His research interest is in the cross-disciplinary field concerning chemistry, material science, energy storage and pollution control. The main work is focused on the advanced carbon materials, metallic oxides, metallic oxides-carbon composites and their applications in the electrical energy storage by supercapacitors and lithium ion batteries, in which the carbons and the composites are used as electrode materials; pollution control by means of adsorption and photocatalysis for the removal and degradation of pollutants, especially hardly biodegradable organics. His research speciality is in the design, preparation and characterization of advanced porous carbon materials, controlling pore size, specific surface area and surface chemistry of porous carbons and metal oxide/carbon composites.
1. Z. Hu and E.F. Vansant, Chemical Activation of Elutrilithe Producing a Carbon-Aluminosilicate Composite Adsorbent, Carbon 33, 1293-1300, 1995
2. Z. Hu and M.P. Srinivasan, Preparation of High-Surface-Area Activated Carbons from Coconut Shell, Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 27, 11-18, 1999
3. Z. Hu, M.P. Srinivasan and Yaming Ni, Preparation of Mesoporous-High- Surface-Area Activated Carbon, Advanced Materials, 12, 62-65, 2000
4. Z. Hu, M.P. Srinivasan and Yaming Ni, Novel activation Process for preparing highly Microporous and mesoporous activated carbons. Carbon, 39, 877-886, 2001
5. Z. Hu and M.P. Srinivasan, Mesoporous High-Surface-Area Activated Carbon, Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 43, 267-275, 2001
6. Z.B. Wen, Q.T. Qu, Q. Gao, X.W. Zheng, Z.H. Hu* et al., An activated carbon with high capacitance from carbonization of a resorcinol–formaldehyde resin, Electrochemistry Communications, 11( 3), 715-718, 2009
7. X.J. Wang, Y.F. Liu, Z.H. Hu*, et al, Degradation of methyl orange by composite photocatalysts nano-TiO2 immobilized on activated carbons of different porosities, Journal of hazardous materials, 169 (1-3), 1061-1067, 2009
8. Z. B. Wen, Y. F. Liu, Z. H. Hu* et al. Influence of pore structure on the electrochemical performance of activated carbons as electrode materials for aqueous supercapacitors, Functional materials letters, 3(3), 201-205, 2010
9. A.F. Liu, Y.F. Liu,; Z. H. Hu*, Electrochemical performance of LiFePO4/C synthesized by solid state reaction using different lithium and iron sources : Journal of physics and chemistry of solids, 72 ( 6 ), 831-835, 2011
10.L.M. Liao,; Y. F. Liu, Z. H. Hu*, Novel morphologic Co3O4 of flower-like hierarchical microspheres as electrode material for electrochemical capacitors, Journal of alloys and compounds, 562, 106-110, 2013
