Welcome to the SMILE group

I. Aqueous Batteries

We started our research on aqueous Zn-ion batteries since 2018 when we published the first review paper (Recent advances in Zn-ion batteries, Adv. Funct. Mater. 2018).

Our interests is to increase the durability and energy density of AZB by fighting the challenges associated with cathode, Zn anode, and electrolyte. This is particularly relevant for aqueous halogen or halide batteries. Our recent review paper proposed a few approaches to designing synchronous electrolytes for Zn-halogen batteries (Natl. Sci. Rev. 2025). We recently developed a generic route to four-electron iodine reaction without involving F-, Cl- or Br- additives.

Zn metal is currently a popular anode for AZB. It needs to be stabilized by many interesting methods such as hydrogel, zeolites, LbL organic layer, and MXene membrane. Artificial SEIs in AZB may not be as effective as spontaneous SEI but it renders interesting new sciences. Compared to surface protection layers, we think electrolyte engineering is more facile and feasible, and is the key to tailoring both cathode and anode interfaces. Our approaches include Additives, ionic liquids, eutectic, dual-salt hybrid, and single-ion conductor, which are applied mainly to Zn-I2 batteries.

Hydrogels are interesting and useful for aqueous batteries. We have progressively improved the hydrogel functions from pure anode protection, heterogeneous bilayer, cation-conduction dominance, to in-situ spontaneous electropolymerization. Lots of fun. Hydrogel may enable smart batteries. We recently wrote a Preview for Joule to highlight the endless opportunities of hydrogels in energy devices;

We design unique battery devices such as decoupled Zn-S battery, Zn-Na dual-ion battery, paper batteries, self-charging Zn battery, and Ah-level batteries. "Ion Exchange Membrane-free" is an interesting route towards prototypes with high energy density and/or high total capacity.

We are also keen to extend to other types of aqueous systems (such as Sulfur, Tin, Bromide, Selenium). They have their own challenges but always interesting to explore.

II. Sodium-Ion Batteries

In early years, we worked a lot on Na-ion battery or capacitive hybrid batteries, focusing on developping array-type nanostructures for fast charging capabilities. Please refer to our review article (Non-Aqueous Hybrid Lithium and Sodium Ion Capacitors) or typical research articles (NVP cathode, MoSSe nanosheet anode).

We engineered the cathode interface with polymer electrolyte for Na-ion batteries.

Nanoporous carbons are useful for supercapacitors, metal-ion capacitors, and metal-ion batteries. Through collaboration, we realized ion confinement inside nanopores and ultrahigh plateau-capacity (524 mAh/g) hard carbons for Na storage.

III. Electrocatalysis

We develop nanostructured electrocatalysts for interesting reactions including HER, OER, ORR, and CO2RR. We are also fabricating devices to integrate energy conversion and storage functions.

Atomic catalysts we are exploring include single-metal or dual-metal atoms, atomic clusters, TMD layered materials, high-entropy alloys and oxides, etc.

We dive deep into the working mechanism and try to discover various beneficial effects on the intrinsic activity, including biaxial strain (a full Chinese story is here), electronegativity, in-situ surface adsorption, and atomic defects. Machine learning for material screening and descriptor identification is also being attempted - A lot of fun.