Dr. Jun Li

University Distinguished Professor

Biography

2023-Pres.

2012-2023

2007-2012

2000-2007

1998-2000

1997-1998

1994-1997

1989-1995

1988-1989

1987-1988

1983-1987

University Distinguished Professor

Professor

Associate Professor (with tenure)

Senior Research Scientist (up to GS15) and Group Lead, NASA Ames
Research Center. Moffett Field, CA

Research Fellow & Principle Investigator, Institute of Materials Research and Engineering. Singapore

Application Scientist, Molecular Imaging Co, Phoenix, AZ

Postdoctoral Research, Electrochemistry, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

Graduate Teaching Assistant in Chemistry, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

Graduate study in Electrochemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan, P.R. China

B.S. in Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan, P.R. China

Research Overview

Research in the Li laboratory is in the interdisciplinary field of nanoscience and nanotechnology,with an emphasis on the development of novel applications of micro-/nano- devices in chemical/biochemical analysis, biomedicine, energy conversion and storage, environmental monitoring and protection, and electronics. Our foci are the fundamental understanding of new phenomena involved in nanomaterials growth/assembly, characterization, surface modification, device fabrication, and function evaluation. The projects involve close collaboration with partners from academia, industry, and government labs. Current projects include: (a) Nanomaterials growth and composite materials synthesis: mainly focused on high-aspect ratio 1D nanofibers (carbon nanotubes, carbon nanofibers, semiconducting inorganic nanowires), 2D planar mnanomaterials (graphene, graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, transitional metal dichacogenides and other graphene analogues), and assembly of nanomaterials into 3D hierarchical hybrids, particularly those consisting of nanocarbon cores and functional nanomaterials shells; (b) Biosensor development: mainly focused on nanostructed electrodes for electrochemical detection of proteases activity and nanoscale dielectrophoretic capture and detection of virus/bacterial particles; (c) Energy conversion and storage : mainly focused on developing 3D architectures based on core-shell hybrid materials for lithium-ion batteries, supercapacitors, electrocatalysts, and dye-sensitized solar cells.

Selected publications

1. Chen, Y.; Elangovan, A.; Zeng, D.; Zhang Y.; Ke, H.; Li, J.*; Sun, Y.*; Cheng, H.*, Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanofibers on Cu Foil as a 3D Current Collector for Reversible Li Plating/Stripping toward High-Performance Li–S Batteries. Advanced Functional Materials 2020, 30 (4), 1906444.
2. Anderson, M. J.; Song, Y.; Fan, H.; Wright, J. G.; Ren, Z.; Hua, D. H.; Koehne, J. E.; Meyyappan, M.; Li, J.*, Simultaneous, multiplex quantification of protease activities using a gold microelectrode array. Biosensors & Bioelectronics. 2020, 165, 112330.
3. Elangovan, A.; Xu, J.; Sekar, A.; Liu, B.; Li, J.*, Enhancing Methanol Oxidation Reaction with Platinum-based Catalysts using a N-Doped Three-dimensional Graphitic Carbon Support. ChemCatChem 2020, 12 (23), 6000-6012.
4. Song, Y.; Fan, H.; Anderson, M.; Wright, J.; Hua, D.; Koehne, J.; Meyyappan, M.; Li, J.*, Quantitative Electrochemical Analysis of Cathepsin B Activity Using Carbon Nanofiber Nanoelectrode Arrays with Optimized Peptide Substrate Length and Temperature, Anal. Chem., 2019, 91 (6), 3971-3979.
5. Li, J.*; Pandey, G. P. Advanced Physical Chemistry of Carbon Nanotubes. Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem. 2015, 66 (1), 331-56.