Xianhu Sun
Principal Investigator, Associate Professor
Biography
Xianhu Sun is an Associate Professor at the School of Chemistry, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), where he has served since November 2023. His research focuses on advanced in situ environmental gas and liquid electron microscopy for the synthesis of energy and catalytic materials, as well as interfacial structural chemistry. By combining commercial ETEM platforms with self-developed in situ tools and AI-assisted analysis, his group aims to uncover dynamic structural evolution and reaction mechanisms at the atomic scale under realistic conditions. Dr. Sun has authored papers in Nature, PNAS, JACS, Energy & Environmental Science, Nature Communications, and Advanced Functional Materials. His work has contributed to understanding interfacial transformation kinetics, redox-driven structural evolution, and atomic-scale mechanisms in oxide and catalytic systems. Through these efforts, he has established a growing international reputation in in situ electron microscopy and materials chemistry.
Academic Background
- •Feb. 2022 – Nov. 2023 Postdoctoral Researcher, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and National Center for Electron Microscopy, USA
- •Aug. 2016 – Feb. 2022 Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Mechanical Engineering (Materials Science), State University of New York, USA
- •Sep. 2013 – Jul. 2016 M.S. Student, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, China
- •Sep. 2009 – Jul. 2013 B.S., School of Materials Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, China
Research Interests
- •Environmental Transmission Electron Microscopy (ETEM)
- •In-situ Characterization of Gas-Solid Reactions
- •Atomic-Scale Imaging and Spectroscopy
- •Electrocatalysis and Energy Conversion
- •Single-Atom Catalysis
- •Defect Engineering in Functional Materials
Selected Publications
Atomic dynamics of electrified solid–liquid interfaces in liquid-cell TEM
Q. B. Zhang#, Z.G. Song#, X. H. Sun#, Y. Liu#, J.W. Wan, S. B. Betzler, Q. Zheng, J.Y. Shangguan, K.C. Bustillo, P. Ercius, P. Narang, Y. Huang, H. M. Zheng*
Nature, 2024
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07479-w
Dislocation-induced stop-and-go kinetics of interfacial transformations
X. H. Sun#, D. X. Wu#, L. F. Zou, S. D. House, X. B. Chen, M. Li, D. N. Zakharov, J. C. Yang, G. W. Zhou
Nature, 2022
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04880-1
Surface-reaction induced structural oscillations in the subsurface
X. H. Sun, W. H. Zhu, D. X. Wu, C. R. Li, J. Y. Wang, Y. G. Zhu, X. B. Chen, J. A. Boscoboinik, R. Sharma, G. W. Zhou
Nature Communications, 2020
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-14167-1
Oscillatory redox behavior in oxides: cyclic surface reconstruction and reactivity modulation via Mars-van Krevelen mechanism
X.H. Sun*, D. Wu, J. Wang, S.B. Patel1, W. Zhu, J. Yang, T. T. Yang, S. Ye, X. Chen, Y. Zhu, L. Qiao, M. Li, S.D. House, J. Su, W.A. Saidi, J.A. Boscoboinik, J.C. Yang, R. Sharma, G.W. Zhou*
PNAS, 2025
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2422711122
Atomic-Scale Mechanism of Unidirectional Oxide Growth
X. H. Sun#, W. H. Zhu#, D. X. Wu, Z. Y. Liu, X. B. Chen, L. Yuan, G. F. Wang, R. Sharma, and G. W. Zhou
Adv. Funct. Mater, 2020
DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201906504