Applied Nanomaterials and Clean Energy Laboratory

Current Research Projects

Top Highlight

Dr. Chen's textbook on Non-Noble Metal Fuel Cell Catalysts has been published

News and Media

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• May.2020
  
  Our recent paper on Nature Communications titled "Dynamic electrocatalyst with current-driven oxyhydroxide shell for rechargeable zinc-air battery" has been highlighted by Editor's Focus on Energy Materials...More
  
• Jan.2020
  
  Our paper titled "Water balancing" has been published in Nature Energy. Water management is an important aspect in the operation of alkaline exchange membrane fuel cells. Now, a lightly cross-linked norbornene polymer membrane is shown to be able to facilitate optimal water transport, leading to exceptionally high power and current density fuel cells.More
  
• Jan.2019
  
  
  The conversion of carbon dioxide gas into value‐added chemicals by electrochemical CO2 reduction reactions is considered as a promising strategy for recycling CO2 with economic and environmental benefits. A highly selective and durable electrocatalyst for carbon dioxide conversion to formate is developed, consisting of tin (Sn) nanosheets decorated with bismuth (Bi) nanoparticles. This is reported by Guobin Wen, Dong Un Lee, Bohua Ren, Fathy M. Hassan, Gaopeng Jiang, Zachary P. Cano, Jeff Gostick, Eric Croiset, Zhengyu Bai, Lin Yang, and Zhongwei Chen in the article "Orbital Interactions in Bi‐Sn Bimetallic Electrocatalysts for Highly Selective Electrochemical CO2 Reduction toward Formate Production"
  Video Abstract
• Dec.2018
  
  
  Scientists at the University of Waterloo have created a powder that could capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from factories and power plants. The advanced carbon powder, developed using a novel process in the lab of Zhongwei Chen, a chemical engineering professor at Waterloo, could filter and remove CO2 from emissions at facilities powered by fossil fuels before it is released into the atmosphere with twice the efficiency of conventional materials.... More
• Nov.2018
  
  
  Prof. Chen named to 2018 “Highly Cited Researchers” list
  Prof. Zhongwei Chen has today been named in the prestigious list of "Highly Cited Researchers" for 2018. The list, formed by Clarivate Analytics, recognizes world-class researchers ranking in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year. Prof. Chen, who is widely regarded for his ground breaking contributions to the field of energy conversion/storage and advanced nano-materials as well as sensors, appears in the "Cross-Field" category of the list, on which researchers with substantial influence across several fields are included. Elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2017, Prof. Chen has 250+ refereed journal articles and 35 patents, H-index reaches 66.
• Sep.2018
  
  
  Dr. Zhongwei Chen has recently co-chaired the 4th International Conference on Electrochemical Energy Science and Technology 2018 (EEST 2018) in Niagara Falls, Canada, hosted by the International Academy of Electrochemical Energy Science (IAOESS), the University of Waterloo and the Western University... More
  
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  Many of our group members have participated and received award from IAOESS conference. We would like to congratulate Pan Xu for receiving the EEST 2018 Organization Award, Jing Zhang for receiving the ACS Best Poster award, WenYao Zhang for receiving the Nano-Micro Letters Best Poster Award, Zachary Cano and Yaping Deng for receiving the Coatings Best Poster Awards.
• Aug.2018
  
  
  Series of seminars focusing on the topic of "Advanced Catalysis and battery Development" were delivered at the invitation of Prof. Chen on August 17th, 2018.
  Prof. Can Li from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, an academician in China, delivered a seminar entitled "Photocatalysis and Photo-electrocatalysis for artificial photosynthesis"
  Prof. Qiang Zhang from Tsinghua University presented a seminar focused on the advancement of novel materials for lithium-sulfur batteries.
  Prof. Feng Yan from Soochow University spoke on the topic of anion exchange membranes for fuel cell applications, specifically the effects of alkaline media on membrane stability.
  
  After the seminars concluded, a group discussion was hosted by Prof. Chen. Dr. Meiling Xiao, Dr. Jianbing Zhu, and Dr. Zhong Ma introduced their research and described their recent progress. During the reports, Prof. Li inspired the audience and gave many insightful suggestions. Prof. Guohua Chen from Hong Kong Polytechnic University also talked about the newest results and findings in his group, focusing on advanced materials for Li-S batteries. His expertise in the field was inspiring! We extend our gratitude and appreciation to Prof. Can Li, Prof. Guohua Chen, Prof. Qiang Zhang and Prof. Feng Yan for their great seminars and insight. Thank you!
  
  
  
• Aug.2018
  Our recently published paper on Advanced Materials titled "30 Years of Lithium‐Ion Batteries" has been highlighted in the Advanced Materials Journal June 2018 Battery Science literature review. Take a look!
• June.2018
  
  
  Chase your dreams. Burst out at the seams. Never stop trying. Never stop learning. Live life to the fullest and give it nothing but your best. Congratulations on receiving your hard-earned doctoral degrees. Best wishes for the future.
  From left to right, Dong Un Lee, Gaopeng Jiang, Kun Feng, Jing Fu, Ali Ghorbani Kashkooli, and Yun-Seok Jun.
  Their thesis titles respectively:"Nanostructured Spinel Oxides as Bi-functional Electrocatalysts for Rechargeable Metal-Air Batteries", "Advanced non-precious metal catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells", "Advanced Silicon-based Electrodes for Rechargeable Lithium-ion Batteries", "Material Design and Engineering for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Zinc-Air Batteries", "Nanoscale X-ray Computed Tomography Based Modeling of Lithium-ion Battery Electrodes", and "Development of Graphene-Based Electrically Conductive Polymer Nano-Composites".
• May.2018
  
  
  Our paper on Bifunctional electrocatalysts for Rechargeable Zinc-Air Batteries was featured as the Inside Front Cover article for Advanced Energy Materials.
• May.2018 Our recently published paper on Nature Communications titled "Chemisorption of polysulfides through redox reactions with organic molecules for lithium–sulfur batteries" has been selected as Editors' Highlights for this month. Each month, the NC editors select only a small number of articles recently published in Nature Communications that they believe are particularly interesting or important. Take a look!
• Apr.2018 Congratulations to Kun Feng for the successful defense of his Ph.D. thesis on Advanced Silicon-based Electrodes for Rechargeable Lithium-ion Batteries. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours.

Our review paper titled "Batteries and Fuel Cells for Emerging Electric Vehicle Markets" has been published in Nature Energy. With the urgent need to decarbonize the global transportation sector, increasing attention has been paid to batteries and hydrogen fuel cells for electric vehicle energy storage and conversion. In this review, we discuss and evaluate the leading alternative technologies which could serve these emerging electric vehicle markets, including lead-acid, nickel- metal hydride, lithium-sulfur, lithium-air and zinc-air batteries, in addition to hydrogen fuel cell systems. More

• Mar.2018 Congratulations to Gregory Lui for winning the final 3MT competition hosted at the University of Waterloo and for advancing to the Provincials at York University on Thursday, April 19. His presentation was both engaging and interesting, and we wish him well in the months to come.
• Mar.2018 Congratulations to Jing Fu for the successful defense of her Ph.D. thesis on Material Design and Engineering for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Zinc-Air Batteries. We wish her all the best in her future endeavours.


• Jan.2018
  Interview With Dr. Zhongwei Chen On The Future Of Clean Energy. Zhongwei Chen is a Professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. Dr. Chen’s academic titles include Director of the Applied Nanomaterials & Clean Energy Laboratory, Director of Collaborative Graduate Program in Nanotechnology, Canada Research Chair in Advanced Materials... More
  
• Dec.2017 Congratulations to Ali Ghorbani Kashkooli for the successful defense of his Ph.D. thesis on Nanoscale X-ray Computed Tomography Based Modeling of Lithium-ion Battery Electrodes. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours.
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  Our paper on A Novel Bifunctional Oxygen Electrocatalyst for Metal-Air Batteries is among the most read articles for ACS Energy Letters in the past November. More
  
• Simpleware software highlighted our work on image based modeling of lithium-ion battery electrode as a pioneering work in the field ...More
  
• Nov.2017
  IdeaMensch highlighting an interview with Dr.Chen about his ideas on productivity, innovation, and growth...More
  
• Oct.2017
  Defect Engineering of Chalcogen-Tailored Oxygen Electrocatalysts for Rechargeable Quasi-Solid-State Zinc-Air Batteries. This is reported by Jing Fu, Fathy M. Hassan, Cheng Zhong,* Jun Lu, Han Liu, Aiping Yu, and Zhongwei Chen* in the article https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201702526. Video Abstract
  
• Aug.2017 Congratulations to post-doc Dr. Hadis Zarrin for her new professor position at Ryerson University. Wish her great success in the new position!
• Congratulations to post-doc Dr. Xiaolei Wang for his new professor position at Concordia University. Wish him great success in the new position!
• Congratulations to Dr. Drew Higgins for his new professor position at McMaster University. Wish him great success in the new position!


• Congratulations to post-doc Dr. Wook Ahn for his new professor position at Soon Chun Hyang University. Wish him great success in the new position!


• Congratulations to Dong Un Lee for the successful defense of his Ph.D. thesis on development of nano-structured spinel oxide based materials as bi-functionally active electrocatalysts for facilitating oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions. We wish him the best of luck for his upcoming position at Stanford University as Postdoctoral fellow!


• Congratulations to Pouyan Zamani for the successful defense of his Ph.D. thesis on Advanced Carbon Nanomaterials as Non-Precious Metal Catalysts for Fuel Cells. We wish him great success in his future career!
• Congratulations to Gaopeng Jiang for the successful defense of his Ph.D. thesis on Advanced Non-precious Metal Catalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Electrochemical Energy System We wish him great success in his future career!
• Jun.2017 Congratulations to Salah Abureden on successfully defending his Ph. D. thesis. on Advanced Nanostructure Materials for Hybrid Supercapacitors. We wish him great success in his future career!
  
• Mar.2017
  
  Dr. Chen has been one of the 150 most cited scholars in energy research .... More
  
• Oct.2016
  Research2Reality highlighting an interview with Dr.Chen about everything from what he is reading to what advice he would give to young researchers... More
  
• Sep.2016
  Congratulations to Drew Higgens for winning 2016 Canada’s Distinguished Dissertation Award in the category of Engineering/Medical Science/Natural Science for... More
  
• Sep.2016 Dr. Chen has been elected as a member of the College of Royal Society of Canada. Dr. Chen was among the three professors from University of Waterloo to be... More
  
• Aug.2016Our paper on Flexible Rechargeable Zinc-Air Batteries was featured as the cover article of Advanced Materials ... More
  
  
• Jul.2016 Congratulations to Md Ariful Hoque for obtaining Humboldt Research Fellowship as Postdoctoral Researchers. We wish him the best of luck for his upcoming position at Technical University Munich (TUM) in Germany.
• Feb.2016 Dr. Chen has been awarded the Steacie Memorial Fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). He was one of six recipients announced at Rideau Hall in Ottawa ... More
• Nov.2015 Toronto Sun highlights our silicon-based lithium-ion battery in University of Waterloo shopping 'next generation' silicon battery ... More
  
  
• Oct.2015

  
  Our paper on Evidence of covalent synergy in silicon-sulfur-graphene yielding highly efficient and long-life lithium-ion batteries. recently was published in Nature Communications... More
  

• A media release highlighting our recently published paper in Nature Communications in Waterloo researchers’ technology to produce longer-lasting batteries ... More
• A media release highlighting our recently published paper in Nature Communications in Researchers create new technology that makes powerful, lighter batteries ... More
• Control environments highlighting our recently published paper in Nature Communications in Lighter, Long-term Batteries Made from Silicon ... More
• Business standard highlighting our recently published paper in Nature Communications in New tech produces lighter, long-lasting batteries from silicon ... More
• Exchange magazine highlighting our recently published paper in Nature Communications in University of Waterloo releases landmark report on innovation ... More
• Industrial Mineral highlighting our recently published paper in Nature Communications in IM Lithium News in Brief 21 – 27 October ... More

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  Our paper on Flexible High-Energy Polymer-Electrolyte-Based Rechargeable Zinc–Air Batteries recently was featured as the cover article for Advanced Materials... More
  
  
  

• Sep.2015
  Our paper Synthesis and structural evolution of Pt nanotubular skeletons: revealing the source of instability for nanostructured electrocatalysts has been selected as a Hot Article for Journal of material chemistry A...More
  
  
  
• Jul.2015
  Congratulations to Drew Higgins for the successful defense of his Ph.D. thesis on the development of new oxygen reduction catalysts for fuel cell technologies. We wish him the best of luck for his upcoming position at Stanford University supported by a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship.
  
  
  
  
• Jun.2015
  Our paper on Synthesis and structural evolution of Pt nanotubular skeletons: revealing the source of the instability of nanostructured electrocatalysts recently was featured as the cover article for Journal of material chemistry A... More
  
  
  
  Our paper on Shape-controlled octahedral cobalt disulfide nanoparticles supported on nitrogen and sulfur-doped graphene/carbon nanotube composites for oxygen reduction in acidic electrolyte recently was featured as the cover article for Journal of material chemistry A... More
  
  
  
• Feb.2015
  Our paper on Multigrain Platinum Nanowires Consisting of Oriented Nanoparticles Anchored on Sulfur-Doped Graphene recently was featured as the cover article for Advanced Materials... More
  
• Feb.2015 Dr. Chen is awarded from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to partner with industry on strategic research on proton exchange membrane fuel cell. He and eleven University of Waterloo researches are receiving more than $5.3 million from NSERC ... Exerpt
  
• Jun.2014 Dr. Chen has been awarded the Discovery Accelerator Supplement from NSERC, receiving increased funds to support research deemed to be novel or potentially transformative ... Exerpt
  
• May.2014Dr. Chen's textbook, Non-Noble Metal Fuel Cell Catalysts has been published ... More
  
• Apr.2014 Our paper on Zinc-air battery material was featured as the cover article for Advanced Energy Materials... More
  
• Apr.2014 The Oxy-Zn team competes as finalists at the Rice Business Plan Competition with Dr. Chen's Zn-Air technology ... More
  
• Mar.2014 The ANCEL laboratory was invited to take part in Engineering Explorations ... More
• Jan.2014 Six-month internships were awarded to:
  - Victor Chabot at General Motors
  - Ja-Yeon Choi at Ballard Power Systems
  - Drew Higgins at Los Alamos Laboratory
• Oct.2013A paper on a novel anode material for Lithium-ion battery has been accepted by Nano Letters... More
• Sep.2013Dr. Chen's Zn-Air Battery work is featured at U of Waterloo main website ... More
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