Professional Background

Assistant professor 2008-present SFHI Faculty in Sustainability, Department of Chemical Engineering, Michigan Technological University

Research scientist 2007-2008 E2TAC, College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, SUNY at Albany

Postdoctoral researcher 2004-2007, Prof. Yan group, Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of California-Riverside, Riverside, CA (Part-time Researcher 2005-2007 Pacific Fuel Cell Corp. Riverside, CA )

Postdoctoral researcher 2003-2004, Prof. Watanabe group, Clean Energy Research Center, University of Yamanashi, Japan

Ph.D. (Physical chemistry) 2003, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

B.E. (Chemical Engineering) 1998, Dalian University of Technology, China

Awards

• 2003 President Excellence Award, Chinese Academy of Sciences
• 2004-2005 Packard Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship
• 2005 Top 1% ISI Citation Award
• 2006 Most Cited Author 2002-2006 for Applied Catalysis B: Environmental
• 2007 The C+ Citation Club of Journal of Physical Chemistry (more than 100 citations since 2001)
• 2009 University Key Lab Visiting Scholar, Ministry of Education, China

Research Interests
My research interests are in the areas of electrocatalysis, fuel cells and nanostructured materials. More specifically, my research often focuses on design, synthesis and characterization of nanostructured materials as highly active and durable electrocatalysts for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC).

Electrocatalysis
Eelctrocatalyst is a substance that increases the rate of an electrochemical reaction by reducing the activation energy, but which is left unchanged by the reaction. PEMFC electrocatalysis is characterized by its sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at cathode: even at the highest active Pt electrocatalyst surface, the over-potential is > 250 mV under open circuit voltage (OCV) state. To compete internal combustion engine (ICE) as automobile power source, three key fundamental catalyst issues in the cathode of PEMFC must be addressed: 1) the ORR mass activity needs to improve from 0.28A/mgPt to 0.44A/mgPt @ 0.9V (DOE 2015 target), 2) Approximately 5 times reduction in the state-of-art Pt loading to attain a specific power density of 0.2gPt/kW @0.65V (DOE 2015 target), and 3) the dissolution and/or loss of Pt electrochemical surface area must be reduced greatly. For a direct alcohol fuel cell anode, the oxidation of methanol is much slower than hydrogen, the over potential is > 0.3 V at 0.5 A/cm2 compared with 0.02 V for hydrogen oxidation, and this is even worse for ethanol oxidation, since the C-C bond needs to be broken at low temperature (< 90oC), Thus, highly active anode catalysts as well as cathode catalysts are greatly demanded for direct alcohol fuel cells as portable electronics power source. Our research focus on 1) developing novel carbon nanomaterials (e.g. carbon nanotubes and carbon nanofibers, etc) as electrocatalyst support to improve corrosion resistance and mass transport properties; 2) researching special nanostructured metal/metal alloy with ultra-high intrinsic catalytic activity to ORR and MOR, and superior stability, 3) studying Pt-Sn based electrocatalysts for ethanol oxidation - ethanol is a green fuel and can be readily and easily produced in a great quantity by fermentation of sugar-containing raw materials. We believe the combination of the above mentioned support and catalyst is the most viable way to address the current fuel cell catalyst issues and satisfy the urgent demand for the PEMFC large scale applications.

Fuel Cells
Fuel cell, a clean, compact, and modular sustainable electrochemical energy device, has the potential to revolutionize the production of electricity and thermal energy. Working at low temperature (< 90oC), hydrogen and methanol fueled proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) are especially attractive for future power sources for automobile, homes and portable electronics. However, successful commercialization of PEMFCs requires overcoming significant technical and economic barriers to their key components - eletrocatalyst, membrane and membrane assembly electrode (MEA). Besides our research efforts on electrocatalysts research mentioned above, we are also interested in developing new materials and techniques to address current PEMFC engineering issues – such as MEA fabrication techniques, reducing contact resistance between gas diffusion layer (GDL) and bipolar plate, optimizing water management inside bipolar plate, etc – thus to improve the overall PEMFC efficiency.

Nanostructured Materials
Nanostructured materials with morphological features smaller than 100 nm in at least one dimension possess many unique physical and chemical properties, which can be potentially invaluable in a wealthy range of application areas, such as energy, environmental, medicine and electronics. We have a special interest in design, synthesis and characterization of metal/metal oxide nanostructures, such as nanotube, nanowire, nanocube, core-shell, etc. An applicable large scale synthesis route based on ‘wet chemistry’ is our preferable approach. Besides the above mentioned fuel cell application, these nanostructured materials will also be expected as environmental catalysts and magnetic materials.

Publications

• Wenzhen Li, Qin Xin, Yushan Yan, Nanostructured PtFe/C cathode catalysts for direct methanol fuel cell: the effect of catalyst composition, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2010, doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2010.01.013.   
  
  
• Wenzhen Li, Lianbin Xu, Zhongwei Chen, Yushan Yan, A solution-phase synthesis method to highly active PtCo/C catalysts for proton exchange membrane fuel cell, Journal of Power Sources, 2010, 195, 2534-2540.  
  
  
• Wenzhen Li, Mahesh Waje, Zhongwei Chen, Paul Larsen, Yushan Yan, Platinum nanoparticles supported on stacked-cup carbon nanofibers as electrocatalysts for proton exchange membrane fuel cell , Carbon, 2009, doi:10.1016/j.carbon.2009.11.017
  
  
• Wenzhen Li, Pradeep Haldar, Highly active carbon supported core-shell PtNi@Pt electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction, Electrochemical and Solid-State letters, 2009, accepted.
  
  
• Wenzhen Li, Pradeep Haldar, Supportless PdFe Nanorods as Highly Active Electrocatalyst for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell, Electrochemical Communications, 2009, 11, 1195-1198.
  
  

Publications Prior to Michigan Tech

• Bharat Avasarala, Thomas Murray, Wenzhen Li and Pradeep Haldar, Titanium nitride nanoparticles based electrocatalysts for proton exchange membrane fuel cell, Journal of Materials Chemistry, 2009, 19, 1803-1805.
  
  
• Seth L Knupp, Wenzhen Li, Odysseas Pascos, Thomas Murray, Jeremy Snyder, Pradeep Haldar, The effect of experimental parameters on the synthesis of CNT and CNF supported Pt by polyol processing techniques, Carbon, 2008, 46, 1276-1284. (SCI: 4)
  
  
• Zhongwei Chen, Mahesh Waje, Wenzhen Li, Yushan Yan, Supportless Pt and PtPd nanotubes as electrocatalysts for oxygen-reduction reactions, Angewandte Chemie, International Edition, 2007, 46, 4060-4063. (SCI: 34)
  
  
• Jason Tang, Kurt Jenson, Mahesh Waje, Wenzhen Li, Paul Larsen, Kevin Pauley, Zhongwei Chen; Palanisamy Ramesh, Mikhail E.Itkis, Yushan Yan, Robert C. Haddon, High Performance Hydrogen Fuel Cells with Ultralow Pt Loading Carbon Nanotube Thin Film Catalysts, Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2007, 111, 17901-17904.
  
  
• Jason Tang, Kurt Jenson, Wenzhen Li, Mahesh Waje, Paul Larsen, Palanisamy Ramesh, Mikhail E Itkins, Yushan Yan, Robert C Haddon, Carbon nanotube free-standing membrane of Pt/SWNTs as catalyst layer in hydrogen fuel cells, Austrialian Journal of Chemistry, 2007, 60, 528-532.
  
  
• Hiroyuki Nakano, Wenzhen Li, Lianbin Xu, Zhongwei Chen, Mahesh Waje, Susumu Kuwabata, Yushan Yan, Carbon nanotube and carbon black supported Pt nanoparticles as oxygen reduction electrocatalysts for PEFCs, Electrochemistry, 2007, 75, 705-708.
  
  
• Zhongwei Chen, Lianbin Xu, Wenzhen Li, Mahesh Waje, Yushan Yan, Polyaniline nanofiber supported platinum nanoelectrocatalysts for direct methanol fuel cells, Nanotechnology, 2006, 17, 5254-5259.
  
  
• Zhongwei Chen, Brett Holmberg, Wenzhen Li, Xin Wang, Weiqiao Deng, Ronnie Munoz, Yushan Yan, Nafion/Zeolite nanocomposite membrane by in-situ Crystallization for a direct methanol fuel cell, Chemistry of Materials, 2006, 18, 5669-5675. (SCI: 27)
  
  
• Mahesh Waje, Wenzhen Li, Zhongwei Chen, Yushan Yan, Effect of catalyst support morphology on the PEMFC performance. ECS Transactions, 2006, 3(1), Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells 6, 285-294.
  
  
• Mahesh Waje, Wenzhen Li, Zhongwei Chen, Yushan Yan, Durability investigation of cup-stacked carbon nanotubes supported Pt as PEMFC catalyst, ECS Transactions 2006, 31, Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells 6, 677-683.
  
  
• Xin Wang, Wenzhen Li, Zhongwei Chen, Mahesh Waje, Yushan Yan, Durability investigation of carbon nanotubes as catalyst support for proton exchange membrane fuel cell electrode, Journal of Power Sources, 2006, 158, 154-159. (SCI: 82)
  
  
• Wenzhen Li, Xin Wang, Zhongwei Chen, Mahesh Waje, Yushan Yan, Pt-Ru supported on double walled carbon nanotubes as high performance anode catalysts for direct methanol fuel cells, Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2006, 110, 15353-15358. (SCI: 41)
  
  
• Yaojun Zhang, JY Li, Wenzhen Li, Qin Xin, Pt catalyst supported on carbon nanotubes for selective hydrogenation of citral and differential heats of CO adsorption, CHEMICAL JOURNAL OF CHINESE UNIVERSITIES-CHINESE, 2005, 26, 1345-1347.
  
  
• Mahesh Waje, Xin Wang, Wenzhen Li, Yushan Yan, Deposition of platinum nanoprticles on organic functionalized carbon nanotubes grown in situ on a carbon paper for fuel cell application, Nanotechnology, 2005, 16, 1-6. (SCI: 31)
  
  
• Weijiang Zhou, Shuqin Song, Wenzhen Li, Zhenhua Zhou, Gongqun Sun, Qin Xin, S. Douvartzides, P. Tsiakaras, Direct ethanol fuel cells based on PtSn anodes: the effect of Sn content on the fuel cell performance, Journal of Power Sources, 2005, 140, 50-58. (SCI: 56)
  
  
• 24 Wenzhen Li, Xin Wang, Zhongwei Chen, Mahesh Waje, Yushan Yan, Carbon Nanotube Film by Filtration as Cathode Catalyst Support for Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell, Langmuir, 2005, 21, 9386-9389. (SCI: 38)
  
  
• Wenzhen Li, Gongquan Sun, Yushan Yan, Qin Xin, Supported Noble metal Electrocatalysts in Low Temperature Fuel Cells, Progress in Chemistry, (invited review), 2005, 17, 761-772).
  
  
• Wenzhen Li, Shuqin Song, Weijiang Zhou, Gongquan Sun, Qin Xin, C. Poulianitis, P. Tsiakars, Direct Methanol Fuel Cells: The Influence of Methanol on the Reduction of Oxygen Over Pt/C Catalysts with Different Particle Sizes, Ionics, 2005, 11, 112-119.
  
  
• Zhenxing Liang, Weimin Chen, Jianguo Liu, Suli Wang, Zhenhua Zhou, Wenzhen Li, Gongquan Sun, Qin Xin, FT-IR study of microstructure of Nafion membrane, Journal of Membrane Science, 2004, 233, 39-44.
  
  
• Weijiang Zhou, Bing Zhou, Zhenhua Zhou, Wenzhen Li, Shuqin Song, Zhaobin Wei, Gongquan Sun, Qin Xin, A novel routine to prepare Pt-based electrocatalysis for direct methanol (ethanol) fuel cells, Nano-technology in Catalysis, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, 2004, 183-200).
  
  
• Shuqin Song, Weijiang Zhou, Wenzhen Li, Gongquan Sun, Qin Xin, S. Kontou, P Tsiakaras, Direct methanol fuel cells: Methanol crossover and its influence on single DMFC performance, Ionics, 2004, 10, 458-462.
  
  
• Huanqiao Li, Qin Xin, Wenzhen Li, Zhenhua Zhou, Luhua Jiang, Shaohua Yang, Gongquan Sun, An improved palladium-based DMFC cathode catalyst, Chemical Communications, 2004, 2776-2777.
  
  
• Luhua Jiang, Zhenhua Zhou, Wenzhen Li, Weijiang Zhou, Shuqin Song, Huanqiao Li, Gongquan Sun, Qin Xin, Effect of treatment in different atmosphere on Pt3Sn/C electrocatalysts for ethanol electro-oxidation, Energy & fuels, 2004, 18, 866-871. (SCI: 20)
  
  
• Weijiang Zhou, Bing Zhou, Wenzhen Li, Zhenhua Zhou, Shuqin Song, G.ongquan Sun, Qin Xin, S. Douvartzides, M. Goula, P. Tsiakaras,Performance comparison of low-temperature direct alcohol fuel cells with different anode catalysts, Journal of Power Sources, 2004, 126, 16-22. (SCI: 54)
  
  
• Weijiang Zhou, Shuqin Song, Wenzhen Li, Gongquan Sun, Qin Xin, S. Kontou, K Poulianitis, P Tsiakaras, Pt-Based anode catalyst for direct ethanol fuel cells, Solid State Ionics, 2004, 175, 797-803.
  
  
• Weijiang Zhou, Wenzhen Li, Shuqin Song, Zhenhua Zhou, Luhua Jiang, Gongquan Sun, Qin Xin, K. Poulianitis , S. Kontou and P. Tsiakaras, Bi- and tri-metallic Pt-based anode catalysts for direct ethanol fuel cells, Journal of Power Sources, 2004, 131, 217-223. (SCI: 74)
  
  
• Wenzhen Li, Changhai Liang, Qin Xin, Application of novel carbon materials in low temperature fuel cell catalysts, Chinese Journal of Catalysis, (invited review), 2004, 25, 839-843.
  
  
• Xinsheng Zhao, Wenzhen Li, Gongquan Sun, Weijiang Zhou, Luhua Jiang, Qin Xin, Baolian Yi, Mutil-wall carbon nanotubes supported PtSn nanoparticles as anode catalyst for direct ethanol fuel cells, Carbon, 2004, 42, 3263-3265.
  
  
• Wenzhen Li, Changhai Liang, Jieshan Qiu, Huanqiao Li, Weijiang Zhou, Gongquan Sun, Qin Xin, Multi-walled carbon nanotubes supported Pt-Fe cathodic catalyst for direct methanol fuel cell, Reaction Kinetics and Catalysis Letters, 2004, 82, 235-240.
  
  
• Wenzhen Li, Weijiang Zhou, Weijiang Zhou, Huanqiao Li, Zhenhua Zhou, Bing Zhou, Gongquan Sun, Qin Xin, Nano-structured Pt-Fe/C as cathode catalyst in direct methanol fuel cell, Electrochimica Acta, 2004, 49, 1045-1055. (SCI: 89)
  
  
• Wenzhen Li, Changhai Liang, Weijiang Zhou, Jieshan Qiu,Gongquan Sun, Qin Xin, Homogeneous and controllable Pt partcles deposited on multil-wall carbon nanotubes as cathode catalyst for direct methanol fuel cells, Carbon, 2004, 42, 436-439. (SCI: 58)
  
  
• Weijiang Zhou, Wenzhen Li, Zhenhua Zhou, Shuqin Song, Zhaobin Wei, Gongquan Sun, P. Tsiakaras, Qin Xin, Preparation and characterization of anoe catalysts PtRu/C for direct methanol fuel cells, Chemical Journal of Chinese University, 2003, 24, 858-862. (SCI: 20)
  
  
• Zhenhua Zhou, Suli Wang, Weijiang Zhou, Guoxiong Wang, Luhua Jiang, Wenzhen Li, Shuqin Song,Jianguo Liu, Gongqun Sun, Qin Xin, Novel synthesis of highly active Pt/C cathode electrocatalyst for direct methanol fuel cell, Chemical Communications, 2003, 394-395. (SCI: 91)
  
  
• Weijiang Zhou, Zhenhua Zhou, Shuqin Song, Wenzhen Li, Gongquan Sun, Panagiotis Tsiakaras, Qin Xin, Pt based anode catalysts for direct ethanol fuel cells, Applied Catalysis B (environmental), 2003, 273-285. (SCI: 166)
  
  
• Wenzhen Li,Zhenhua Zhou, Weijiang Zhou, Huanqiao Li, Xinsheng Zhao, Guoxiong Wang, Gongquan Sun, Qin Xin, Preparation and characterization of Pt/C cathode catalysts for direct methanol fuel cell, Chinese Journal of Catalysis, 2003, 24, 465-470.
  
  
• Wenzhen Li, Changhai Liang, Weijiang Zhou, Jieshan Qiu, Zhenhua Zhou, Gongquan Sun, Qin Xin, Preparation and characterization of multi-walled carbon nanotube-supported platinum for cathode catalyst of direct methanol fuel cells, Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2003, 107, 6292-6299. (SCI: 317, No.4 among > 14200 fuel cell related articles published after 2002).
  
  
• Zhaobin Wei, Suli Wang, Baolian Yi, Jianguo Liu, Likang Chen, Weijiang Zhou, Wenzhen Li,Qin Xin, Influence of electrode structure on the performance of a DMFCs, Journal of Power Sources, 2002 106, 364-369. (SCI: 75)
  
  
• Wenzhen Li, Changhai Liang, Jieshan Qiu, Weijiang Zhou, Hongmei Han, Zhaobin Wei, Gongquan Sun, Qin Xin, Carbon nanotubes as support for cathode catalyst of a direct methanol fuel cell, Carbon, 2002, 40, 791-794. (SCI:167)
  
  
• Changhai Liang, Wenzhen Li, Zhaobin Wei, Qin Xin, Can Li, Catalytic Decomposition of Ammonia over Nitrided MoNx/r-Al2O3 and NiMoNy/r-Al2O3 Catalysts, Industrial Engineering Chemical Research, 2000, 39, 3694-3697. (SCI: 26)

Patents

• Hongyuan Li, Donghong Yin, Dongwen Li, Wenzhen Li, Molecular-sieve removing adsorbent of low-fluorine sulfide impurities and its production, CN1981922.
  
  
• Yushan Yan, Xin Wang, Wenzhen Li, Zhongwei Chen, Mahesh Waje, William A. Goddard, Weiqiao Deng, Carbon based electrocatalysts for fuel cell, WO/2006/099593.
  
  
• Qin Xin, Huanqiao Li, Gongquan Sun, Wenzhen Li, Proton exchange membrane fuel cell cathode catalysts and its application, 200310121180.0
  
  
• Qin Xin, Weijiang Zhou, Zhenhua Zhou, Wenzhen Li, Preparation of high-loading bi-and multi-component precious metallic catalyst, CN1448216.
  
  
• Qin Xin, Weijiang Zhou, Suqing Song, Zhenhua Zhou, Wenzhen Li, Gongquan Sun, Low-temperature fuel cell platinum-tin base anode catalyst, CN1577927.