04/2025
Our lab has received the 2025 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research (Assistant Professor category). Thank Professor van der Zande for the nomination and thank the Grainger College of Engineering for this huge recognition!
02/2025
Our lab has been awarded the Sloan Research Fellowship (in Chemistry)! Thank the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for this huge recognition and support!
News release from UIUC campus:
News release from the Sloan Foundation:
A full list of 2025 Sloan Fellows:
https://sloan.org/fellowships/2025-Fellows
04/2024
We have synthesized graphitic carbon nitride-based electrocatalysts that may enable low-cost fuel cells and metal-air batteries! The paper has been published in APL Energy.
02/2024
Our lab has received a National Science Foundation CAREER award! The project, titled “CAREER: Elucidating the Correlative Interfacial Solvation, Nucleation, and Growth Processes in Battery Electrolytes“, will receive $661,936 funding from NSF in the coming five years. Thank NSF for the support!
02/2024
We have combined machine learning with atomic force microscopy to perform precise nano-profilometry. The paper has been published in Nano Letters and selected as a journal cover! Also check out the news release in the MatSE department and the MRL.
09/2023
Our group is part of the new NSF Science and Technology Center for Quantitative Cell Biology! Thank NSF for the support, and we look forward to working with colleagues in this uncharted territory!
Award abstract:
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2243257&HistoricalAwards=false
NSF news:
https://new.nsf.gov/news/120-million-funding-create-4-new-science-tech-centers
Beckman Institute news release:
08/2023
Yingjie received a travel grant from the Physical and Analytical Electrochemistry Division of The Electrochemical Society to attend the 244th ECS Meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden. Thank ECS for the support!
07/2023
Qian received the Racheff Teaching Fellowship for Fall 2023!
04/2023
Lalith received the TechnipFMC Fellowship for the 2023-2024 academic year! Congratulations to Lalith and thank TechnipFMC for the support!
11/2022
Our work on sub-nanometer scale charge density profiling of electrode–electrolyte interfaces has been published at ACS Nano!
10/2022
Our work on deciphering the structural descriptor of interfacial ionic liquids has been published at The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters!
07/2022
Jae received PPG-MRL Graduate Fellowship Award for 2022-2023! Congratulations to Jae and thank PPG for the support!
04/2022
Kaustubh has been selected as one of the Mavis Future Faculty Fellows (MF3) for the 2022-2023 academic year, and will embark on the journey of training for next-generation professors!
03/2022
Our lab received an NSF grant on integrated experiment-theory studies of carbon electrode-electrolyte interfaces! This is an international collaboration with Prof. Yingjie Zhang serving as the lead PI. Co-PIs include Profs. Narayana Aluru (UT Austin), Amir Farrokh Payam (Ulster University, Northern Ireland), and Niall English (University College Dublin, Republic of Ireland). Thank NSF for supporting our work!
03/2022
Our work on spectroscopic investigation of the electric double layers of a pyrrolidinium-based ionic liquid is published in The Journal of Chemical Physics! It is also selected as the cover of the journal!
11/2021
Our lab received a three-year $425,000 grant from AFOSR on ionic liquids and electrocatalysis! Thank the U.S. Air Force for the support!
Illinois MatSE news:
06/2021
Our lab won the 2021 Beckman Young Investigator Award! Thank the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation for the support!
Award announcement at the Beckman Foundation:
Summary of our proposed research:
https://www.beckman-foundation.org/people/yingjie-zhang/
News by the Grainger College of Engineering and the MatSE Department:
https://matse.illinois.edu/news/38444
News at the Materials Research Lab:
https://mrl.illinois.edu/news/zhang-beckman-young-investigator-award
01/2021
Our paper on Bi2Te3-based electrochemical sensors is published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces! Here is the featured news from the MatSE department.
11/2020
Our work on molecular imaging of electrochemical solid-liquid interfaces is published in ACS Nano! Here is the featured news from the MatSE department.
03/2020
Kaustubh was awarded the TechnipFMC Fellowship for the 2020-2021 academic year. Congratulations to Kaustubh, and thank TechnipFMC for the recognition and support! Here is the MatSE news.
11/2019
Our group has received the ACS PRF Doctoral New Investigator Award. Thank ACS for the support! Here is the MatSE news on the award.
10/2019
Our paper on magnetotransport in graphene strain superlattices is published in Applied Physics Letters:
https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.5125462
09/2019
Our paper on nanomechanical mapping of wrinkled membranes is published at ACS Applied Nano Materials:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsanm.9b01232
07/2019
Our paper on imaging the molecular charge memory effects is published at ACS Applied Nano Materials:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsanm.9b01182
01/2019
The Zhang lab started!
10/2018
Our work on two-dimensional superlattices is published in npj 2D Materials and Applications! Here is the featured news from the Illinois MRSEC.
06/2018
Our work on two-dimensional membrane deformation is published in Nano Letters! Here is the featured news from the Materials Research Laboratory at UIUC.