Biography

Dr. Wenxing Yang was born in 1988, Shandong, China. He received his B.S. degree in Wuhan University of Technology in 2010 and a M.S. degree in South China University of Technology in 2012.  From 2013 to 2017, he pursued his Ph.D. degree in Uppsala University, Sweden, under the supervision of Prof. Gerrit Boschloo and Anders Hagfeldt. After graduation, he conducted one-year postdoc stay at Imperial College London under the supervision of Prof. James R. Durant. Since 2018, he received the prestigious Swedish International Postdoc Fellowship and began his second postdoc stay at Emory University, USA, under the supervision of Prof. Tianquan Lian. He will begin his independent career as an assistant professor at Westlake University from September 2021.

Research

Dr. Wenxing Yang's research mainly focuses on the spectroscopic investigation of fundamental processes in solar cells, solar fuels, and optoelectronic materials. By combining time-resolved multi-time scale spectroscopic techniques, including ultrafast spectroscopy, flash photolysis, photoluminescent decay, etc., he studies excited-state dynamics of optoelectronic materials and their subsequent charge transfer in related solar energy conversion devices, which provides in-depth understanding of microscopic working mechanisms of these systems and offers rational design guidelines for further device developments. He has published more than 30 publications in worldwide prestigious academic journals, including 15 first-authored and corresponded papers such asNat. Commun.,J. Am. Chem. Soc.,Nano Lett.,Chem. Sci., ACS Energy Lett.etc. He was awarded for an excellent Ph. D. prize (Bjurzons premium) by Uppsala University in 2017. He was also granted for the Alexander von Humboldt Postdoc Fellowship and Swedish International Postdoc Fellowship in 2018. He is a currently active reviewer for several academic journals, e.g.,Nano. Lett., J. Phys. Chem. Lett.

Representative Publications

1. Yang, W.; Godin, R.; Kasap, H.; Moss, B.; Dong, Y.; Hillman, S. A. J.; Steier, L.; Reisner, E.; Durrant, J. R.* Electron Accumulation Induces Efficiency Bottleneck for Hydrogen Production in Carbon Nitride Photocatalysts.J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141 (28), 11219–11229.

2.Yang, W.*; Liu, Y.; Cullen, D. A; McBride, J. R.; Lian, T.* Harvesting Sub-bandgap IR Photons by Photo-thermionic Hot Electron Transfer in a Plasmonic p-n junction,Nano Lett 2021, 21, 9, 4036–4043

3. Yang, W.; Liu, Y.; Edvinsson, T; Castner, A; Wang, S; He. S; Ott, S; Hammarström, L*, Lian, T.*. Photoinduced Fano Resonances between Quantum Confined Nanocrystals and Adsorbed Molecular Catalysts,Nano Lett. 2021, 21, 13, 5813–5818

4. Yang, W.*†; Liu, Y.†; McBride, J. R.; Lian, T.* Ultrafast and Long-lived Transient Heating of Surface Adsorbates on Plasmonic Semiconductor Nanocrystals,Nano Lett 2021, 21, 453-461.

5. Yang, W.*; Yang, Y.; Kaledin, A. L.; He, S.; McBride, J. R.; Lian, T.* Surface Passivation Extends Single and Biexciton Lifetimes of InP Quantum Dots.Chemical Science, 2020,11, 5779-5789.

6. Yang, W.*; Vlachopoulos, N.; Boschloo, G. Impact of Local Electric Fields on Charge-Transfer Processes at the TiO2 /Dye/Electrolyte Interface.ACS Energy Lett. 2017, 2 (1), 161–167.

7. Hao, Y.†;Yang, W.†; Zhang, L.; Jiang, R.; Mijangos, E.; Saygili, Y.; Hammarström, L.; Hagfeldt, A.; Boschloo, G.* A Small Electron Donor in Cobalt Complex Electrolyte Significantly Improves Efficiency in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells.Nat. Commun. 2016, 7, 13934.

8. Hao, Y.*†;Yang, W.*†; Karlsson, M.; Cong, J.; Wang, S.; Li, X.; Xu, B.; Hua, J.; Kloo, L.; Boschloo, G. Efficient Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells with Voltages Exceeding 1 V through Exploring Tris(4-Alkoxyphenyl)Amine Mediators in Combination with the Tris(Bipyridine) Cobalt Redox System.ACS Energy Lett. 2018, 3 (8), 1929–1937.

9. Yang, W.*; Vansuch, G., Liu, Y., Jin, T., Liu, Q.; Ge, A., Monica, S., Sanchez, M. L. K; Adams, M. W. W.; Dyer, R. B.*, Lian, T.* “Liquid” to “crystalline” phase transition of surface ligands modulate the quantum efficiency of H2 production in mediator based CdS nanorod/Hydrogenases assemblies.ACS Applied Material and Interfaces, 2020, 12, 31, 35614–35625

10. chilleos, D.Yang, W.; Kasap, H.; Savateev, A.; Markushyna,Y.; Durrant, J. R.* and Reisner, E.*; Solar Reforming of Biomass with Homogeneous Carbon Dots,Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2020, 59, 18184-18188.

11. Yang, W.; Hao, Y.*; Kloo, L.; Boschloo, G.* Carrier Dynamics of Dye-Sensitized TiO2 in Contact with Different Cobalt Complexes in the Presence of Tri(p-Anisyl)Amine Intermediates.J. Phys. Chem. C 2018, 122 (26), 14345–14354.

12. Yang, W.*; Hao, Y.; Vlachopoulos, N.; Eriksson, A. I. K.; Boschloo, G.* Studies on the Interfacial Electric Field and Stark Effect at the TiO2/Dye/Electrolyte Interface.J. Phys. Chem. C 2016, 120 (39), 22215–22224.

13. Yang, W.; Hao, Y.; Ghamgosar, P.; Boschloo, G.* Thermal Stability Study of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells with Cobalt Bipyridyl–Based Electrolytes.Electrochim. Acta 2016, 213, 879–886.

14. Yang, W.; Vlachopoulos, N.; Hao, Y.; Hagfeldt, A.; Boschloo, G. Efficient Dye Regeneration at Low Driving Force Achieved in Triphenylamine Dye LEG4 and TEMPO Redox Mediator Based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells.Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2015, 17 (24), 15868–15875.

15. Yang, W.; Pazoki, M.; Eriksson, A. I. K.; Hao, Y.; Boschloo, G. A Key Discovery at the TiO2/Dye/Electrolyte Interface: Slow Local Charge Compensation and a Reversible Electric Field.Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2015, 17 (26), 16744–16751.

Google Scholar:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ySLroqgAAAAJ

Research Gate:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wenxing-Yang

Contact Information and Open Positions

We have openings for Postdoc, PhD students, and research assistants within the field of photophysical and electrochemical investigation of solar energy conversion processes. These studies will focus on using both time-resolved and in-operando spectroscopies to interrogate key mechanisms processes in emerging solar cells, electrochemical/photo electrochemical catalytic processes, e.g., CO₂/N₂reduction, water splitting. If you are interested in joining us, please contactyangwenxing@westlake.edu.cn.