Dr. Zhong-Yuan Lu received his Ph. D in physical chemistry from Jilin University under the supervision of Professor Ze-Sheng Li in 1999. Then he joined the group of Professor Reinhard Hentschke at Wuppertal University, Germany, as a postdoc researcher and stayed there till 2003. After that he returned to the Institute of Theoretical Chemistry, Jilin University, as an associate professor. From 2005 till now, Dr. Lu has been a full professor in Jilin University. Now he is in the faculty of the State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials in Jilin University, as an honored Tang Au-Chin Distinguished Professor.

Currently my research is focused on tuning self-assembly structure of polymer-grafted nanoparticles: Polymer-grafted nanoparticles (PGNs) are extremely important building-blocks in self-assembly, since they incorporate unique properties of inorganic nanoparticles with excellent mechanical properties of organic polymers in one system. But the full understanding of the self-assembly mechanism and the fine-tuning of structure and property of PGNs is far from satisfactory. We are trying to combine theoretical/computational and experimental tools and develop new techniques to achieve:

1. Develop new characterization methods to clarify microscopic structure and property of polymer chains grafted on the nanoparticle surface;

2. Develop efficient theoretical/computational and experimental tools that can manifest the physical nature of effective interaction between polymer-grafted nanoparticles;

3. Clarify the thermodynamic and dynamic influences in the self-assembly process of polymer-grafted nanoparticles.

Supported by the Ten Thousand Talents Plan, Chinese Government, 2016

Senior Expert of Jilin Province, Jilin Province, 2011

Tang Au-Chin Distinguished Professor of Jilin University, Jilin University, 2011

Supported by National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China, National Science Foundation of China, 2010

Supported by Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University, Ministry of Education of China, 2008

Chinese Chemical Society Award for Outstanding Young Chemists, Chinese Chemical Society, 2008

[ Selected Publications ]

1. A General Strategy to Synthesize Chemically and Topologically Anisotropic Janus Particles, Jun-Bing Fan, Yongyang Song, Hong Liu, Zhongyuan Lu, Feilong Zhang, Hongliang Liu, Jingxin Meng, Lin Gu, Shutao Wang*, Lei Jiang, Science Advances, 3, e1603203, 2017

2. Dominant Pathways of the Nano-particle Self-Assembly Process Elucidated by Kinetic Network Models, Xiangze Zeng, Bin Li, Qin Qiao, Lizhe Zhu, Zhong-yuan Lu*, and Xuhui Huang*, PCCP, 18, 23494 - 23499, 2016

3. Control globular structure formation of a regular copolymer chain through inverse design, Xi Yang, Zhong-Yuan Lu*, J. Chem. Phys., 144, 224902, 2016

4. Three dimensional inverse design of nanopatterns with block copolymers and homopolymers, Dan Xu, Hong Liu*, You-Liang Zhu, Zhong-Yuan Lu*, Nanoscale, 8, 5235-5244, 2016

5. Tuning surface wettability by designing hairy structures, Han-Wen Pei, Hong Liu*, Zhong-Yuan Lu*, You-Liang Zhu, Phys. Rev. E (communication), 91, 020401(R), 2015

6. Entropy-driven Pattern Formation of Hybrid Vesicular Assemblies Made from Molecular and Nanoparticle Amphiphiles, Yijing Liu, Yan-Chun Li, Jie He, Kaleb Duelge, Zhongyuan Lu*, Zhihong Nie*, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 136 (6), 2602–2610, 2014

7. Towards larger spatiotemporal scales in polymer simulations, Yan-Chun Li, Yong-Lei Wang, Zhan-Wei Li, Hong Liu, Zhong-Yuan Lu*, Chinese Science Bulletin, 58, 3595-3599, 2013

8. Self-assembly of amphiphilic plasmonic micelle-like nanoparticles in selective solvents, Jie He, Xinglu Huang, Yan-Chun Li, Yijing Liu, Tarrika Babu, Maria A. Aronova, Shouju Wang, Zhongyuan Lu,* Xiaoyuan Chen,* Zhihong Nie*, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 135 (21), 7974-7984, 2013

9. GALAMOST: GPU-accelerated large-scale molecular simulation toolkit, You-Liang Zhu, Hong Liu, Zhan-Wei Li, Hu-Jun Qian, Giuseppe Milano, Zhong-Yuan Lu*, J. Comput. Chem., 34, 2197-2211, 2013

10. A Supramolecular Janus Hyperbranched Polymer and Its Light- Reversible Self-Assembly of Narrowly-Distributed Vesicles, Yong Liu, Chunyang Yu, Haibao Jin, Binbin Jiang, Xinyuan Zhu, Yongfeng Zhou*, Zhongyuan Lu*, and Deyue Yan, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 135(12), 4765-4770, 2013