Yong's Research Interests

Demand for inexpensive renewable energy sources has stimulated new approaches for production of efficient, low cost photovoltaic (PV) devices. The key points to design artificial photoconversion devices are to find sufficient light absorbing materials and to control the device morphology to stimulate electron and hole transportation most efficiently. My research is to focus on developing novel PV materials and distinguished fabrication methodology, as well as excellent material and device characterization.

Currently my research focuses on the preparation and application of nanostructured devices. By far, I have found creative methods for the preparation of nanotubes, nanowires, nanorods and nanorings electrochemically or electrolessly using AAO or polymer templates. I am trying to convert these fantastic materials into photovoltaic and light emitting devices.


A: Electroless deposition of TiO2 nanotubes in AAO templates. TiO2 single crystalline nanotubes are attracting more and more interests for their potential applications in solar energy conversion, nanosensors, and photocatalyst.

B: Electrodeposition of CdSe nanowires in AAO templates. The Q-wires are times better than Q-dots in converting light into electricity.

C: Fabrication of metal nanorings (Au, Ag) through colloidal lithography. The electric field associated with surface plasmon exhibits uniform enhancement in the ring cavity, suggesting that there are applications in surface-enhanced spectroscopy, sensing and light emitting devices.

D: Electrodeposition of nanorods in commercial AAO templates. Some metal nanorods (Co, Pb) are superparamagnetic at low temperature, as shown by variations of magnetic susceptibility with temperature, and they can act as magnetic signatures of nanophase in controlled environments.