Hongzhen He

Background

Hongzhen joined EIL as a PhD student in October 2021. Prior to this, he obtained first class honours degree in BSc Chemical Engineering from the University of Nottingham. During his time at the University, he was awarded Top 10 student. He also worked off-campus for 18 months during his undergraduate studies with top companies in various industries such as Ernst & Young, Dentsu Aegis Network, Saatchi & Saatchi and NetEase. This rewarding experience offers insight into his own level of self-awareness. He then moved to London to obtain an MSc with distinction in Advanced Chemical Engineering at Imperial College. At Imperial, he conducted research on cathode active materials for aqueous zinc-based flow batteries.

Research

Low-cost, high-safety advanced energy storage technologies are a key factor in next-generation electronics. Aqueous zinc-based batteries can provide an ideal solution to the challenges in this field, thanks to their high safety and low-cost electrolytes, high ionic conductivity, high-capacity zinc metal electrodes and potentially large voltage windows. However, there are still some challenges for zinc-based batteries, such as cycle stability and low energy density. Hongzhen's current research focuses on high-loading and low-cost conversion type cathode materials.