FACULTY

Assistant Professor

Office: Nan Yong Building

Email: ychyan@nju.edu.cn

Education

2017-2021 Ph.D., University of Michigan

2013-2017 B.S., University of California, San Diego

Professional Appointment

2024-Present Assistant Professor, School of Sustainable Energy and Resources, Nanjing University

2022-2024 Research Grants Council Postdoctoral Fellow, City University of Hong Kong

2015-2016 Research Assistant, Scripps Research

Research Areas

Organic functional materials (organic redox flow batteries; functional materials for perovskite solar cells; water splitting catalyzed by organic semiconductors), green electrosynthesis (electro(photo)catalysis)

Professional Services

Reviewer for academic journals including: Journal of the American Chemical Society，Angewandte Chemie，Small etc.

Guest editor: Batteries (MDPI)

Research Projects

2022-2025 Principal Investigator, Hong Kong Research Grants Council Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme

2020-2021 Principal Investigator, Rackham Graduate Student Research Grants of University of Michigan

Awards and Honors

2022 Hong Kong Research Grants Council Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme

2021 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad

2020 Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship of University of Michigan

2020 PPG Summer Research Fellowship

2019 Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) Impactful Publication Award

2016 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) Program of Scripps Research

Selected Publications

1.Wu, S.†; Yan, Y.†; Yin, J.†; Zeng, Z.; Jiang, K.; Li, F.; Yip, H.-L; Tsang, S.-W.; Jen, A. K.-Y.* Redox Mediator Stabilized Wide-Bandgap Perovskite for Monolithic Perovskite-Organic Tandem Solar Cells.  Nat. Energy. Accepted (†Contributed equally).

2.Yan, Y.; Vogt, D. B.; Sigman, M. S.; Sanford, M. S.* Development of High Energy Density Diaminocyclopropenium-Phenothiazine Hybrid Catholytes for Non-Aqueous Redox Flow Batteries.  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 27039-27045

3.Yan, Y.; Robinson, S. G.; Vaid, T. P.; Sigman, M. S.; Sanford, M. S.* Simultaneously Enhancing the Redox Potential and Stability of Multi-Redox Organic Catholytes by Incorporating Cyclopropenium Substituents.  J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 13450–13459

4.Yan, Y.; Vaid, T. P.; Sanford, M. S.* Bis(diisopropylamino)cyclopropenium-arene Cations as High Oxidation Potential and High Stability Catholytes for Nonaqueous Flow Batteries. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 17564 -17571.

5.Yan, Y.; Robinson, S. G.; Sigman, M. S.; Sanford, M. S.* Mechanism-Based Design of a High-Potential Catholyte Enables a 3.2 V All-Organic Nonaqueous Redox Flow Battery. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141, 15301-15306.

6.Yan, Y.; Walser-Kuntz, R.; Sanford, M. S.* Targeted Optimization of Phenoxazine Redox Center for Non-Aqueous Redox Flow Batteries. ACS Materials Lett. 2022, 4, 4, 733–739

7.Yan, Y.†; Zhang, L.†; Walser-Kuntz, R.†; Vogt, D. B.; Sigman, M. S.; Yu, G.*; Sanford, M. S.* Benzotriazoles as Low Potential Anolytes for Non-aqueous Redox Flow Batteries. Chem. Mater. 2022, 34, 23, 10594–10605 (†Contributed equally).

8.Yan, Y.; Sitaula, P.; Odom, S.A.; Vaid, T. P.* High Energy Density, Asymmetric, Nonaqueous Redox Flow Batteries Without a Supporting Electrolyte.  ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2022, 14, 44, 49633–49640

9.Walser-Kuntz, R.†; Yan, Y.†; Sigman, M. S.*; Sanford, M. S.* A Physical Organic Chemistry Approach to Developing Cyclopropenium-Based Energy Storage Materials for Redox Flow Batteries. Acc. Chem. Res. 2023, 56, 10, 1239–1250 (†Contributed equally).

10.Robinson, S. G.†; Yan, Y.†; Hendriks, K. H.; Sanford, M. S.*; Sigman, M. S.* Developing a Predictive Solubility Model for Monomeric and Oligomeric Cyclopropenium-Based Flow Battery Catholytes. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019. 141,10171 – 10176 (†Contributed equally).