(1)His research interest lies in heterogeneous catalysis, photocatalysis, and electrocatalysis, with a focus on understanding the fundamentals of these processes by advanced space- and time-resolved spectroscopy.
(2)Physical Chemistry, Spectroscopy, Imaging
(3)operando spectroscopy
(4)Photoelectrical imaging spectroscopy
(5)Photoinduced charge separation at nm/μm scale
(6)Development of Deep Ocean UV Raman spectrograph
2016- State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Vice director
2015- Professor, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
2011-2012 Visiting Scholar, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
2010-2015 Associate Professor/Hundred Talent Program, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
2003-2010 PhD, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
(1) 2024 Xplorer Prize
(2) 2023 Distinguished Young Scholars, NSF of China
(3) 2022 Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry
(4) 2019 National Ten Thousand Talent Program - Young Top-Notch Talent
(5) 2018 Zhang Dayu Excellent scholar by DICP
(6) 2018 Young Scientist Excellence Award by Chinese Renewable Energy Society
(7) 2016 Zhang Dayu Youth scholar by DICP
(8) 2013 Lu Jiaxi Young Scientist Award of Chinese Academy of Sciences
(9) 2012 Rising Star Award by the Catalysis Society of China
(10) 2012 Young Scientist Award of 15th International Congress on Catalysis
(11) 2011 National Award for Natural Sciences, Second Prize
(12) 2011 Outstanding Thesis Awards of Chinese Academy of Sciences
(13) 2010 Hundred-talent program of DICP
(14) 2010 Natural Science Prize of Liaoning Province, First Prize
[1] Yao, H.; Li, Q.; Gao, Y.; Feng, H.; Zhou, P.; Min, Z.; Dittrich, T.; Kokate, P.; Dani, K. M.; Chen, R.; Li, C.; Fan, F. Revealing Effect of Surface Hydroxyl Variation on Charge Spatiotemporal Dynamics in Photocatalysis. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2025, 147, ASAP, DOI:10.1021/jacs.5c08206
[2] Wang, Z.; Huang, Q.; Ni, C.; Bo, T.; Fan, F.; Mirkin, M. V. Photoelectrochemical Imaging of Charge Separation between MoS₂ Triangles and Insulating SiO₂ Support. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2025, 147, 14924–14929.
[3] Li, Q.; Ni, C.; Cui, J.; Li, C.; Fan, F. Impact of Reaction Environment on Photogenerated Charge Transfer Demonstrated by Sequential Imaging. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2025, 147, 9103–9110.
[4] Zhang, J.; Liu, Y.; Dittrich, T.; Fan, F.; Li, C.; et al. Unveiling Charge Utilization Mechanisms in Ferroelectric for Water Splitting. Nat. Commun. 2025, 16, 1515.
[5] Gao, Y.; Zhu, Q.; Zhao, J.; Xie, Y.; Fan, F.; Li, C. Regulating Charge Separation via Periodic Array Nanostructures for Plasmon‐Enhanced Water Oxidation. Adv. Mater. 2025, 37 (6), 2414959.
[6] Zhang, J.; Dittrich, T.; Li, Q.; Ni, C.; Min, Z.; Zhang, L.; Qu, J.; Li, M.; Wang, X.; Li, C.; Fan, F. Parallel Regulation of Charge Dynamics on Bipolar Ferroelectric Surfaces Breaks the Limits for Water Splitting Efficiency. Adv. Mater. 2025, 37, 2501875.
[7] Chen, R.; Ni, C.; Zhu, J.; Fan, F.; Li, C. Surface Photovoltage Microscopy for Mapping Charge Separation on Photocatalyst Particles. Nat. Protoc. 2024, 19, 1–33.
[8] Chen, R.; Zhang, D.; Wang, Z.; Li, D.; Zhang, L.; Wang, X.; Fan, F.; Li, C. Linking the Photoinduced Surface Potential Difference to Interfacial Charge Transfer in Photoelectrocatalytic Water Oxidation. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145 (8), 4667–4674.
[9] Chen, R.; Ren, Z.; Liang, Y.; Zhang, G.; Dittrich, T.; Liu, R.; Liu, Y.; Zhao, Y.; Pang, S.; An, H.; Fan, F.; Li, C. Spatiotemporal Imaging of Charge Transfer in Photocatalyst Particles. Nature 2022, 610 (7931), 296–301.
[10] Chen, R.; Pang, S.; An, H.; Zhu, J.; Ye, S.; Gao, Y.; Fan, F.; Li, C. Charge Separation via Asymmetric Illumination in Photocatalytic Cu₂O Particles. Nat. Energy 2018, 3, 655–663.