Hailiang Wang

Member of Yale faculty since 2014

Research Interests

Materials Chemistry

Inorganic Chemistry

Physical Chemistry

Research

Transition to clean energy, mitigation of carbon emissions, and protection of clean air and water resources are crucial global challenges. Solving these large-scale problems will be aided by the development of systems for the precise interconversion of chemical and electrical or solar energy, for example, catalysts for controlled electrochemical reactions involving small molecules such as CO₂. These reactions are inefficient due to their sluggish kinetics and myriad of possible reaction pathways. There is a critical need for understanding and developing catalysts, to both accelerate these reactions and improve selectivity to the desired products.

Research in the Wang Group develops catalyst materials and catalytic processes for energy and environmental applications guided by fundamental structure-reactivity correlation studies. Specifically, the following five research thrusts are being pursued:

Heterogeneous molecular catalysts for electrochemical conversion of small molecules, including carbon dioxide, nitrate, and volatile organic compounds,

Photochemistry for solar energy utilization, fuel production, and energy storage,

Nanoscale interactions for cooperative electrocatalysis,

Interface chemistry and catalysis in next-generation high-energy batteries, and

Application of electrocatalysis and photocatalysis in environmental chemistry for air and water treatment.

Education

B.S. Peking University, 2007

Ph.D. Stanford University, 2012

Philomathia Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, 2012-2014

Honors

Young Investigator Award, Division of Inorganic Chemistry, American Chemical Society, 2012

IUPAC Prize for Young Chemists, 2013

Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher (Chemistry), 2016-present

Emerging Investigator, J. Mater. Chem. A, Royal Society of Chemistry, 2017

NSF CAREER Award, 2017

Scialog Fellow for Advanced Energy Storage, Research Corporation for Science Advancement, 2017

Arthur Greer Memorial Prize for Outstanding Research, Yale University, 2018

Sloan Research Fellowship, 2019

Emerging Investigator, Chem. Comm., Royal Society of Chemistry, 2019

Best Editor Award, Nano Research, Tsinghua University Press & Springer, 2020, 2021 

Selected Publications

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