Professor Dr. Yitao Dai was born in Miluo City, Hunan Province in 1989. He finished the bachelor (Fine Chemical Engineering) and master (Applied Chemistry, Prof. Zhongkui Zhao as supervisor) study at the Dalian University of Technology in 2011 and 2014, respectively. With Prof. Flemming Besenbacher as the main supervisor, he obtained a Ph.D. degree from Aarhus University (Denmark) in April 2018. During his Ph.D. study, he has also stayed in SynCat@Beijing (Prof. Dr. J W (Hans) Niemantsverdriet and Prof. Jian Xu as the directors), Synfuels China Technology Co. Ltd. (Prof. Yongwang Li as CEO) for the project collaboration with Prof. Ren Su and Prof. Xiaodong Wen as the project leaders. Later, from May 2018 to May 2021, he conducted postdoctoral research at the Department of Heterogenous Catalysis (Prof. Ferdi Schüth as the director) in Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung (Germany) with Priv.-Doz. Dr. Harun Tüysüz as the host supervisor. He has been awarded Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in June 2019. From August 2021 until the present, he joined the Suzhou Institute for Advanced Research / School of Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China.
As the first/co-first author and corresponding author, he has published papers in several top journals such as Nature Synthesis, Nature Communications, Journal of the American Chemical Society, and Angewandte Chemie International Edition. So far, he has published 50 high-level scientific papers with an H-index of 25. He was awarded as Nanoscale 2023 Emerging Investigator. He has been invited as a Youth Editor in the journals of The Innovation and Chinese Chemical Letters. He has given a Keynote talk at the 4th UK catalysis conference in Jan. 2018. As the invited speaker, he has given talks in the 11th international mesostructured materials symposium and the annual meeting of the chemical industry and engineering society of China in Sep. 2021. He has given a Keynote talk at the 7th CMMM international conference in Oct. 2025. He was awarded the Provincial Second Prize for Progress in Science and Technology in 2025.
He has built the EX-nanocatalysis research group (EXNano-RG) in Sep. 2021. Facing the national strategic goal of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality", with the green manufacturing of high-value special chemicals (isotope-labeling pharmaceuticals and polymers) and energy molecules (green H2/NH3/Alcohols) as the main tasks, we design and develop high-efficiency nanoscale catalytic systems under different energy fields (solar energy Esolar, electric energy Eelectric, thermal energy Eheat, mechanical energy Emech, and bio energy Ebio). By building novel catalytic systems with multi-energy fields coupled, we can efficiently and selectively convert multiple energies (heat, solar, electrical, bio- and mechanical energy, etc.) into specific chemical energy (e.g., deuterated drugs) to achieve energy conservation, the reduction of CO2 emission, green chemistry, and sustainable development.
EXNano-RG always warmly welcome talented and excellent doctoral and master's students (with physical chemistry, materials chemistry, organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, and other different disciplines of background) to join us!!!
Are you interested in starting the next stage of your scientific career at a high-level lab for catalysis research with a collaborative atmosphere and state-of-the-art facilities? Just send an email (yitaodai@ustc.edu.cn) and apply for a position as a postdoctoral associate in EXNano-RG!!!
Let's travel together in the new world of catalysis and explore novel techniques for energy utilization!