Research
Research
“Catalysts serve as workhorses in 90% of chemical processes, while in situ / operando spectroscopies are the eyes to see how they function at the molecular level under working conditions”
Dr. Tiancheng Pu was born in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China and received his education there prior to his college studies. He obtained his Bachelor’s, Master’s degree and Ph.D. degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Stonybrook University, Johns Hopkins University and Lehigh University in 2016, 2018 and 2022, respectively. Afterwards, he was selected for Peking University’s 14th cohort of “Boya” (knowledgeable & elegant) Postdoctoral Fellows under the supervision of Prof. Ding Ma, as well as the first cohort of Ministry of Education’s program for recruiting overseas postdoctoral talent. Under the supervision of Prof. Bert M. Weckhuysen, Dr. Pu received the 29th Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship for his research proposal in attempt to achieve the fundamental understandings of structure-activity relationship in catalytic propane dehydrogenation reaction. Beyond which, Dr. Pu has long been engaged in catalysis research focused on energy and the environment, publishing over ten papers as the first or corresponding author in top-tier international journals such as Angew. Chem., Chem. Eng. J., ACS Catal., and J. Catal. His research in the fields of selective oxidation, diatomic synergistic catalysis, and strong metal-support interactions has garnered widespread recognition from the international community, with over 5600 citations on Google Scholar. He holds a granted U.S. patent in the field of single-atom catalysis, while he also served as the Secretary-General for the 2023 Annual Postdoctoral Academic Conference on Molecular Science and has frequently acted as a reviewer for journals including ACS Catal., J. Catal., and J. Phys. Chem. in recent years.
Links: Google Scholar
CV
CV
Since 2026
“Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions” Postdoctoral Fellow, Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis, Utrecht University, Netherlands;
Supervisor: Prof. dr. ir. Bert M. Weckhuysen
2022 – 2026
“Boya” & “Talent Overseas” Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow, China;
Supervisors: Prof. Ding Ma & Prof. Meng Wang
2018 – 2022
Ph.D., Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Lehigh University, USA;
PhD thesis: Selective Oxidation of Ethylene to Ethylene Oxide by Silver Catalysts: Active Sites, Reaction Mechanism and Role of Promoters;
Supervisor: Prof. Israel E. Wachs
Visiting & Collaborative Scholar Research, East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST), China;
Supervisor: Prof. Minghui Zhu
2016 – 2018
M.S.E., Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, USA;
M.S.E. thesis: Nitric Oxide Decomposition over Cu Exchanged Zeolites and Cu/CeO2
Supervisor: Prof. Chao Wang
2011 – 2016
B.S., Chemical and Molecular Engineering, Stony Brook University, USA;
Supervisor: Prof. Taejin Kim
Publications
Publications
Pu, Tiancheng; Zhang, Wenhao; Zhu, Minghui
Engineering Heterogeneous Catalysis with Strong Metal–Support Interactions: Characterization, Theory and Manipulation
In Angewandte Chemie – International Edition, Vol. 62, Issue 4, pp. e202212278, 2023.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202212278
Pu, Tiancheng; Ding, Jiaqi; Zhang, Fanxing; Wang, Ke; Cao, Ning; Hensen, J.M. Emiel; Xie, Pengfei
Dual Atom Catalysts for Energy and Environmental Applications
In Angewandte Chemie – International Edition, Vol. 62, Issue 40, pp. e202305964, 2023.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.202305964
Pu, Tiancheng; Xie, Junzhong; Ma, Ding
Synchronizing Electro-Thermocatalysis for Fuel Production with Unprecedented Carbon Efficiency
In Joule, Vol. 9, no. 11, pp.102196, 2025.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2025.102196
Cen, Zeyan; Pu, Tiancheng; Liu, Xingwu, Ma, Ding
Steering Cobalt Phase Evolution for Efficient Syngas-to-Light-Olefin Conversion
In Chem, Vol. 12, no. 5, pp. 103067, 2026.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chempr.2026.103067
Pu, Tiancheng; Setiawan, Adhika; Foucher, Alexandre C.; Guo, Mingyu; Jehng, Jih-Mirn; Zhu, Minghui; Ford, Michael E.; Stach, Eric A.; Rangarajan, Srinivas; Wachs, Israel E.
Revealing the Nature of Active Sites and Reaction Mechanism of Ethylene Epoxidation by Supported Ag/α-Al2O3 Catalyst
In ACS Catalysis, Vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 406–417, 2024.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.3c04361
Pu, Tiancheng; Setiawan, Adhika; Mosevitzky Lis, Bar; Zhu, Minghui; Ford, Michael E.; Rangarajan, Srinivas; Wachs, Israel E.
Nature and Reactivity of Oxygen Species on/in Silver Catalysts during Ethylene Oxidation
In ACS Catalysis, Vol. 12, no.8, pp. 4375–4381, 2022.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.1c05939
Pu, Tiancheng; Tian, Huijie; Ford, Michael E.; Rangarajan, Srinivas; Wachs, Israel E.
Overview of Selective Oxidation of Ethylene to Ethylene Oxide by Ag Catalysts
In ACS Catalysis, Vol. 9, no.12, pp. 10727–10750, 2019.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.9b03443
Pu, Tiancheng; Setiawan, Adhika; Rangarajan, Srinivas; Wachs, Israel E.
Progress and Perspective on The Fundamental Understanding of Structure–Activity/Selectivity Relationships for Ag catalyzed Ethylene Epoxidation
In Catalysis Today, Vol. 455, pp. 115301, 2025.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cattod.2025.115301
Zeng, Lingzhen; Cen, Zeyan, Liu, Xingwu; Pu, Tiancheng; Tang, Haoyi; Wang, Maolin; Zhu, Kaiyu, Li, Jiarui, Wang, Meng; Ma, Ding
Photothermal Transformation of Ethane to Ethylene Oxide via Consecutive Dehydrogenation and Epoxidation Reactions
In Chem Catalysis, Vol. 5, no. 8, pp. 101417, 2025.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.checat.2025.101417
Pu, Tiancheng; Setiawan, Adhika; Mosevitzky Lis, Bar; Ford, Michael E.; Rangarajan, Srinivas; Wachs, Israel E.
Resolving the Oxygen Species on Ozone Activated AgAu Alloy Catalysts for Oxidative Methanol Coupling
In The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Vol. 126, no. 51, pp. 21568–21575, 2022.
(Cynthia M. Friend Festschrift Special Collection)
Link: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.2c03769
Setiawan, Adhika; Pu, Tiancheng; Wachs, Israel E.; Rangarajan, Srinivas
Expanding the Reaction Network of Ethylene Epoxidation on Partially Oxidized Silver Catalysts
In ACS Catalysis, Vol. 14, no. 23, pp. 17880–17892, 2024.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.4c04521
Pu, Tiancheng; Chen, Jiachen; Tu, Weifeng; Xu, Jing; Han, Yifan; Wachs, Israel E.; Zhu, Minghui
Dependency of CO2 Methanation on The Strong Metal-Support Interaction for Supported Ni/CeO2 Catalysts
In Journal of Catalysis, Vol. 413, pp. 821-828, 2022.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcat.2022.07.038
Li, Didi; Xu, Fang; Tang, Xuan; Dai, Sheng; Pu, Tiancheng; Liu, Xianglin; Tian, Pengfei; Xuan, Fuzhen; Xu, Zhi; Wachs, Israel E.; Zhu, Minghui
Induced Activation of The Commercial Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 Catalyst for The Steam Reforming of Methanol
In Nature Catalysis, Vol. 5, pp. 99–108, 2022.
Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41929-021-00729-4
Pu, Tiancheng; Shen, Liang; Liu, Xianglin; Cao, Xinyu; Xu, Jing; Wachs, Israel E.; Zhu, Minghui
Formation and Influence of Surface Hydroxyls on Product Selectivity during CO2 Hydrogenation by Ni/SiO2 Catalysts
In Journal of Catalysis, Vol. 400, pp. 228-233, 2021.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcat.2021.06.008
Yuan, Xiaohan; Pu, Tiancheng; Gu, Mengwei; Zhu, Minghui; Xu, Jing
Strong Metal–Support Interactions between Nickel and Iron Oxide during CO2 Hydrogenation
In ACS Catalysis, Vol. 11, no. 19, pp. 11966–11972, 2021.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.1c03936
Pu, Tiancheng; Ding, Jiaqi; Tang, Xuan; Wang, Ke; Huang, Bei; Dai, Sheng; He, Yi; Shi, Yao; Xie, Pengfei
Rational Design of Precious-Metal Single-Atom Catalysts for Methane Combustion
In ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Vol. 14, no. 38, pp. 43141–43150, 2022.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.2c09347
Xie, Pengfei, Pu, Tiancheng; Aranovich, Gregory; Guo, Jiawei; Donohue, Marc; Kulkarni, Ambarish; Wang, Chao
Bridging Adsorption Analytics and Catalytic Kinetics for Metal-Exchanged Zeolites
In Nature Catalysis, Vol. 4, pp. 144–156, 2021.
Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41929-020-00555-0
Xie, Pengfei; Ding, Jing; Yao, Zihao; Pu, Tiancheng; Zhang, Peng; Huang, Zhennan; Wang, Canhui; Zhang, Junlei; Zecher-Freeman, Noah; Zong, Han; Yuan, Dashui; Deng, Shengwei; Shahbazian-Yassar, Reza; Wang, Chao
Oxo Dicopper Anchored on Carbon Nitride for Selective Oxidation of Methane
In Nature Communications, Vol. 13, pp. 1375, 2022.
Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28987-1
Cao, Ning; Pu, Tiancheng; Dai, Sheng; Jiang, Yongjun, Huang, Zhennan, Yan, Mi; Yan, Keping; Wang, Chao; Xie, Pengfei
Spatially Asymmetrical Copper Dimer in Ceria as An Efficiently Synergistic Oxidation Catalyst
In Chemical Engineering Journals, Vol. 496, pp. 153838, 2024.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2024.153838
Pu, Tiancheng; Shen, Liang; Xu, Jing; Peng, Chong; Zhu, Minghui
Revealing the Dependence of CO2 Activation on Hydrogen Dissociation Ability over Supported Nickel Catalysts
In AICHE Journal, Vol. 68, no. 1, pp. e17458, 2022.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1002/aic.17458
Yao, Yonggang; Huang, Zhennan; Xie, Pengfei; Lacey, Steven D.; Jacob, Rohit Jiji; Xie, Hua; Chen, Fengjuan; Nie, Anmin; Pu, Tiancheng; Rehwoldt, Miles; Yu, Daiwei; Zachariah, Michael R.; Wang, Chao; Shahbazian-Yassar, Reza; Li, Ju; Hu, Liangbing
Carbothermal Shock Synthesis of High-Entropy-Alloy Nanoparticles
In Science, Vol. 359, no. 6383, pp. 1489-1494, 2018.
Link: https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.aan5412