Biography

Dr. Jun Liu is the Washington Research Foundation Innovation Chair in Clean Energy, Campbell Chair of Materials Science & Engineering, Professor of Chemical Engineering, and a Battelle Fellow at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). He also serves as the Director for Innovation Center for the Battery500 Consortium, a multi-institute program supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) with the goal of developing next generation batteries. In the past, he has served as senior researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, Bell Laboratories and Sandia National Laboratories. He also served as the Department Manager for Chemical Synthesis and Nanomaterials at Sandia, the Thrust Leader for the Complex Materials for the Integrated Center for Nanotechnologies (CINT), Lead Scientist for Cross-Cutting Sciences for the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), Laboratory Fellow and Division Director for Energy Processes and Materials Division at PNNL.

Jun is the recipient of the Battery Division Technology Award from The Electrochemical Society (ECS), two R&D100 Awards and the DOE EERE Exceptional Achievement Award. He is an elected member of Washington Academy of Science, a Materials Research Society Fellow, and an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow.  He has been ranked in the top one percent of highly cited researchers since 2014 (Clarivate Analytics). He was named a Distinguished Inventor of Battelle in 2007, and was selected as PNNL's Inventor of the Year in 2012 and again in 2017. 

Education

• University of Washington
• University of Washington
• Hunan University

Research Statement

Jun Liu’s main interest is developing fundamental principles to guide materials synthesis, characterization and application of advanced materials for energy, biomedicine and environment, development and deployment of new materials and technologies for electric vehicles, grid scale energy storage and modern communications. 

Current projects

Materials synthesis and characterization

Energy storage

Select publications

1. “Bridging the academic and industrial metrics for next-generation practical batteries,” Cao, YL; Li, M; Lu, J; Liu, J; Amine, K., Nature Nanotechnology, 2019.
2. “Non-flammable electrolytes with high salt-to-solvent ratios for Li-ion and Li-metal batteries,” Zeng, ZQ; Murugesan, V; Han, KS; Jiang, XY; Cao, YL; Xiao, LF; Ai, XP; Yang, HX; Zhang, JG; Sushko, ML; Liu, J., Nature Energy, 3, 674-681, 2018.
3. “Non-encapsulation approach for high-performance Li-S batteries through controlled nucleation and growth,” Pan, HL; Chen, JZ; Cao, RG; Murugesan, V; Rajput, NN; Han, KS; Persson, K; Estevez, L; Engelhard, MH; Zhang, JG; Mueller, KT; Cui, Y; Shao, YY; Liu, J, Nature Energy, 2, 2017.
4. “Mesoporous materials for energy conversion and storage devices,” Li, W; Liu, J; Zhao, DY, Nature Review Materials, 1, 2016.
5. “Reversible aqueous zinc/manganese oxide energy storage from conversion reactions,” Pan, HL; Shao, YY; Yan, PF; Cheng, YW; Han, KS; Nie, ZM; Wang, CM; Yang, JH; Li, XL; Bhattacharya, P; Mueller, KT; Liu, J, Nature Energy, 1. 2016.
6. “Sodium Ion Insertion in Hollow Carbon Nanowires for Battery Applications,” Cao, YL; Xiao, LF; Sushko, ML; Wang, W; Schwenzer, B; Xiao, J; Nie, ZM; Saraf, LV; Yang, ZG; Liu, J, NANO Letters, 12, 3783-3787, 2012.
7. “A Soft Approach to Encapsulate Sulfur: Polyaniline Nanotubes for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries with Long Cycle Life,” Xiao, LF; Cao, YL; Xiao, J; Schwenzer, B; Engelhard, MH; Saraf, LV; Nie, ZM; Exarhos, GJ ; Liu, J, Advanced Materials, 24, 1176-1181, 2012.
8. “Reversible Sodium Ion Insertion in Single Crystalline Manganese Oxide Nanowires with Long Cycle Life,” Cao, YL; Xiao, LF; Wang, W; Choi, DW; Nie, ZM; Yu, JG; Saraf, LV; Yang, ZG; Liu, J, Advanced Materials, 23, 3155-+, 2011.
9. “Ternary Self-Assembly of Ordered Metal Oxide-Graphene Nanocomposites for Electrochemical Energy Storage,” Wang, DH; Kou, R; Choi, D; Yang, ZG; Nie, ZM; Li, J; Saraf, LV; Hu, DH; Zhang, JG; Graff, GL ; Liu, J; Pope, MA; Aksay, IA, ACS Nano, 4, 1587-1595, 2010.
10. “Self-Assembled TiO2-Graphene Hybrid Nanostructures for Enhanced Li-Ion Insertion,” Wang, DH; Choi, DW; Li, J; Yang, ZG; Nie, ZM; Kou, R; Hu, DH; Wang, CM; Saraf, LV; Zhang, JG; Aksay, IA; Liu, J, ACS Nano, 3, 907-914, 2009.
11. “Complex and oriented ZnO nanostructures,” Tian, ZRR; Voigt, JA); Liu, J; McKenzie, B; McDermott, MJ; Rodriguez, MA; Konishi, H; Xu, HF, Nature Materials, 2, 821-826, 2003.
12. “Biommetic arrays of oriented helical ZnO nanorods and columns,” Tian, ZRR; Voigt, JA; Liu, J; Mckenzie, B; Mcdermott, MJ, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 124, 12954-12955, 2002.
13. “Surfac tant-assisted processing of carbon nanotube/polymer composites,” Gong, XY; Liu, J; Baskaran, S; Voise, RD; Young, JS, Chemistry of Materials, 4, 1049-1052, 2000.
14. “Functionalized monolayers on ordered mesoporous supports,” Feng, X; Fryxell, GE); Wang, LQ; Kim, AY; Liu, J; Kemner, KM, Science, 276, 923-926, 1997.

Honors & awards

• ECS Battery Division Battery Technology Award
• DOE Exceptional Achievement Award
• R&D100 Award
• Battelle Distinguished Inventor
• PNNL Inventor of the Year
• MSR Fellow
• AAAS Fellow
• Washington State Academy of Sciences

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