Prof. Dr. Xiaoyan Sun received her bachelor degree from Hebei University of Technology in 2009, and her Ph.D. degree (Supervisor: Prof. Dangsheng Su) in material physics and chemistry from Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2015. From 2015 to 2020, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow successively in the Department of Chemistry in Technical University of Berlin (Supervisor: Prof. Helmut Schwarz) and the Max Planck Institute for Energy Conversion (Supervisor: Prof. Robert Schlögl) in Germany. In 2021, she was selected by the National Youth Talent Program in China. Her research involves gas phase and condensed phase chemistry of catalytic conversion of energy-related small molecules, related papers have been published in J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., ACS Catal., Coord. Chem. Rev.
Selected publications:
1. Ting Zhang, Haishan Su, Xianwen Zhang, Yang Zhao, Jian Zhou, Lili Zhang, Shengfa Ye, Yuxiao Ding*, Xiaoyan Sun*. Few-Atom Copper Cluster Facilitates H2O2 Activation to Promote Selective Oxidation of Benzene to Phenol. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2025, 147, 15, 12652–12663.
2. Jian Zhou, Qing Wang, Gongkui Cheng, Wei Shen, Richard N. Zare*, Xiaoyan Sun*. Charged Water Microdroplets Enable Dissociation of Surrounding Dioxygen. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2025, Vol 147, Issue 13, 10916–10924.
3. Cong Fang, Zhuang Wang, Ruixian Guo, Yuxiao Ding, Sicong Ma*, Xiaoyan Sun*. Machine Learning Potential for Copper Hydride Clusters: A Neutron Diffraction-Independent Approach for Locating Hydrogen Positions. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2025, 147, 12, 10750-10757.
4. Xiaoshuang Ma, Cong Fang, Mei Ding, Yang Zuo, Xiaoyan Sun*, Shuxin Wang*. Atomic-Level Elucidation of Lattice-Hydrogens in Copper Catalysts for Selective CO2 Electrochemical Conversion Toward C2 Products. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.2025, 64, e202500191.
5. Cong Fang, Jian Zhou, Lili Zhang, Wenchao Wan, Yuxiao Ding*, Xiaoyan Sun*. Synergy of Dual-atom Catalysts Deviated from the Scaling Relationship for Oxygen Evolution Reaction. Nat. Commun. 2023, 14, 4449.
