is now working as a full professor in Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in China. He has been working on functional nanomaterials in energy and environment for more than ten years. His current research interests include the design and development of nanomaterials and their applications in energy.

Ultrasmall bimetallic alloy nanoparticles are generated via a micro–mesopore confinement synthesis strategy in nanoporous N–carbon. The prepared catalysts show excellent bifunctional performance in both ORR and OER, and outstanding energy conversion efficiency in Zn–air batteries.

It is a challenge to synthesize highly efficient nonprecious metal electrocatalysts with a well-defined nanostructure and rich active species. Herein, through electron engineering and structure manipulation simultaneously, we constructed Fe-embedded pyridinic-N-dominated carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on ordered mesoporous carbon, showing excellent oxygen reduction reaction activity (half-wave potential, 0.85 V) and an overpotential of 420 mV to achieve 10 mA cm–2 for oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline media (potential difference, 0.80 V). Density functional theory calculation indicates those Fe@N4 clusters improve charge transfer and further promote the electrocatalytic reactivity of the functionalized region in CNTs. Rechargeable Zn–air batteries were assembled, displaying robust charging–discharging cycling performance (over 90 h) with voltage gap of only 0.08 V, much lower than that of the Pt/C + Ir/C electrode (0.29 V). This work presents a highly active nonprecious metal-based bifunctional catalyst toward air electrode for energy conversion.