About Me
Dr. Tianxiang Chen
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry (CHEM)
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Dr. Tianxiang Chen leads the Adaptive Catalysis Group, which investigates how catalytic active sites evolve and reconstruct under reaction conditions. His research combines atomically precise catalyst design with synchrotron-based diffraction, total scattering, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy to establish dynamic structure–function relationships in catalytic materials.
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Research Profile
Dr. Chen has published 55 peer-reviewed papers, including 20 papers as first, co-first, or corresponding author. His work includes publications in Nature Catalysis, Nature Synthesis, Nature Communications, Chem, Journal of the American Chemical Society, and Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
Representative research contributions include:
- atomically precise multinuclear metal clusters confined in zeolites
- Cu–Co and other bimetallic active-site ensembles
- nuclearity-dependent catalysis in structurally defined metal clusters
- synchrotron diffraction and total-scattering methods for porous catalytic materials
- operando tracking of catalyst structural evolution
Work Experience
| Period | Position | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| Since Dec. 2025 | Research Assistant Professor | Department of Chemistry (CHEM), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University |
| May 2024 – Oct. 2025 | Visiting Scholar | Tsinghua University, Prof. Lichen Liu |
| Oct. 2022 – Nov. 2025 | Postdoctoral Research Fellow | The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Prof. Tsz Woon Benedict Lo |
| May 2018 – Apr. 2019 | Research Assistant | The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Prof. Tsz Woon Benedict Lo |
Education
| Degree | Major | Period | Institution | Advisor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PhD | Chemistry | Sep. 2019 – Oct. 2022 | The Hong Kong Polytechnic University | Prof. Tsz Woon Benedict Lo |
| Visiting PhD | Chemistry | Apr. 2022 – Aug. 2022 | University of Manchester, UK | Prof. Sihai Yang |
| M.E. | Chemical Engineering | Sep. 2015 – May 2018 | South China University of Technology | Prof. Xiaoming Fang |
| B.S. | Applied Chemistry | Sep. 2011 – July 2015 | Guangxi University | Prof. Bin Li |
Honors and Awards
- 2022/23 FS Outstanding PhD Thesis Award, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Invited Talks
- 2026 International Forum on Carbon Neutrality and Catalysis, Wuhan, China
- 2025 1st Global Overseas Young Chinese Top Talent Forum, Namur, Belgium
Academic Meetings and Conferences
- 2025 1st Global Overseas Young Chinese Top Talent Forum
- 2022 5th Annual UK Porous Materials Conference
- 2022 UK Catalysis Hub Summer Conference
- 2021 ACS Publications Symposium — Hong Kong: The Power of Chemical Transformations
- 2020 27th Symposium on Chemistry Postgraduate Research in Hong Kong
Expertise
Structural Characterization
- X-ray and neutron diffraction with Rietveld refinement
- X-ray absorption spectroscopy, including XANES and EXAFS
- Total scattering and pair distribution function analysis
- Operando synchrotron spectroscopy and diffraction
Catalysis and Materials
- atomically precise metal-cluster synthesis and characterization
- zeolite-supported catalyst design
- multinuclear and dual-atom active sites
- catalyst restructuring and structure–activity relationships
Contact
Email: txchen@polyu.edu.hk