chemical/biological functions, e.g., catalysts, sensors, and bio-probes for specific binding events of proteins, DNAs, and amino acids. The fundamental understanding of the interfacial phenomena and nanoscale chemistry at the molecular level has not only led us to the development of a number of important technologies in design and fabrication of nanoparticles and nanomaterials, but also the exploration of their industrial applications in mirosensor technology, fuel cell technology and biomedical probes.
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