Yang Ke, Ph.D., Researcher, Institute of Applied Chemistry and Engineering, Graduated from University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

Special Talent：National Four Young Talents Program Recipient

Address：Room 901, Middle Chemistry Building, Nankai University, No. 94 Weijin Road, Nankai District, Tianjin

Telephone：

Email： ke.yang@nankai.edu.cn

Research Group Website：http://www.yanggroup.com.cn

Research Interest：

1.Theoretical and Computational Chemistry

2.Natural and Artificial Photosynthesis

3.Excited-State Dynamics

4.Interface Chemistry

5.Battery Simulation

2004.8 - 2008.7, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, B.S.

2008.8 - 2014.7, Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Ph.D.

2014.8 - 2020.8, Department of Chemistry and Energy Science Institute, Yale University, Postdoc

2020.8 - 2022.11, Department of Chemistry and Energy Science Institute, Yale University, Associate Researcher

2022.12-Present, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Researcher 

The individual engages in researching chemical problems using theoretical and computational chemistry, with a primary focus on excited state dynamics, natural and artificial photosynthesis, and renewable energy. They have achieved a series of innovative research results in developing methods for constructing high-precision potential energy surfaces to study high-energy molecular collisions and photoreactions, as well as in the theoretical research of natural and artificial photosynthesis for the generation of solar fuels. Currently, they have published more than 40 papers in journals such as Nature Computational Science, Nature Chemistry, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), and Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS).

Recent Representative Works:

1. Dongyu Liu; Devan Solanki; Eli Stavitski; Mingtao Li; Shu Hu*; Victor S. Batista*; and Ke R. Yang*, Selective Water Oxidation to H2O2 on TiO2 Surfaces with Redox-Active Allosteric Sites, ACS Appl. Energy Mater. 2023, 6, 16, 8368–8376.

2. Ke R. Yang; Gregory W. Kyro; Victor S. Batista*; The landscape of computational approaches for artificial photosynthesis, Nat. Comput. Sci. 2023, 3, 504-513.

3. Ke R. Yang; K. V. Lakshmi; Gary W. Brudvig; Victor S. Batista ; Is deprotonation of the oxygen-evolving complex of photosystem II during the S₁→S₂ transition suppressed by proton quantum delocalization?, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2021, 143(22): 8324-83324.

4. Yulian He^#; Facheng Guo^#; Ke R. Yang*; Jake A. Heinlein,; Scott M. Bamonte; Jared J. Fee; Shu Hu; Steven L. Suib; Gary L. Haller; Victor S. Batista*; Lisa D. Pfefferle* ; In situ identification of reaction intermediates and mechanistic understandings of methane oxidation over

hematite: A combined experimental and theoretical study, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2020, 140(40): 17119-17130.

5. Camilo A. Mesa^#; Laia Francàs^#; Ke R. Yang; Pablo Garrido-Barros; Ernest Pastor; Yimeng Ma; Andreas Kafizas; Timothy E. Rosser; Matthew T. Mayer; Erwin Reisner; Michael Grätzel; Victor S. Batista*; James R. Durrant*; Multihole water oxidation catalysis on haematite photoanodes revealed by operando spectroelectrochemistry and DFT, Nat. Chem., 2020, 12(1): 82-89.

6. Yanyan Zhao^#; Ke R. Yang^#; Zechao Wang; Xingxu Yan; Sufeng Cao; Yifan Ye; Qi Dong; Xizi Zhang; James E. Thorne; Lei Jin; Kelly L. Materna; Antonios Trimpalis; Hongye Bai; Sirine C. Fakra; Xiaoyan Zhong; Peng Wang; Xiaoqing Pan; Jinghua Guo; Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos; Gary W. Brudvig; Victor S. Batista*; Dunwei Wang*; Stable iridium dinuclear heterogeneous catalysts supported on metal-oxide substrate for solar water oxidation, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 2018, 115(12): 2902-2907.

7. Ke R. Yang; Adam J. Matula; Gihan Kwon; Jiyun Hong; Stafford W. Sheehan; Julianne M. Thomsen; Gary W. Brudvig; Robert H. Crabtree; David M. Tiede; Lin X. Chen; Victor S. Batista*; Solution structures of highly active molecular Ir water-oxidation catalysts from density functional theory combined with high-energy X-ray scattering and EXAFS spectroscopy, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2016, 138(17): 5511-5514 

The research group admits 2 doctoral students and 2 master’s students annually. There are still openings for master’s students enrolling in the Fall 2024 semester. Prospective students are welcome to contact us for group admission.