Matrials Science
Dr. Yunqing Kang received his Ph.D. from Waseda University, Japan, in 2022. Following his graduation, he has held research positions at several prestigious institutions, including the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) and Nagoya University, where he has been actively engaged in cutting-edge academic research. Currently, Dr. Kang is a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow in the Yamauchi Research Group at the AIBN. His research focuses on the design and synthesis of advanced nanostructured metallic materials to address critical challenges in energy conversion and environmental sustainability. By pioneering bottom-up self-assembly strategies, Dr. Kang precisely engineers the atomic-scale disorder in porous metals, enabling the creation of high-performance catalysts essential for the global energy transition. Dr Kang's core expertise encompasses mesoporous metals, amorphous and high-entropy alloys, and disordered metallic architectures, with specific applications in electrocatalysis for water splitting and plastic upcycling. With over 50 publications in prestigious journals including Nature, Science Advances, and Angewandte Chemie, Dr. Kang is dedicated to advancing the fundamental understanding of material science to facilitate industrial innovation.
Key Publications
Yunqing Kang*#, Olga Guselnikova#*, Lei Fu, Norman C.-R. Chen, José Julio Gutiérrez Moreno, Joel Henzie, Yuqi Guo, Xiangyang Liu, Yingji Zhao, Wei-Hsiang Huang, Min-Hsin Yeh, Yagmur Tanis, Markus Valtiner, Stanislav Ježek, Jun Zhou, Yusuke Asakura, Kevin C.-W. Wu & Yusuke Yamauchi*. Low curvature combined with high amorphization improves SERS sensitivity of semiconducting Rh–Se mesoporous nanospheres toward non-adsorbing resistant pollutants. Nature Communications 2026, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-75365-2
Lei F#, Yunqing Kang#,*, Ho Ngoc Nam, Yuqi Guo, Chengze Ji, Kaiteng Wang, Zilin Zhou, Zekai Chen, Quan Manh Phung, Le Shi, Kai Wu, Jun Zhou* & Yusuke Yamauchi*. Electrodeposition-initiated, self-catalyzed growth of 2D amorphous Fe-group metal–boron alloy mesoporous films. Nature Communications 2026, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-75955-0
Yunqing Kang* and Yusuke Yamauchi*. Sacrificial metal speeds up synthesis of nano-alloys from multiple elements. Nature 2025, 646 (8084), 293–295.
Yunqing Kang, Shuangjun Li, Ovidiu Cretu, Koji Kimoto, Yingji Zhao, Liyang Zhu, Xiaoqian Wei, Lei Fu, Dong Jiang, Chao Wan, Bo Jiang, Toru Asahi, Dieqing Zhang, Hexing Li, Yusuke Yamauchi*. Mesoporous amorphous non-noble metals as versatile substrates for high loading and uniform dispersion of Pt-group single atoms. Science Advances 2024, 10, eado2442.
Yunqing Kang, Ovidiu Cretu, Jun Kikkawa, Koji Kimoto, Hiroki Nara, Asep Sugih Nugraha, Hiroki Kawamoto, Miharu Eguchi, Ting Liao, Ziqi Sun*, Toru Asahi, and Yusuke Yamauchi*. Mesoporous Multimetallic Nanospheres with Exposed Highly Entropic Alloy Sites. Nature Communications 2023, 14: 4182.