Yimin Wu

Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering

Research interests: energy materials; electronic materials; photonic materials; responsive materials; in situ multimodal characterizations; interfacial science and engineering; sustainable manufacturing; healthcare; sensing; flexible electronics and soft robotics; neuromorphic computing; connectivity and internet of things (IoT)

Biography

Professor Yimin Wu is the inaugural Tang Family Chair in New Energy Materials and Sustainability. Professor Wu’s research focuses on the design of new energy materials for solar fuels and batteries, and novel electronic, photonic, responsive materials for flexible electronics and soft robotics, and energy efficient neuromorphic computing through a deep understanding of energy transduction processes at interfaces. Wu is the director of the Materials Interfaces Foundry (MIF) at the University of Waterloo and serves on the board of directors at WIN. Wu also serves on the editorial board of Energy and Environmental Materials. Wu has authored and co-authored more than 130 peer-reviewed journal papers, which includes Nature, Nature Energy (x 2), Nature communications (x 7), Science Advances, Advanced Materials (x 3). Wu is also listed as an inventor on 10 US/international patents. Wu has delivered over 45 invited lectures across the world in last 5 years.

Wu obtained his DPhil in Materials from the University of Oxford in 2013, focusing on two dimensional quantum materials, thin film devices, and aberration corrected (scanning) transmission electron microscopy. He went to work as a SinBeRise Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and Materials Science Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, focusing on batteries and in situ multimodal characterizations using liquid phase transmission electron microscopy and synchrotron X-ray microscopy. Then, he joined the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) at Argonne National Laboratory under Argonne Integrated Imaging Initiative, focusing on catalysis, battery and in situ multimodal characterizations using gas/liquid phase transmission electron microscopy, synchrotron X ray nanoprobe, and ultrafast X ray microscopy and spectroscopy. After that, he joined the faculty of University of Illinois at Chicago as an assistant professor of physics (research) and held a joint appointment at the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) at Argonne National Laboratory. In 2019, he joined the University of Waterloo as an assistant professor at Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering and WIN and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2025. He is also cross-appointed to the Department of Chemistry. He has been awarded several prizes including the World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University, Ontario Early Researcher Award, Nanoscale Emerging Investigator Award, WIN Research Leaders Award, MIT Technical Review 35 Innovators under 35 Award Finalist, UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) Doctoral Prize, Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Students Abroad, and SinBeRise Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. His research was featured in >400 international news outlets, including Canadian Press, CBC news, Fast company, BNN Bloomberg, and French Science Magazine.

Education

  • SinBeRise Postdoc Fellow, University of California, 2014

  • DPhil, Materials, University of Oxford, 2013

  • BEng, Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, 2008

Yimin Wu

Research

Professor Yimin Wu’s research focuses on the design of new energy materials for artificial photosynthesis and batteries, and novel electronic, photonic, responsive materials for flexible electronics and soft robotics, and energy efficient neuromorphic computing through a deep understanding of energy transduction processes at interfaces. This includes the following directions.

  1. Energy Materials for Solar Fuels and Batteries

Sustainable energy is one of the grand challenges in world because of the usage and depletion of fossil fuels. It is deeply linked with other problems in human kind, such as food, water, security, and environment. As quoted by Richard Smalley (Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 1996) “If we could solve Earth’s energy problem, most other problems we face: food, water, security, and others would also be solved.” Energy materials are the key for energy conversion and storage, which provides a vital route for sustainable energy from variety of sources. To design energy materials with high efficiency, high selectivity, and stability for energy conversion and storage is yet to come. By using the state-of-art synthesis, in situ multimodal characterization techniques, and machine learning, it is expected to design transformative energy materials for solar fuels and batteries.

  1. Flexible Electronics and Soft Robotics for Personalized Health

Personalized heath care is another grand challenge in human society. Health care must shift from its current reactive and disease centric system to a personalized, predictive, preventative, and participatory model with a focus on disease prevention and health promotion. As the world transforms into the era of internet of things (IoT) and 5G wireless, technology innovation enables industry to offer a more individually tailored approach to health care with more successful health outcomes, higher quality, and low cost. However, empowering the utility of IoT enable technology in personalized heath care is still significant challenge by the shortage of effective wearable sensors and soft robotics to continuously provide real time, personalized health data. Flexible electronics and soft robotics play a vital role in realizing personalized health care for real time monitoring, personalized diagnosis. To understand the design the flexible electronics with high selectivity and high sensitivity is yet to come. By using the state-of-art synthesis, in situ multimodal characterization techniques, and machine learning, it is expected to design disruptive electronic, photonic and responsive materials for flexible electronics and soft robotics.

  1. Electronic and Photonic Materials for Neuromorphic Computing

Nowadays, 5% to 15% of the world’s energy is spent in data manipulation, transmission, or processing. For future artificial intelligence and big data analysis by machine learning, it needs low power device with high power efficiency. Human brain is a million times more energy efficient than conventional CMOS computing. Neuromorphic computing is the new type of computing architecture to mimic the function of human brain. The goal of our research is to develop novel electronic and photonic materials and devices for energy efficient neuromorphic computing and invent processes and technologies to fabricate such devices and circuits.

Publications

Recent publications include:

  • Lei Wang, Omar Lopez-Estrada, Siyan Lu, Cheng Du, Aman Soni, Xiyang Wang, Maoyu Wang, Hsiaotsu Wang, Zuihar Singh, Ariel Tirado, Brant Billinghurst, Wei Wei, Baizhou Zhang, Zuolong Chen, Jian Wang, Jigang Zhou, Cheng-Jun Sun, Hua Zhou, Rodney D.L. Smith, Brian Kendall, David Sinton, Samira Siahrostami, Yimin A. Wu, Confinement Reconstruction Unlocks Stable Ru Single Atom-doped IrOx Anodes for Long-term High-rate CO2 electrolysis, ACS Catalysis, 2026

  • Wei Wei, Cheng Du, Jiawei Ge, Xiyang Wang, Zuolong Chen, Meng Zhang, Tao Guo, Lei Wang, Maoyu Wang, Yuzi Liu, Hua Zhou, Chengjun Sun, Ning Chen, Weifeng Chen, Brant Billinghurst, Moshen Shakouri, Peter Sprenger, Fatemeh Fani Sani, Yulian Quan, Brian Kendall, Roy Brouwer, Yimin. A. Wu, Bio-inspired Cascade Photocatalysis on Fe Single-Atom Carbon Nitride Upcycles Plastic Wastes for Effective Acetic Acid Production, Advanced Energy Materials, 2025, e05453

  • Zhenyu Li, Kunhong Jiang, Yue Yang, Yijing Pian, Huizhen Liu, Zexuan Zheng, Xiyang Wang, Subhajit Jana, Jiefei Li, Zhuoyuan Ma, Xiaoyun Qiao, Xiaoxin Zou, Xuelu Ma, Bin Zhang, Haibin Chu, Yimin A. Wu, “Pd@PdBOx Heterostructure with Strong Electronic Interaction to Promote C-H Bond Activation for Glycerol Oxidation Reaction”,Science Advances, 2025, 11, eadw4927

  • Lei Wang, Zhiwen Chen, Yi Xiao, Linke Huang, Xiyang Wang, Holly Fruehwald, Dmitry Akhmetzyanov, Matthew Hanson, Zuolong Chen, Ning Chen, Brant Billinghurst, Rodney D. L. Smith, Chandra Veer Singh, Zhongchao Tan, Yimin A. Wu, Stabilized Cuδ+-OH species on in situ reconstructed Cu nanoparticles for CO2-to-C2H4 conversion in neutral media, Nature Communications, 2024, 15, 7477

  • Tao Guo, Shasha. Li, Y. Norman. Zhou, Wei. D. Lu, Yan. Yan, Yimin. A. Wu, “Interspecies-Chimera Machine Vision with Polarimetry for Real-time Navigation and Anti-Glare Pattern Recognition”, Nature Communications, 2024, 15 (1), 6731

  • Xiyang Wang, Qinghua Zhang, Xinbo Li, Fanqi Meng, Shengru Chen, Zuolong Chen, Yingge Cong, Teak Boyko, Tom Regier, Er-Jia Guo, Yi Xiao, Liping Li, Guangshe Li, Shouhua Feng, Yimin A. Wu, “Unravelling the Oxygen Vacancies-Performance Relationship in Perovskite Oxides at Atomic Precision via Precise Synthesis”, Journal of American Chemical Society, 2024

  • Xiyang Wang, Zhen Li, Xinbo Li, Chuan Gao, Yinghui Pu, Xia Zhong, Jianyu Qian, Minli Zeng, Xuefeng Chu, Zuolong Chen, Carl Redshaw, Hua Zhou, Chengjun Sun, Tom Regier, Graham King, James Dynes, Bingsen Zhang, Yanqiu Zhu, Guangshe Li, Yue Peng, Nannan Wang, Yimin A. Wu, "Embedding Reverse Electron Transfer Between Stably Bare Cu Nanoparticles and Cation-Vacancy CuWO4", Advanced Materials, 2024, 2412570

  • Fu, Hao and Liu, Hongjie, and Wang, Xiyang, and Zhang, Wenhua, and Zhang, Hui, and Luo,Yunhong and Deng, Xianwang, and King, Graham, and Chen, Ning, and Wang, Liwei, and Wu, Yimin A., “Reverse Hydrogen Spillover on Metal Oxides for Water-Promoted Catalytic Oxidation Reactions”, Advanced Materials, 2024, 2407534.

  • Du, Cheng and Mills, Joel P. and Yohannes, Asfaw G. and Wei, Wei and Wang, Lei and Lu, Siyan and Lian, Jian-Xiang and Wang, Maoyu and Guo, Tao and Wang, Xiyang and Zhou, Hua and Sun Cheng-Jun and Wen, John Z. and Kendall, Brian and Couillard, Marin and Guo, Hongsheng and Tan, Zhongchao and Siahrostami, Samira and Wu, Yimin A., Cascade electroctalysis via AgCu single-atom alloy and Ag nanoparticles in CO2 electroreduction toward multicarbon products, Nature Communications, 14, 6142, 2023

  • Guo, Tao and Zhang, Baizhou and Wang, Xiyang and Xiao, Yi and Sun, Bai, and Zhou,Y. Norman, Wu, Yimin A., Broadband Optoelectronic Synpase Enables Compact Monolithic Neuromorphic Machine Vision for Information Processing, Advanced Functional Materials, 2023, 2303879.

  • Du, Cheng, and Lu, Siyan, and Wang, Jia-ao, and Wang, Xiyang, and Wang, Maoyu, and Fruehwald,Holly M., Wang, Lei, and Zhang, Baizhou, and Guo, Tao, and Mills, Joel. P. and Wei, Wei, and Chen, Zuolong, Teng, Youchao, and Zhang, Jingyan, and Sun, Chen-jun, and Zhou,Hua, andSmith, Rodney. D.L. and Kendall, Brian, Henkelman, Graeme, and Wu, Yimin A., Selective Reducing Nitrate into NH3 in Neutral Media by PdCu Single-Atom Alloy Electrocatalysis, ACS Catalysis, 2023, 13, 10560–10569.

  • Guo, Tao and Ge, Jiawei and Jiao, Yixuan and Teng, Youchao and Sun, Bai and Huang, Wen and Asgarimoghaddam, Hatameh and Musselman, Kevin P. and Zhou, Y. Norman and Wu, Yimin A., Intelligent matter endows reconfigurable temperature and humidity sensations for in-sensor computing, Materials Horizon, 2023, 10, 1030 - 1041

  • Guo, Tao and Pan, Kangqiang and Jiao, Yixuan and Sun, Bai and Du, Cheng and Mills, Joel P. and Chen, Zuolong and Zhao, Xiaoye and Wei, Lan and Zhou, Norman and Wu, Yimin A., Versatile Memristor for Memory and Neuromorphic Computing, Nanoscale Horizon, 2022, 7, 299-310

  • Guo, Tao and Ge, Jiawei and Sun, Bai and Pan, Kangqiang and Pan, Zhao and Wei, Lan and Yan, Yong and Zhou, Y. Norman and Wu, Yimin A., Soft Biomaterials Based Flexible Artificial Synapse for Neuromorphic Computing, Advanced Electronic Materials, 2022, 8 (10), 2200449

  • Sun, Bai and Guo, Tao and Zhou, Guangdong, and Ranjan, Shubham, and Jiao, Yixuan and Wei, Lan and Zhou, Norman and Wu, Yimin A. Synaptic Devices Based Neuromorphic Computing Applications in Artificial Intelligence, Materials Today Physics, 2021, 18, 100393

  • Bai Sun, Guangdong Zhou, Tao Guo, Norman Zhou, Yimin A. Wu, Biomemristors as the next generation bioelectronics, Nano Energy, 2020, 75, 104938

  • Cheng Du, Xiyang Wang, Wei Chen, Shouhua Feng, John Wen, Yimin A. Wu, CO2 transformation to multicarbon products by photocatalysis and electrocatalysis, Materials Today Advances, 2020, 100071

  • Chen, Zhaowei and Zhang, He and Guo, Peijun and Zhang, Jingjing and Tira, Gregory and Kim, Yu Jin and Wu, Yimin A and Liu, Yuzi and Wen, Jianguo and Rajh, Tijana and others, Semi-Artificial Photosynthetic CO2 Reduction Through Purple Membrane Re-engineering with Semiconductor, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2019, 141 (30), 11811-11815

  • Yimin A. Wu, Ian McNulty, Cong Liu, Kah Chun Lau, Qi Liu, Arvydas P. Paulikas, Cheng-Jun Sun, Zhonghou Cai, Jeffrey R. Guest, Yang Ren, Vojislav Stamenkovic, Larry A. Curtiss, Yuzi Liu, Tijana Rajh, Facet-dependent active sites of a single Cu2O particle photocatalyst for CO2 reduction to methanol, Nature Energy, 2019,4, 957–968

  • Liu, Q. and Su, X. and Lei, D. and Qin, Y. and Wen, JG. and Guo, F. and Wu, YA. and Rong, Y. and Kou, R. and Xiao, X. and others, Approaching the capacity limit of lithium cobalt oxide in lithium ion batteries via lanthanum and aluminium doping, Nature Energy, 2018, 3, 936–943

  • Nagaoka, Y. and Tan, R. and Li, R. and Zhu, H. and Eggert, D. and Wu, Y.A. and Liu, Y. and Wang, Z. and Chen, O., Superstructures generated from truncated tetrahedral quantum dots, Nature, 2018, 561, 378–382

  • Wu, Yimin A. and Yin, Zuwei and Farmand, Maryam and Yu, Yong-Sang and Shapiro, David A and Liao, Hong-Gang and Liang, Wen-I and Chu, Ying-Hao and Zheng, Haimei, In-situ Multimodal Imaging and Spectroscopy of Mg Electrodeposition at Electrode-Electrolyte Interfaces, Scientific Reports, 2017, 7, 42527

  • Wu, Yimin A. and Li, Liang and Li, Zheng and Kinaci, Alper and Chan, Maria K. Y. and Sun, Yugang and Guest, Jeffrey R. and McNulty, Ian and Rajh, Tijana and Liu, Yuzi, Visualizing Redox Dynamics of a Single Ag/AgCl Heterogeneous Nanocatalyst at Atomic Resolution, ACS Nano, 2016, 10 (3), 3738–3746

  • Wu, Yimin A and Fan, Ye and Speller, Susannah and Creeth, Graham L and Sadowski, Jerzy T and He, Kuang and Robertson, Alex W and Allen, Christopher S and Warner, Jamie H, Large single crystals of graphene on melted copper using chemical vapor deposition, ACS nano, 2012, 6 (6), 5010-5017

  • Robertson, Alex W and Allen, Christopher S and Wu, Yimin A and He, Kuang and Olivier, Jaco and Neethling, Jan and Kirkland, Angus I and Warner, Jamie H, Spatial control of defect creation in graphene at the nanoscale, Nature Communications, 2012, 3, 1144

Please see Yimin Wu's Google Scholar profile for a current list of his peer-reviewed articles.

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