Meikun Shen

Assistant Professor of Chemistry
213 Martin Hall
256-782-5231
mshen@jsu.edu  

Dr. Meikun Shen is currently an Assistant Professor in Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Geoscience at Jacksonville State University. He got his Ph.D. degree at Washington University in St. Louis under the supervision of Dr. Bryce Sadtler. He did his postdoctoral research at University of Oregon with Dr. Shannon Boettcher. He then moved to Jacksonville State University to start his independent academic career.

Dr. Shen is trained as a Physical Chemist, but his research lies at the intersection of Physical Chemistry, Materials Chemistry and Analytical Chemistry.His work focuses on ultilizing microscopy and spectroscopy techniques to explore reaction mechanisms on nanomaterial surfaces such as electrodeposition and photocatalysis. These processes are critical in a broad range of industrial applications from semiconductor industry, battery industry and renewable energy storage and conversion.

Meikun Shen

Courses Taught

  • CY 105 - General Chemistry
  • CY 341 - Physical Chemistry

Education

  • Ph.D. Washington University in St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri
  • B.S. Fudan University; Shanghai, China

Academic & Research Interests

Photochemical and Electrochemical devices such as lithium-ion batteries and electrolyzers are central needs for future technologies in the renewable energy industry. However, investigating the reaction mechanisms inside these devices, however, is challenging. We will develop and apply microscopy and spectroscopy techniques to understand heterogeneous photo & electrochemical processes, such as electrodeposition and photocatalysis. With these techniques, we will be able to measure and map local reaction activities on heterogenous nanomaterial surfaces. Knowledge gained from these fundamental studies will be used to develop high-efficiency electrodes for batteries, semiconductor chips orother yet unimagined devices in renewable energy industry.

Publications and Presentations

Representative publications:

  • Shen, M. Boettcher, S. W. et. al (2022). Nanoscale Measurements of Charge Transfer at Cocatalyst/Semiconductor Interfaces in BiVO4 Particle Photocatalysts. Nano Letters, 22(23), 9493-9499.
  • Shen, M.,Sadtler, B. et. al (2022). In situ imaging of catalytic reactions on tungsten oxide nanowires connects surface–ligand redox chemistry with photocatalytic activity. Nano Letters, 22(12), 4694-4701.
  • Shen, M., Sadtler, B. et. al (2021). Single-molecule colocalization of redox reactions on semiconductor photocatalysts connects surface heterogeneity and charge-carrier separation in bismuth oxybromide. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 143(30), 11393-11403.
  • Full publication list available at Dr. Shen's google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=CCOWhL8AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate