Introduction

Education:

1985, B.Sc., Chemistry, Zhejiang Normal University, Zhejiang, P R China

1992, M.Sc., Physical Chemistry, East China Normal University, Shanghai, P R China

2005, Ph.D., Materials Physics and Chemistry, Tongji University, Shanghai, P R China

Experience:

1992 to present, Tongji University, Professor of Chemistry.

Research Interest:

[1] Colloid & Surface Chemistry:Synthesis and structural controlling of porous materials and researching on their properties and applications: (a) Carbon foams:Carbon foams have many novel features such as high temperature-tolerance, adjustable thermal and electrical conductivity, and large specific surface area with open cell structures. We prepared carbon foams with uniform or hierarchical porous structure by using oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion polymerization strategy, blowing method and surfactant templating, etc., and we reported a method for the synthesis of carbon foams with high mechanical strength and high strength/density ratio by blowing polyarylacetylene prepolymer with pentane; (b) Porous carbon micro/nano-spheres: We used hydrothermal and hydrothermal-emulsion strategy to fabricate porous carbon spheres on micro or nano scale. These carbon spheres show advantages such as regular geometry, good liquidity, adjustable porosity and particle size over other carbon powders or flake, which can decrease the resistance of ion diffusion and lead to improved electrochemical andadsorptive performances. Besides, our interests also involve aerogels prepared by sol-gel process and their application for photocatalytic degradation of pollutants, hierarchical porous carbons based on microporous organic polymers, supramolecular nanoassembly for drug delivery and heterometallic titanium-oxo clusters, etc.

[2] Nanomaterial Physical Chemistry / Nano Energy and Nano Environment: Energy Storage Materials: Carbon electrode materials for high performance supercapacitors and lithium-ion battery. Developing new types of energy is a highly important and urgent work considering the fact that the global energy consumption has been accelerating at an alarming speed because of the fast worldwide economic expansion and population increase, and ever increasing human reliance on energy-based appliances. Supercapacitors, also known as ultracapacitors or electrochemical capacitors, have received great attention due to their long cycle life, relatively rapid charge/discharge capability, environmental friendship and products safety. Homogeneous package between carbon spheres creates macroporosity that promotes the generation of ion buffer reservoirs, which could reduce the transportation distances of electrolyte ions to the interior carbon surfaces. Mesoporous carbons are favorable for high transportation speed of electrolyte ions even at a high current density, whereas micropores are well-known to provide plentiful adsorbing sites for ions and enhance the electrochemical capacitance. Therefore, hierarchical porous carbons or carbon spheres are promising and innovative materials for lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors due to their high surface areas, efficient electronic conductivity and excellent mass transport. Our interest is to prepare hierarchical porous carbons or carbon spheres by various methods including hydrothermal and hydrothermal emulsion strategy.

Ongoing Projects:

[1] Projects supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China: (a) Structural reforming and surface functionalization of carbon foams, and (b) Controlled synthesis and properties of porous materials with hierarchical porous structure based on microporous organic polymers.

[2] Project supported by the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality, China: Researching on key preparation technology of nanocomposite structural anode materials for lithium-ion battery based on mesoporous carbon microspheres.

Selected Publications Since 2007:

[45] Pranav K. Tripathi, Mingxian Liu*, Yunhui Zhao, Xiaomei Ma, Lihua Gan*, Owen Noonan, Chengzhong Yu. Enlargement of uniform micropores in hierarchically ordered micro-mesoporous carbon for high level decontamination of bisphenol A. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2014, 2 (22): 8534-8544. DOI: 10.1039/C4TA00578C. (RSC, IF=6.101, SCI 1st Class, Top Journal)

[44] Pranav K. Tripathi, M. Liu* and L. Gan*. Tuned surface area and mesopore diameter of ordered mesoporous carbon: ultrahigh decontamination of di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate.RSC Advances, 2014, 4 (45): 23853-23860. DOI: 10.1039/C4RA01570C.

[43] Xiaomei Ma, Lihua Gan*, Mingxian Liu*, Pranav K. Tripathi, Yunhui Zhao, Zijie Xu, Dazhang Zhu, Longwu Chen. Mesoporous size controllable carbon microspheres and their electrochemical performances for supercapacitor electrodes. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2014, 2(22): 8407-8415. DOI: 10.1039/C4TA00333K. (RSC, IF=6.101, SCI 1st Class, Top Journal)

[42] Pranav K. Tripathi,Lihua Gan*, Mingxian Liu*, Xiaomei Ma, Yunhui Zhao, Dazhang Zhu, Zijie Xu, Longwu Chen, Nageswara N. Rao. One-pot assembly of silica@two polymeric shells for synthesis of hollow carbon porous nanospheres: Adsorption of bisphenol A. Materials Letters, 2014, 120: 108-110. (IF=2.224, SCI 2nd Class)

[41] Yaokang Lv, Jun Cheng, Alexander Steiner, Lihua Gan, Dominic S. Wright. Dipole-induced band-gap reduction in an inorganic cage. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2014, 53(7): 1934-1938. DOI: 10.1002/anie.201307721. (IF=13.73, SCI 1st Class, Top Journal)

Yaokang Lv, Jun Cheng, Alexander Steiner, Lihua Gan, Dominic S. Wright. Dipole-induced band-gap reduction in an inorganic cage. Angewandte Chemie, 2014, 126, 1965-1969. DOI: 10.1002/ange.201307721.

[40] Mingxian Liu, Lihua Gan,* Wei Xiong, Zijie Xu, Dazhang Zhu and Longwu Chen. Development of MnO₂/porous carbon microspheres with a partially graphitic structure for high performance supercapacitor electrodes. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2014, 2 (8), 2555-2562. DOI: 10.1039/C3TA14445C. (RSC, IF=6.101, SCI 1st Class, Top Journal)

[39] Pranav K. Tripathi,Lihua Gan, Mingxian Li and Nageswara N. Rao. Mesoporous carbon nanomaterials as environmental adsorbents. Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, 2014, 14, 1823-1837. doi:10.1166/jnn.2014.8763. (SCI)

[38] Xiaomei Ma, Mingxian Liu,* Lihua Gan,* Pranav K. Tripathi, Yunhui Zhao, Dazhang Zhu, Zijie Xu and Longwu Chen. Novel mesoporous Si@C microspheres as anodes for lithium-ion batteries. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2014,16, 4135-4142. DOI: 10.1039/c3cp54507e. (RSC, SCI IF=3.829)

[37] Yunhui Zhao, Mingxian Liu*, Lihua Gan*, Xiaomei Ma, Dazhang Zhu, Zijie Xu and Longwu Chen. Ultramicroporous carbon nanoparticles for the high-performance electrical double-layer capacitor electrode. Energy Fuels, 2014, 28 (2): 1561-1568 (DOI: 10.1021/ef402070j). (ACS, SCI 2nd Class)

[36] Pranav K. Tripathi, Mingxian Liu*, Lihua Gan*, Jiasheng Qian, Zijie Xu, Dazhang Zhu and Nageswara N. Rao. High Surface Area Ordered Mesoporous Carbon for High Level Removal of Rhodamine B. Journal of Materials Science, 2013, 48: 8003-8013. DOI 10.1007/s10853-013-7612-2 (IF=2.16, SCI 2nd Class)

[35] Yaokang Lv, Mingming Yao, Juan Pedro Holgado, Torsten Roth, Alexander Steiner, Lihua Gan, Richard M. Lambert and Dominic S. Wright*. A low-temperature single-source route to an efficient broad-band cerium(iii) photocatalyst using a bimetallic polyoxotitanium cage. RSC Advances, 2013, 3: 13659-13662.

[34] Pranav K. Tripathi, Nageswara N. Rao, Chetan Chauhan, Girish R. Pophali, Sanjay M. Kashyap, Satish K. Lokhande, Lihua Gan. Treatment of refractory nano-filtration reject from a tannery using Pd-catalyzed wet air oxidation.Journal of Hazardous Materials,2013, 261: 63-71. (IF=3.925, SCI 1st Class, Top Journal)

[33] Jie Li, Yao Qin, Chao Jin, Ying Li, DongLu Shi, Lukas Schmidt-Mende, Lihua Gan*, Jinhu Yang*. Highly ordered monolayer/bilayer TiO₂ hollow sphere films with widely tunable visible-light reflection and absorption band. Nanoscale, 2013, 5, 5009-5016. DOI: 10.1039/C3NR00778B. (RSC, IF=6.23, SCI 1st Class, Top Journal)

[32] Xiaomei Ma, Mingxian Liu*, Lihua Gan*, Yunhui Zhao, Longwu Chen. Synthesis of micro- and mesoporous carbon spheres for supercapacitor electrode. Journal of SolidStateElectrochemistry, 2013, 17: 2293-2301. DOI: 10.1007/s10008-013-2110-7. (IF=2.28, SCI 2nd Class)

[31] Jiasheng Qian, Mingxian Liu, Lihua Gan,* Pranav K. Tripathi, Dazhang Zhu, Zijie Xu, Zhixian Hao, Longwu Chen, Dominic S. Wright. A seeded synthetic strategy for uniform polymer and carbon nanospheres with tunable sizes for high performance electrochemical energy storage. Chemical Communications, 2013, 49: 3043-3045. DOI:10.1039/C3CC41113C. (RSC, SCI 2nd Class, IF=6.38)

[30] Mingming Yao, Mingxian Liu, Lihua Gan∗, Fengqi Zhao, Xuezhong Fan, Dazhang Zhu, Zijie Xu, Zhixian Hao, Longwu Chen. Monoclinic mesoporous BiVO₄: Synthesis and visible-light-drivenphotocatalytic property. Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, 2013, 433: 132-138.

[29] Mingxian Liu, Lihua Gan*, Wei Xiong, Fengqi Zhao, Xuezhong Fan, Dazhang Zhu, Zijie Xu, Zhixian Hao, Longwu Chen. Nickel-doped activated mesoporous carbon microspheres with partially graphitic structure for supercapacitors. Energy Fuels, 2013, 27(2): 1168−1173. (ACS, SCI 2nd Class)

[28] Yaokang Lv, Janina Willkomm, Michal Leskes, Alexander Steiner, Timothy C. King, Lihua Gan, Erwin Reisner, Paul T. Wood, Dominic S. Wright. Formation of Ti₂₈Ln cages, the highest nuclearity polyoxotitanates. Chemistry-A European Journal, 2012, 18: 11867- 11870. (SCI 2nd Class, IF=5.93)

[27] Yi-Hsuan Lai, Chia-Yu Lin, Yaokang Lv, Timothy C. King, Alexander Steiner, Nicoleta M. Muresan, LihuaGan, Dominic S. Wright and Erwin Reisner. Facile assembly of an efficient CoO_x water oxidation electrocatalyst from Co-containing polyoxotitanate nanocages. Chemical Communications, 2013, 49, 4331-4333 (DOI: 10.1039/ c2cc34934e). (RSC, SCI 2nd Class, IF=6.38)

[26] Wei Xiong, Mingxian Liu, Lihua Gan*, Yaokang Lv, Zijie Xu, Zhixian Hao, Longwu Chen. Preparation of nitrogen-doped macro-/mesoporous carbon foams as electrode material for supercapacitors. Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, 2012, 411: 34-39.

[25] Mingxian Liu, Lihua Gan,* Liuhua Chen, Zijie Xu, Dazhang Zhu, Zhixian Hao, Longwu Chen. Supramolecular core- shellnanosilica@liposome nanocapsules for drug delivery. Langmuir,2012, 28(29): 10725- 10732. (ACS,SCI 2nd Class, IF = 4.186)

[24] Yaokang Lv, Janina Willkomm, Alexander Steiner, Lihua Gan, Erwin Reisner, Dominic S. Wright. Encapsulation of a ‘naked’ Br- anion in a polyoxotitanate host. Chemical Science, 2012, 3: 2470-2473. (RSC, SCI 1st Class, IF = 8.31)

[23] Yaokang Lv, Lihua Gan*, Mingxian Liu, Wei Xiong, Zijie Xu, Dazhang Zhu, Dominic S. Wright. A self-template synthesis of hierarchical porous carbon foams based on banana peel for supercapacitor electrodes. Journal of Power Sources, 2012, 209：152-157. (IF=4.95, SCI 1st Class, Top Journal)

[22] Yaokang Lv, Zhanguo Jiang, Lihua Gan, Mingxian Liu, Yunlong Feng. Three novel organic-inorganic hybrid materials based on decaoxovanadates obtained from a new liquid phase reaction. CrystEngComm, 2012, 14: 314-322.（RSC, IF=4.006, SCI 2nd Class）

[21] Mingxian Liu, Lihua Gan*, Liuhua Chen, Dazhang Zhu, Zijie Xu, Zhixian Hao, Longwu Chen. A novel liposome-encapsulated hemoglobin/silica nanoparticle as an oxygen carrier. International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 2012, 427(2): 354-357. (IF = 3.607, SCI)

[20] Mingxian Liu, Liuhua Chen, Yunhui Zhao, Lihua Gan*, Dazhang Zhu, Wei Xiong, Yaokang Lv, Zijie Xu, Zhixian Hao, Longwu Chen. Preparation, characterization and properties of liposome-loaded polycaprolactone microspheres as a drug delivery system. Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, 2012, 395: 131-136. (SCI)

[19] Yaokang Lv, Yunlong Feng, Lihua Gan*, Mingxian Liu, Liang Xu, Cao Liu, Haowen Zheng, Jie Li. Synthesis of Co-containing mesoporous carbon foams using a new cobalt-oxo cluster as a precursor. Journal of Solid State Chemistry, 2012, 185: 198-205. (SCI)

[18] Wei Xiong, Mingxian Liu, Lihua Gan*, Yaokang Lv, Yang Li, Liang Yang, Zijie Xu, Zhixian Hao. A novel synthesis of mesoporous carbon microspheres for supercapacitor electrodes. Journal of Power Sources, 2011, 196(23): 10461-10464.（IF = 4.951, SCI 1st Class, Top Journal）

[17] Zijie Xu, Binzhong Xia, Weiyan Wang, Tao Ji, Chao Ma, Lihua Gan. Graphitization of aerogel-like carbons in molten sodium metal. Carbon, 2011, 49: 3385-3387. (IF = 5.868, SCI 1st Class, Top Journal)

[16] Yaokang Lv, Mingxian Liu, Lihua Gan*, Yongjie Cao, Liuhua Chen, Wei Xiong, Zijie Xu, Zhixian Hao, Honglai Liu, Longwu Chen. Synthesis of sodium-vanadate-doped ordered mesoporous carbon foams as capacitor electrode materials. Chemistry Letter, 2011, 40(3): 236-238. (SCI)

[15] Rong Fan, Lihua Gan*, Mingxian Liu, Dazhang Zhu, Liuhua Chen, Zijie Xu, Zhixian Hao, Longwu Chen. An interaction of helicid with liposome biomembrane. Applied Surface Science, 2011, 257(6): 2102-2106. (SCI)

[14] Liuhua Chen, Lihua Gan*, Mingxian Liu, Rong Fan, Zijie Xu, Zhixian Hao, Longwu Chen. Destabilization of artificial biomembrane induced by the penetration of tryptophan. Applied Surface Science, 2011, 257(11): 5070-5076. (SCI)

[13] Mingxian Liu, Lihua Gan*, Ci Tian, Jianchun Zhu, Zijie Xu, Zhixian Hao, Longwu Chen. Dual template approach for the synthesis of hierarchically mesocellular carbon foams. Chinese Chemistry Letter, 2009, 20(1): 123-126. (SCI)

[12] Rong Fan, Quiping Zhou, Guofang Zhang, Meiyu Cai, Ping Li, Lihua Gan, Fengqi Zhao, Jizhen Li, Xuezhong Fan, Seik-Weng Ng. Syntheses, structural characterization and thermoanalysis of transition-metal compounds derived from 3, 5-dinitropyridone. Journal of Chemical Crystallography, 2010, 40: 266-271. (SCI)

[11] Mingxian Liu, Lihua Gan*, Zijie Xu, Longwu Chen, Jun Hu, Honglai Liu. Unusual phase inversion behavior in an emulsion polymerization system caused by ammonia. Chemistry Letter, 2010, 39(3): 274-275. (SCI)

[10] Mingxian Liu, Lihua Gan*, Yaling Zeng, Zijie Xu, Zhixian Hao, Longwu Chen. Self-assembly of CdTe nanocrystals into two-dimensional nanoarchitectures at the air-liquid interface induced by gemini surfactant of 1,3-bis (hexadecyldimethylammonium) propane dibromide. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2008, 112(17): 6689-6694. (ACS, SCI 2nd Class，IF = 4.52)

[9] Mingxian Liu, Lihua Gan*, Yingcong Pang, Zijie Xu, Zhixian Hao, Longwu Chen. Synthesis of titania-silica aerogel-like microspheres by a water-in-oil emulsion method via ambient pressure drying and their photocatalytic properties. Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, 2008, 317(1-3): 490-495. (SCI)

[8] Mingxian Liu, Lihua Gan*, Zhixian Hao, Zijie Xu, Dazhang Zhu, Longwu Chen. Hexagonal nanoarchitecture of composite monolayer of magnetite nanoparticles and geminus surfactant 1, 3-propylene bis(dodecyldimethylammonium) dibromide. Chin J. Chem., 2008, 26(1): 39-43. (SCI)

[7] Mingxian Liu, Lihua Gan*, Ci Tian, Jianchun Zhu, Zijie Xu, Zhixian Hao, Longwu Chen. Mesoporous carbon foams through surfactant templating. Carbon, 2007, 45(15): 3045-3046. (IF= 5.868, SCI 1st Class, Top Journal)

[6] Mingxian Liu, Lihua Gan*, Fengqi Zhao, Xuezhong Fan, Huixiang Xu, Fangrui Wu, Zijie Xu, Zhixian Hao, Longwu Chen. Carbon foams with high compressive strength derived from polyarylacetylene resin. Carbon, 2007, 45(15): 3055-3057. (IF = 5.868, SCI 1st Class, Top Journal)

[5] Mingxian Liu, Lihua Gan*, Fengqi Zhao, Huixiang Xu, Xuezhong Fan, Ci Tian, Xi Wang, Zijie Xu, Zhixian Hao, Longwu Chen. Carbon foams prepared by an oil-in-water emulsion method. Carbon, 2007, 45(13): 2710-2712. (IF = 5.868, SCI 1st Class, Top Journal)

[4] Mingxian Liu, Lihua Gan*, Zijie Xu, Zhixian Hao, Gen Chen, Longwu Chen. Dendritic nanopattern for Langmuir layer of Gemini-TiO₂ nanoparticles complex at air-water interface. Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, 2007, 301(1-3): 432-436.（SCI）

[3] Mingxian Liu, Lihua Gan*, Yaling Zeng, Jinghong Wang, Zijie Xu, Zhixian Hao, Honglai Liu, Longwu Chen. Self-assembly of nanorod-like architecture of CdTe nanocrystals in Langmuir monolayer of bolaamphiphiles. Chemistry Letter, 2007, 36(2): 308-309. (SCI)

[2] Zijie Xu, Lihua Gan*, Yunyan Jia, Zhixian Hao, Mingxian Liu, Longwu Chen. Preparation and characterization of silica-titania aerogel balls and their photo-catalytic activity for degradation of organic pollutants. Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology, 2007, 41(3): 203-207.（SCI）

[1] Hao Zhi-Xian, Liu Hui, Guo Bin, Li Hong, Zhang Jia-Wei, Gan Li-Hua, Xu Zi-Jie, Chen Long-Wu. Sol-gel synthesis of mesoporous aluminum using inorganic salt precursor. Acta Physico-Chimica Sinica, 2007, 23(3): 289-294. （SCI）