Recently, Professor Xu Qunˊs team of School of Materials Science and Engineering and Professor Jia Yu’s team of School of Physical Engineering used zinc metal as a reducing agent to achieve in-plane activation of molybdenum disulfide. Through density functional theory calculations, it was found that zinc doping can not only greatly reduce the formation energy of the s vacancy, but also help to reduce the hydrogen adsorption energy ΔGH of the S vacancy near the zinc atom. Related research results are titled ”Activation of MoS2 Basal Planes for Hydrogen Evolution through Zinc”, being published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, the top international journal of Chemistry. The co-first author of the article is Wu Wenzhuo, doctoral student of School of Materials and Science Engineering, and Niu Chunyao, teacher of School of Physical Engineering, and Zhengzhou University is the only completion unit.

In addition, the two groups applied this concept to the preparation of catalytic materials and made progress in the efficient use of the conversion of solar energy to chemical energy. The research results are titled ”Two-dimensional amorphous heterostructures of Ag/a-WO3-x The paper for high-efficiency photocatalytic performance”, being published in Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, the top journal in the field of catalysis.（translator Yang Qiuqiu）