FACULTY

Assistant Professor

Office:West 326, Nanyong Building

Email:liangcai@nju.edu.cn

Education

2016-2018 Joint Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison

2012-2018 Ph.D., University of Science and Technology of China

Professional Appointments

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

2022-2024, Specially Appointed Assistant Professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology

2021-2022, Research Fellow, National University of Singapore

2019-2021, Postdoctoral Fellow, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

Research Areas

1. The development of electrocatalysts for hydrogen production from (PEM and AEM) water electrolysis

2. Synchrotron radiation (in-situ/operando) X-ray absorption spectroscopy technology and applications

3. Synthesis of novel nanomaterials

Awards and Honors

National scholarship for doctoral students

Selected Publications (*: Corresponding author; +: Equal contribution)

1. Na Li⁺, Liang Cai*⁺, Chao Wang, Yue Lin, Jinzhen Huang, Hongyuan Sheng, Haibin Pan, Wei Zhang, Qianqian Ji, Hengli Duan, Wei Hu, Wenhua Zhang, Fengchun Hu, Hao Tan, Zhihu Sun, Bo Song, Song Jin*, Wensheng Yan*. Identification of the active-layer structures for acidic oxygen evolution from 9R-BaIrO₃ electrocatalyst with enhanced Iridium mass activity. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 18001–18009. (One of JACS most cited publications)

2. Na Li⁺, Liang Cai*⁺, Guoping Gao⁺, Yue Lin, Chao Wang, Hengjie Liu, Yuying Liu, Hengli Duan, Qianqian Ji, Wei Hu, Hao Tan, Zeming Qi, Lin-Wang Wang*, Wensheng Yan*. Operando direct observation of stable water-oxidation intermediates on Ca_2-xIrO₄ nanocrystals for efficient acidic oxygen evolution. Nano Lett. 2022, 22, 6988–6996.

3. Yuying Liu⁺, Liang Cai*⁺, Qianqian Ji, Chao Wang, Ziyi Liu, Liyang Lv, Bing Tang, Hengli Duan, Fengchun Hu, Na Li*, Zhihu Sun, Wensheng Yan*. Operando Identification of Dual Active Sites in Ca₂IrO₄ Nanocrystals with Yttrium Substitutions Boosting Acidic Oxygen Evolution Reaction. ACS Energy Lett. 2022, 7, 3798–3806.

4. Na Li⁺, Liang Cai*⁺, Guoping Gao⁺, Yuying Liu, Chao Wang, Ziyi Liu, Qianqian Ji, Hengli Duan, Lin-Wang Wang*, Wensheng Yan*. Origin of Surface Amorphization and Catalytic Stability of Ca_2-xIrO₄ Nanocrystals for Acidic Oxygen Evolution: Critical Roles of Acid Anions. ACS Catal. 2022, 12, 13475–13481.

5. Qianqian Ji⁺, Yuan Kong⁺, Hao Tan*, Hengli Duan, Na Li, Bing Tang, Yao Wang, Sihua Feng, Liyang Lv, Chao Wang, Fengchun Hu, Wenhua Zhang, Liang Cai*, and Wensheng Yan*. Operando Identification of Active Species and Intermediates on Sulfide Interfaced by Fe₃O₄ for Ultrastable Alkaline Oxygen Evolution at Large Current Density. ACS Catal. 2022, 12, 4318–4326. (ESI Highly Cited Paper)

6. Liang Cai, Melinda J. Shearer, Yuzhou Zhao, Zhili Hu, Fan Wang, Yi Zhang, Kevin W. Eliceiri, Robert J. Hamers, Wensheng Yan, Shiqiang Wei, Ming Tang, and Song Jin*. Chemically Derived Kirigami of WSe₂. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, 140, 10980–10987.

7. Liang Cai⁺, Jingfu He⁺, Qinghua Liu, Tao Yao, Lin Chen, Wensheng Yan*, Fengchun Hu, Yong Jiang, Yidong Zhao, Tiandou Hu, Zhihu Sun*, and Shiqiang Wei*. Vacancy-induced ferromagnetism of MoS₂ nanosheets. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 2622-2627. (ESI Highly Cited Paper)

8. Liang Cai⁺*, Hengli Duan⁺, Qinghua Liu, Chao Wang, Hao Tan, Wei Hu, Fengchun Hu, Zhihu Sun*, and Wensheng Yan*. Ultrahigh-temperature ferromagnetism in MoS₂ Moiré superlattice/graphene hybrid heterostructures. Nano Research, 2021, 14, 4182–4187.

9. Liang Cai*, Vincent Tung and Andrew Wee*. Room-temperature ferromagnetism in two-dimensional transition metal chalcogenides: strategies and origin. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 2022, 913, 165289. (Invited review article)

10. Ci Lin⁺, Liang Cai⁺, Jui-Han Fu, Shahid Sattar, Qingxiao Wang, Yi Wan, Chien-Chih Tseng, Chih-Wen Yang, Areej Aljarb, Ke Jiang, Kuo-Wei Huang, Lain-Jong Li, Carlo Maria Canali, Yumeng Shi*, and Vincent Tung*. Direct Band Gap in Multilayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Nanoscrolls with Enhanced Photoluminescence. ACS Materials Lett. 2022, 4, 1547–1555.