Polymer • Nanoscience • Energy
We synthesize building blocks of materials, using principles from organic and polymer chemistry, assemble them to have tailored functionalities, and apply them to energy applications. Porous crystalline polymers, such as covalent organic frameworks, are our main foci. The versatility and modularity of the structures and, thus, tailored properties enable us to utilize them in energy storage/conversion devices, and catalysts. In particular, functional groups installed on porous and crystalline spaces maximize their properties, outperforming their conventional counterparts. The knowledge from materials chemistry guides the synthetic approaches, and the results solve the problems we are currently facing. Along the way, we value independence, creativity, perseverance, and cooperation. See Research for more information.
News:
Nov 2024. Chen, Jae Uk, Jun, Ki-Taek’s work “ Poly(norbornene-diphenothiazine) for Electrochemical Capture and Release of Chromium and Arsenic Oxyanions from Water” is accepted in Energy Environ. Mater. Congratulations!
Nov 2024. Ye, Yufei, Huanhuan, Ki-Taek, Ran, and Rui’s work “Freestanding Phosphonium Covalent Organic Frameworks with Efficient Hydroxide Conduction for Zinc–Air Batteries” is published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Congratulations!
Oct 2024. Jun, Chen, and Hang’s paper, “Solid-State Electrolytes for Lithium Metal Batteries: State‐of‐the‐Art and Perspectives” is published in Adv. Funct. Mater. Congratulations!
Oct 2024. Muhua and Suleman’s paper, “Mechanically Interlocked Macrocycles on Covalent Networks for Energy and Environmental Applications” is published in ChemPlusChem. Congratulations!
Sep 2024. Welcome to new PhD student Haoran Deng, MPhil student Glendale Boholano, and undergraduate student Eric Jeonghyun Yang!
Aug 2024. Dr. Jun Huang and Dr. Chen Li successfully defended their Ph.D. theses! Congratulations!
Aug 2024. Our perspective paper, in collaboration with Prof. Wei Zhang (Colorado), “Ionic Covalent Organic Framework Solid-State Electrolytes” is published in Adv. Mater. Congratulations!
Aug 2024. Yufei, Ki-Taek, Rui, and Huanhuan’s paper, “Charge-Delocalized Triptycene-Based Ionic Porous Organic Polymers as Solid Electrolytes for Lithium-Metal Batteries” is published in ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces. Congratulations!
Jul 2024. We presented 1 oral and 10 posters on “Advanced Polymers for Energy Applications” at MOF2024 conference. Hooray!
Jun 2024. Chen received the CBE Graduate Student Award for Research Excellence! Congratulations!
Jun 2024. Jiaying Chen and Jun Huang received the Second Prize from The 10th Hong Kong University Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition for “Innovative Batteries” project. Congratulations! (about)
May 2024. We had a wonderful whole-day workshop on “Next-Generation Batteries.” Thank you, Prof. Yanming WANG, Prof. Dong-Myeong SHIN, Prof. Zheng-Long XU, and their and my group members!
May 2024. Welcome to new postdocs, Xiaolong Cheng and Suleman!
Apr 2022. Yoon is selected as a member of the Early Investigators, PMSE, ACS (Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering, American Chemical Society) for his solid electrolyte work. Congratulations! (about)
May 2024. Ran’s paper “Polyarylene-Based Anion Exchange Membranes for Fuel Cells” is published in Chem. Eur. J. Congratulations!
Apr 2024. Jun, Chen, Ki-Taek, Albert, Hang’s paper “High-Performance All-Solid-State Lithium Metal Batteries Enabled by Ionic Covalent Organic Framework Composites” is published in Adv. Energy Mater. Congratulations!
Mar 2024. Prof. Wei Zhang (Colorado), the pioneer of ionic COFs, visited our department and gave a lecture. It was a great pleasure and honor to learn from him. Thank you, Prof. Zhang!
Feb 2024. Yufei, Ki-Taek, Ye, Muhua, Rui, Ran’s paper “Highly Conductive Imidazolate Covalent Organic Frameworks with Ether Chains as Solid Electrolytes for Lithium Metal Batteries” is published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Congratulations!
Jan 2024. We were pleased to host Prof. Taeghwan Hyeon’s (Seoul National University) visit to HKUST! Thank you, Prof. Hyeon, for an inspiring lecture. (News link)
Jan 2024. Dr. Yufei Yuan successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis! Congratulations!
Jan 2024. Yurong and Rui’s paper “Single-Atom Catalysts on Covalent Organic Frameworks for Energy Applications” is accepted by ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces. Congratulations!
Jan 2024. The group received a CRF 2023/24 Collaborative Research Project Grant (CRPG) (Yoon is the Principal Coordinator) for “All-Solid-State Lithium Metal Batteries” project. Thank you, Research Grants Council!
Oct 2023. The group enjoyed hiking along the Clear Water Bay of HK! Spectacular views of islands and coastlines were quite rewarding. It was also a joint group activity with Prof. Zheng-Long Xu’s group at PolyU.
Oct 2023. Chen, Gerald, Jun, and Ki-Taek’s paper “Anthraquinone-Based Silicate Covalent Organic Frameworks as Solid Electrolyte Interphase for High-Performance Lithium-Metal Batteries” is published in J. Am. Chem. Soc. Congratulations!
Sep 2023. Welcome to new MSc students Qi Chen and Weiqi Feng, and undergraduate student Thananun (Zakk) RATTANAMANEEJARAT!
Sep 2023. Rui, Gerald, Huanhuan, Yufei, and Ki-Taek’s paper “Highly Conductive Covalent–Organic Framework Films” is published in Small. Congratulations!
Aug 2023. Hang, Gerald, Jun, and Chen’s paper, “Ionic Porous Organic Polymers Synthesized Using Solvothermal and Mechanochemical Methods as Solid Electrolytes for Lithium Metal Batteries”, is published in Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. Congratulations!
Aug 2023. Dr. Huanhuan Chen successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis! Congratulations!
Aug 2023. Yurong received HKUST RedBird PhD Award! Congratulations!
Jul 2023. Huanhuan, Gitaek, Ye, Ran, Yufei, and Rui’s work, Poly(Ethylene Piperidinium)s for Anion Exchange Membranes, is published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Congratulations, all!
Jul 24, 2023. The Kim group (HKUST) and the ZL Xu group (PolyU) had a joint group meeting for collaboration projects.
Jul 20, 2023. The Kim group (HKUST) members visited Prof. Yanming Wang’s group at the University of Michigan—Shanghai Jiao Tong University (UM-SJTU) Joint Institute for joint group activities, meetings, and discussions.
Jun 2023. Welcome to new PhD students Muhua Gu, Hang Luo, Zhuoyu Yin, and Yurong Wu to start from September 2023!
Jun 2023. We invited Prof. Il-Doo Kim from KAIST to give a talk at the CBE30 conference, HKUST. Thank you, Prof. Kim, for an inspiring talk!
Jun 2023. Iris’s review paper, Functionalized Metal–Organic Frameworks for Heavy Metal Ion Removal from Water; and Iris, Yufei, and Gitaek’s research paper, Towards the Fastest Kinetics and Highest Uptake of Post-Functionalized UiO-66 for Hg2+ Removal from Water, are published in Nanoscale. Congratulations, all!
May 2023. The group receives Bridge Gap Fund Commercialization Scheme from Technology Transfer Center (TTC), HKUST, for the development of highly conductive and stable composite electrolytes for Lithium-metal batteries project. Thank you, TTC, HKUST!
May 2023. Yoon gave a talk at Prof. Zheng-Long Xu’s lab, PolyU, HK, and Prof. Xu also visited our lab to give a talk on “ Advanced electrode materials for multivalent rechargeable batteries.”
May 2023. Prof. Yanming Wang from the University of Michigan and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (UM-SJTU) Joint Institute visited us with his students to give a talk on “Accelerating Materials Design via Computation and Machine Learning Combined Approaches”.
May 2023. Our UG researchers, Albert and Jae Uk, successfully finished their Final Year Thesis presentations on all-solid-state batteries and redox-enabled water purification projects! Congratulations! Also, thank you PG students, Jun and Chen, for mentoring them!
Feb 2023. The group receives internal funding “30 for 30 Research Initiative Scheme” for a solid electrolyte project. Thank you, VPRDO, HKUST!
Jan 2023. Rui passed her PhD Qualifying Exams! Congratulations!
Jan 2023. Yufei, Gitaek, and Rui’s work, “Macrocycle-Based Covalent Organic Frameworks” is published in Advanced Materials. Congratulations!
Dec 2022. Yoon has joined the Early Career Advisory Board of Materials Today Energy!
Dec 2022. It is official! Yoon is featured by the ACS Materials Au as one of the Rising Stars. ACS Materials Au: Announcing the 2022 Rising Stars in Materials Science
Oct 2022. Rui, Yufei, and Gitaek’s paper, Single-Atom Catalysts on Covalent Organic Frameworks for CO2 Reduction, is published in ACS Materials Au. Congratulations!
Oct 2022. Welcome to a new Research Assistant, Muhua Gu!
Sep 2022. Group photo
Sep 2022. Welcome to new UG students Jae Uk Choi and Albert Liem for FYT projects, and Hang Luo and Sixian Wu for MSc studies!
Aug 2022. Gerald and Iris successfully defended their MPhil studies! Congratulations!
Jul 2022. Jun passed his PhD Qualifying Exams! Congratulations!
June 30, 2022. The group receives a General Research Fund for “All-solid-state Li-ion batteries using ionic covalent organic frameworks”. Thank you, Research Grants Council!
Jun 10, 2022. The group enjoyed BBQ dinner!
Jun 2022. Yufei’s paper, Synthesis of Zr metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) to remove Fe3+ from water is published in STAR Protocols. Congratulations!
May 2022. Huanhuan, Ran, and Gitaek’s paper, “Anion Exchange Membranes for Fuel Cells: State of the Art and Perspectives” is published in Advanced Energy Materials. Congratulations all!
Apr 2022. Yoon will host a talk from the Chief Editor of Communications Chemistry (Nature Portfolio). See below and join if you are interested. All are welcome.
Jan 2022. Ran, Ye, and Chen passed their PhD Qualifying Exams! Congratulations all!
Jan 2022. Yufei, Huanhuan, and Gitaek’s paper, “Thiol-Functionalized Zr Metal–Organic Frameworks for Efficient Removal of Fe3+ from Water”, is published in Cell Reports Physical Science. Congratulations!
Nov 3, 2021. Yoon was featured by the World Laureates Association (WLA) as a young scientist. Thank you, WLA, for the inspiring meetings!
Oct 13, 2021. Yoon delivered a talk about “Advanced Materials on Water and Energy Applications” and interacting with prospective students. It is always fun to interact with students!
Sep 30, 2021. The group receives an HKUST-SJTU Joint Research Collaboration Fund with Prof. Yanming Wang at Shanghai Jiao Tong University for “Combined experimental and simulation approach designing the next generation solid-electrolytes”.
September 2021. Welcome to a new postdoc Gitaek Bang to start from November 2021; a PhD student Xiaoyi Qiu (Co-advised with Prof. Minhua Shao); and an MSc student Tianhong Zhao for an independent project on “Metal–organic framework for sensing”.
Sep 10, 2021. The Kim group’s first paper, "Ionic Covalent Organic Frameworks for Energy Devices”, is published in Advanced Materials! This paper is from the Kim group members only (no collaborators) and the topic is independent of Prof. Kim’s previous research. Congratulations to Xiaoguang, Ye, and Yufei. More “Ionic Covalent Organic Frameworks (iCOFs)” papers (some with collaborators) are in due course.
Jul 2021. Yufei and Huanhuan passed their PhD Qualifying Exams! Big congratulations to both of them!
Jul 07, 2021. Yoon (Prof. Kim) is invited to the World Laureates Forum (Young Scientist section) as an HKUST representative! The forum would be an exciting venue to exchange ideas and connect with people. Looking forward to the event!
Jul 02, 2021. Xiaoguang’s paper on the use of nanofiber composite electrolytes for improved water retention and dendrites suppression in flexible zinc-air batteries is accepted for publication in Small. Congratulations to Xiaoguang!
June 30, 2021. The group receives a General Research Fund for Anion Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell project. Thank you, Research Grants Council!
June 29, 2021. Welcome to a PhD student Rui Wang to start from Fall 2021.
Jun 25, 2021. The group enjoyed Sea Kayaking on a cloudy day. The cluster of buildings over the water on the right side of the picture is the HKUST campus.
Jun 2021. The group receives Bridge Gap Fund from Technology Transfer Center (TTC), HKUST, for a “Synthetic–Organic Frameworks for Removal of Heavy Metal Ions from Water” project. Thank you, TTC, HKUST!
Annual group dinner
April 2021. We welcomed new members and celebrated the productive past year.
April 30, 2021. The group receives funding from Guangdong Provincial Department of Science and Technology for the International Science and Technology Cooperation Program with Dr. Dong LU (Guangzhou HKUST Fok Ying Tung Research Institute) and Prof. Seon-Jin Choi (Hanyang University, Korea). Thank you, GDST!
January 2021. The group receives HKUST-BDR Joint Research Institute project fund with Dr. Dong LU (Guangzhou HKUST Fok Ying Tung Research Institute). Thank you, HBJRI!
October 2020. Group photo
October 2020. Group pictureSeptember 2020. The group welcomes three Final Year Project UG researchers, Hyeongwoo Kim, Taewan Kim, and Jaeyeon Hwang, and one UROP student, Anthony Lai!
July 24, 2020. Congratulations Xiaoguang for winning the HKUST Post-Doctoral Fellowship Matching Fund.
July 2020. Welcome to MPhil students Gerald Poon and Iris Lam to start from Fall 2020.
July 22, 2020. The group receives ASPIRE League Partnership Seed Fund with Prof. Shinhyun Choi at KAIST. Thank you, ASPIRE (Asian Science and Technology Pioneering Institutes of Research and Education)!
June 30, 2020. The group receives an Early Career Scheme for water purification project with additional funding of Early Career Grant. Thank you, Research Grants Council!
The first group dinner.
June 6, 2020. We had a great time. Looking forward to many of the next ones!
June 2020. Welcome to PhD students Ye Tian, Jun Huang, Ran Tao (Co-advised with Prof. Minhua Shao), and Chen Li to start from Fall 2020.
February 2020. Welcome to Huanhuan Chen (PhD student) and Dr. Xiaoguang Liang (Postdoc).
December 2019. Welcome to the first student Yufei Yuan who is working as an RA then to be a PhD student from February 2020.
A new paper published in JACS
November 4, 2019. Yoon published an exciting article on fuel cell membranes using ionic highways. This work first demonstrated ionic highways using covalent assembly. Yoon very much appreciates contributions from all co-authors! (doi)
September 9, 2019. Yoon reported the duty at the HKUST. Looking forward to a great journey. (link)
August 2019. Invited Talks in Korea and China. Yoon gave 10 talks at universities/institutes, including POSTECH, KAIST, Yonsei University, Nankai University, and Peking University. Looking forward to active interactions and collaborations in the coming years!
August, 2018. Yoon won the DSM Science & Technology Award, POLY, American Chemical Society (about) – One awardee annually
May, 2017. Yoon (Dr. Kim) won the ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award, the University of Michigan (about) – One percent annually
