Photo-chemistry and functional Materials (XJTISS-2025)

2025. 07-2025. 08

Xi’an, China

Introduction

Photochemistry and its functional materials hold a promising future in the fields of organic electronics, materials science, and also biological applications. With the fast development in this field, photochemistry plays more and more important roles in addressing global challenges and driving technological progress. This course here features lectures on the latest developments in these photo-functional materials, presented by experts in fields like organic solar cells, photocatalysis, bioimaging and sensors, as well as cancer therapy. There are 8 lectures in total. We are going to introduce the basic knowledge and development of photochemistry firstly. Then, some typical functional materials, such as photocatalysts, organic photosensitizers, organic complexes, will also be well introduced. Finally, we will also add the part of experiments in this course this years. To fully understand these lectures, students should have a basic knowledge of chemistry and materials science. While the lectures are introductory, they cover the latest advances in the field, making them suitable for both undergraduate students in their sophomore and junior years, as well as graduate students of any level.

Teaching Masters

Ergang Wang

Prof. Ergang Wang was appointed as a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden) in 2019. He has been an Associate Professor in 2016-2019 and an Assistant Professor in 2012-2016. Previously, he has been a postdoc fellow in the same department from 2008 to 2011. He obtained his PhD degree in Materials Science in 2008 and Docentship in 2015. He was awarded as Wallenberg Academy Fellow in 2017 and his fellowship was prolongated for another 5 years in 2022. The focus of his research is on the development of new conjugated polymers, 2D materials and Graphene-like materials. The main applications of the materials are organic solar cells, photodetectors, light-emitting electrochemical cells, electrochromic, photocatalytic hydrogen production, supercapacitors and thermal management.

Ruquan Ye

Prof. Ruquan Ye obtained his B.Sc. in Chemistry from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (2012), where he worked on fluorescent molecules under the supervision of Prof. Ben Zhong Tang. Then he received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Rice University (2017) under the supervision of Prof. James M. Tour. During his graduate study, he developed new methodologies for the synthesis of nanomaterials and applications in catalysis and photophysics. Afterwards, he worked as a postdoc associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Prof. Karthish Manthiram on electrochemical CO₂ reduction and alcohol oxidation. He joined the City University of Hong Kong as an Assistant Professor in 2018.

Hongyan Sun

Prof. Hongyan Sun received her B.Sc. from Wuhan University and Ph.D. from the National University of Singapore. She was granted a fellowship from the Humboldt Foundation and carried out postdoc research with Professor Herbert Waldmann at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology. Her postdoc studies involve site-specific protein modification and target identification of natural products. She joined the City University of Hong Kong in 2011. Her current research topics include microarray-based screening platforms, novel fluorescent probes for live cell imaging studies, and peptide-based biomaterials for controlled drug delivery and tissue engineering.

Yunlu Dai

Prof. Yunlu Dai is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau. He worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 2016 to 2018. He joined the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Macau since late 2018. He is currently working on the nanomaterials for targeted delivery of anticancer therapeutics and multimodal biological imaging (X-ray computed tomography, optical imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, and photoacoustic imaging, etc). He also aims to develop inorganic nanomaterials and nanoscale coordination materials for gene and drug delivery, immunotherapy, and biological imaging.

Yanzi Xu

Dr. Yanzi Xu is an Assistant Professor in the School of Chemistry, Xi’an Jiaotong University. She obtained her PhD degree from Xi’an Jiaotong University. After that, she also worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Her research focuses on the design, synthesis, and application of aggregation-induced emission active materials, as well as the development of other functional materials.

Heqi Gao

Dr. Heqi Gao received his Ph.D. from the College of Life Sciences at Nankai University in 2021. He then conducted postdoctoral research at the College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University. In 2024, he joined the School of Chemistry at Xi'an Jiaotong University. His research interests mainly focus on organic functional materials for biomedical theranostics.

Bingjie Zhao

Bingjie Zhao received his BSc in Applied Chemistry from Heilongjiang University and PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from Fudan University under the supervision of Prof. Fuyou Li and Prof. Qian Liu. He conducted his training as a Research Assistant in the Single-Molecule Research Group led by Prof. Steven Chu at Fudan University. In late 2024, he joined Xian Jiaotong University as an Assistant Professor. His research focuses on developing novel single-molecule probes for super-resolution imaging and single-molecule tracking.

Dongfeng Dang

Prof. Dongfeng Dang was appointed as a Professor in the School of Chemistry at Xi’an Jiaotong University. He received his Ph.D. degree in chemistry from Xiangtan University. He was a postdoctoral scholar with Prof. Ben Zhong Tang at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research interests focus on the preparation, characterization, and application of organic functional materials.

Curriculum System

Course format: online+offline teaching (Tencent Meeting)

Course arrangement:

Admission Information

Entry Requirement: The program caters to a wide variety of audiences, not only the undergraduates and postgraduates in Chemistry. All students are encouraged to join the program without grade requirements.

Enrollment: 100 students online, unlimited number of students offline. Students from XJTU-Chem participate in offline courses, while students from other schools participate in online courses.

Student treatment: Xi'an Jiaotong University provides a study certificate (completion certificate) for this summer course, and will get the seminar stamps.

Others:

Registration

Please scan the QR code to join the program WeChat group for further information.

Contact

Dr. Yanzi Xu and Prof. Dongfeng Dang

Email: [email protected]