Dr. Will Y K PENG

Dr. Will Yung-Kang Peng (彭詠康) obtained his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry in 2009 from National Chung Cheng University (Taiwan) and graduated as a Master of Science in 2011 from National Taiwan University. After a year of military service (R.O.C.) and research assistant (NTU), he started a PhD in 2013 at Wolfson Catalysis Centre of Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory at University of Oxford (UK) under the supervision of Prof. Dr. S. C. Edman Tsang, for which he received a Clarendon scholarship from University of Oxford (top 3% graduate of 2013 year). He obtained his PhD degree in 2017 and stayed in the same group for postdoc (2017-2018). He joined the City University of Hong Kong as an Assistant Professor in May 2018.

His current research interest is working on the understanding of nanomaterial surface chemistry for the design of hetero(photo) catalysts and MRI contrast agents.

Hetero(photo) nanocatalysts:
Probe-assisted NMR is employed as a major surface tool to qualitatively and quantitatively investigate catalysts’ surface for the activity correlation and the understanding of catalytic mechanism in hetero(photo) catalysis. For further information in this field please refer to our recent review paper: “Facet-dependent Photocatalysis of Nanosize Semiconductive Metal Oxides and Progress of their Characterization”, Nano Today 2018, 18, 15.

MRI nanocontrast agents:
Multifunctional T1-, T2-weighted and dual-modal MRI nanocontrast agent design for in-vivo/in-vitro biomedical applications. For further information in this field please refer to our recent review paper: “Chemical Design of Nanoprobes for T1-weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging”, Mater. Today 2016, 19, 336.

Selected Publications: (†equal contribution, *corresponding author)

link for the full publication list: https://scholar.google.com.hk/citations?user=oSD2vgMAAAAJ&hl=zh-TW&oi=ao

• Y.-K. Peng, H.-L. Chou* and S. C. E. Tsang*, “Differentiating Surface Titanium Chemical States of Anatase TiO₂ Functionalized with Various Surface Groups”, Chem. Sci. 9, 2493–2500 (2018).
• Y.-K. Peng and S. C. E. Tsang*, “Facet-dependent Photocatalysis of Nanosize Semiconductive Metal Oxides and Progress of their Characterization”, Nano Today 18, 15–34 (2018).
• H. Duan, J. Dong, X. Gu, Y.-K. Peng, W. Chen, T. Issariyakul, W. Myers, M.-J. Li, N. Yi, A. Kilpatrick, Y. Wang, X. Zheng, S. Ji, Q. Wang, J. Feng, D. Chen, Y. Li, J.-C. Buffet, H.-C. Liu, S. C. E. Tsang* and D. O'Hare*, “Hydrodeoxygenation of Water-Insoluble Bio-Oil to Alkanes using a Highly Dispersed Pd-Mo Catalyst”, Nat. Commun. 8, 591 (2017).
• Y.-K. Peng, Y. Hu, H.-L. Chou, Y. Fu, I. F. Teixeira, H. He and S. C. E. Tsang*, “Mapping Surface-modified Titania Nanoparticles with Implications for Activity and Facet Control”, Nat. Commun. 8, 675 (2017).
• H. T. Kreissl, M. M. J. Li, Y.-K. Peng, K. Nakagawa, T. J. N. Hooper, J. V. Hanna, A. Shepherd, T.-S. Wu, Y.-L. Soo, S. C. E. Tsang*, “Structural Studies of Bulk to Nanosize Niobium Oxides with Correlation to Their Acidity”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 139, 12670–12680 (2017).
• Y.-K. Peng^†, C. N. P. Lui^†, Y.-W. Chen, S.-W. Chou, P.-T. Chou, K. K. L. Yung* and S. C. E. Tsang*, “Engineering of Single Magnetic Particle Carrier for Living Brain Cell Imaging: A Tunable T1‑/T2‑/Dual-Modal Contrast Agent for Magnetic Resonance Imaging Application”, Chem. Mater. 29, 4411–4417 (2017).
• Y.-K. Peng, S. C. E. Tsang* and P.-T. Chou*, “Chemical Design of Nanoprobes for T1-weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging”, Mater. Today 19, 336–348 (2016).
• H. T. Kreissl, K. Nakagawa, Y.-K. Peng, Y. Koito, J. Zheng and S. C. E. Tsang*, “Niobium Oxides: Correlation of Acidity with Structure and Catalytic Performance in Sucrose Conversion to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural”, J. Catal. 338, 329–339 (2016).
• Y.-K. Peng, L. Ye, J. Qu, L. Zhang, Y. Fu, I. F. Teixeira, I. J. McPherson, H. He and S. C. E. Tsang*, “Trimethylphosphine-assisted Surface Fingerprinting of Metal Oxide Nanoparticle by 31P Solid-state NMR: A Zinc Oxide Case Study”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 138, 2225–2234 (2016).
• Y.-K. Peng, Y.-J. Tseng, C.-L. Liu, S.-W. Chou, Y.-W. Chen, S. C. E. Tsang and P.-T. Chou*, “One-step Synthesis of Degradable T1-FeOOH Functionalized Hollow Mesoporous Silica Nanocomposites from Mesoporous Silica Spheres”, Nanoscale 7, 2676–2687 (2015).
• C.-L. Liu^†, Y.-K. Peng^†, S.-W. Chou, W.-H. Tseng, Y.-J. Tseng, H.-C. Chen, J.-K. Hsiao* and P.-T. Chou*, “One-Step, Room-Temperature Synthesis of Glutathione-Capped Iron-Oxide Nanoparticles and their Application in In Vivo T1-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging”, Small 10, 3962−3969 (2014).
• Y.-K. Peng, C.-L. Liu, H.-C. Chen, S.-W. Chou, W.-H. Tseng, Y.-J. Tseng, C.-C. Kang, J.-K. Hsiao and P.-T. Chou*, “Antiferromagnetic Iron Nanocolloids: A New Generation in Vivo T1 MRI Contrast Agent”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 135, 18621−18628 (2013).
• C.-L. Liu, H.-T. Wu, Y.-H. Hsiao, C.-W. Lai, C.-W. Shih, Y.-K. Peng, K.-C. Tang, H.-W. Chang , Y.-C. Chien, J.-K. Hsiao, J.-T. Cheng* and P.-T. Chou*, “Insulin-directed Synthesis of Fluorescent Gold Nanoclusters: Preservation of Insulin Bioactivity and Versatility in Cell Imaging”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 50, 7056−7060 (2011).
• Y.-K. Peng, C.-W. Lai, C.-L. Liu, H.-C. Chen, Y.-H. Hsiao, W.-L. Liu, K.-C. Tang, Y. Chi, J.-K. Hsiao*, K.-E. Lim, H.-E. Liao, J.-J. Shyue and P.-T. Chou*, “A New and Facile Method to Prepare Uniform Hollow MnO/Functionalized mSiO(2) Core/Shell Nanocomposites”, ACS Nano 5, 4177−4187 (2011).
• H.-C. Chen, C.-W. Lai, I-C. Wu, H.-R. Pan, I-W. P. Chen, Y.-K. Peng, C.-L. Liu, C.-H. Chen and P.-T. Chou*, “Enhanced Performance and Air Stability of 3.2% Hybrid Solar Cells: How the Functional Polymer and CdTe Nanostructure Boost the Solar Cell Efficiency”, Adv. Mater. 23, 5451−5455 (2011).