Maning Liu

Research 

Global fossil fuel energy crisis highlights the urgency of renewable energy development such as abundant solar energy. My research is focused on the synthesis and understanding of novel functional semiconductor materials, which can convert solar energy into other forms of energy, e.g., electricity (photovoltaics) and solar fuels (hydrogen evolution), achieving a sustainable development mode. My research covers from synthesis (solution process and colloidal synthesis) and characterization (primarily by photochemical and photophysical measurements) to fabrication of eco-friendly, low-cost, and high-performance light-converting devices (primarily for solar cells and photoelectrochemical cells).

Sustainability aspects

In general, the core of my research is to develop new semiconductor functional materials for their renewable energy applications, which well falls in the scope of ‘Affordable and Clean Energy’ as No.7 goal of recently released ‘Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’ by United Nations. Typically, the sustainable materials developed upon my research could contribute to the wide green energy applications such as solar cells, photocatalytic water splitting and CO₂ reduction.