The research of our group covers heterogeneous catalysis, homogeneous catalysis and material chemistry. Our group is interested in the synthesis and characterization of structurally well-defined crystalline metals and metal oxides. Ongoing projects include developing new synthetic routes to ordered nanomaterials, such as crystalline oxides, zeolite, and metal nanoparticles, and evaluating their catalytic performances in order to search for green and environmentally benign processes.

Concerns over the diminishing reserve of fossil fuels and global climate change caused by the use of fossile fuel urge our society to search for renewable sources of fuel and chemicals. Our group is working on a specific research project which involves the transformation of biomass (such as lignin, cellulose, glycerol and HMF) into BTX (benzene, toluene and xylene), phenolic compounds, and polymer building blocks. We are developing new catalysts, processes, and reactor systems for that. We also aim at understanding the fundamental chemistry behind it under realistic reaction conditions assisted by the first-principles methods such as density functional theory (DFT) methods.