Li Jian, Tenure-check PI, Doctoral Supervisor. He received his bachelor's degree from Chongqing University in 2013 and completed his Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry at Peking University in 2018 under the supervision of Professor Sun Junliang. From 2018 to 2020, he conducted postdoctoral research at Stockholm University in Sweden in collaboration with Professor Xiaodong Zou. Between 2020 and 2022, he continued his postdoctoral research at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, working with Professor Mahiar Hamedi. In 2022, he joined the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Nanjing University.

His current research focuses on the development of novel inorganic functional materials, the structural determination and structure-property relationships of porous functional materials and dense composite metal oxides, as well as the application of electron crystallography in determining the structures of micro- and nanocrystals. He has led projects including the General Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Youth Program of the Jiangsu Provincial Natural Science Foundation. As the first or co-corresponding author, he has published in journals such as Science (4 co-corresponding author papers) and Nature (1 co-corresponding author paper). In 2019, he received the IUCr Young Scientists Award from the International Union of Crystallography. He has also been honored with the Chinese Chemical Society's Qingjing Chemistry Rising Star Award (2024), the Chinese Chemical Society's Zeolite Rising Star Award (2023), and the Chinese Crystallographic Society's Young Scientist Award (2023).

The research group is recruiting postdoctoral fellows, research assistants, as well as undergraduate, master's, and doctoral students. Young talents with research backgrounds in inorganic synthesis, catalysis science, solid-state chemistry, porous materials, and crystallography are welcome to contact us!

2018–2020: Postdoctoral Fellow, Stockholm University, Sweden
2020–2022: Postdoctoral Fellow, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
December 2022 – Present: Professor, Principal Investigator, and Doctoral Supervisor, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University

The research group focuses on inorganic solid functional materials, such as zeolites, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), and composite metal oxides. Specific research directions include, but are not limited to:

1. Synthesis and application of functional composite metal oxides;

2. Development of functional porous materials for adsorption and separation (e.g., CO₂ fixation and separation) and catalytic applications (e.g., CO₂ hydrogenation, biomass conversion, and plastic degradation);

3. Development of advanced structural characterization methods, including the use of X-ray diffraction, neutron diffraction, three-dimensional electron diffraction, and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) to investigate the structure-property relationships in zeolites and composite metal oxides.

15. Jiazheng Sun#, Xudong Tian#, Zhenghan Zhang, Jing Liu, Lei Han, Fanrong Xu, Han Jiang, Chao Ma, Hongwei Guo, Cong Lin, Qike Jiang, Guangchao Li, Tsz Woon Benedict Lo, Haitao Song, Wei Lin*, Le Xu*, Jian Li*, A 36-ring zeolite with intrinsic cylindrical mesopores‌, Science, 2026, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aec4882 (in press)

14. Chao Ma#, Zhenghan Zhang#, Mengdi Zhang#, Xudong Tian, Cong Lin*, Lei Han, Guangchao Li, Tsz Woon Benedict Lo, Ka-Fu Yung, Haitao Song, Wei Lin*, Miguel A. Camblor, Le Xu, Jian Li*,Accelerated discovery of stable, extra-large-pore nano zeolites with micro-electron diffraction, Science, 2025, 388 (6754), 1417-1421

13. Zihao Rei Gao#, Huajian Yu#, Fei-Jian Chen#, Alvaro Mayoral, Zijian Niu, Ziwen Niu, Xintong Li, Hua Deng, Carlos Márquez-Álvarez, Hong He, Shutao Xu, Yida Zhou, Jun Xu, Hao Xu, Wei Fan, Salvador R. G. Balestra, Chao Ma, Jiazheng Hao, Jian Li*, Peng Wu*, Jihong Yu*, Miguel A. Camblor*, Interchain-expanded extra-large-pore zeolites, Nature, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07194-6

12. Xing Huang; Yang Li; Shuai Fu; Chao Ma; Yang Lu; Mingchao Wang; Peng Zhang; Ze Li; Feng He; Chuanhui Huang; Zhongquan Liao; Ye Zou; Shengqiang Zhou; Manfred Helm; Petko St. Petkov; Hai I. Wang; Mischa Bonn; Jian Li*; Wei Xu; Renhao Dong; Xinliang Feng; Control of the Hydroquinone/Benzoquinone Redox State in High‐Mobility Semiconducting Conjugated Coordination Polymers, Angew. Chem.Int. Ed., 2024, e202320091

11.Jian Li*#; Zihao Rei Gao#; Qing-fang Lin#; Chenxu Liu; Fangxin Gao; Cong Lin; Siyao Zhang; Hua Deng; Alvaro Mayoral; Wei Fan; Song Luo; Xiaobo Chen; Hong He; Miguel A. Camblor*; Fei-Jian Chen*; Jihong Yu*; A 3D extra-large-pore zeolite enabled by 1D-to-3D topotactic condensation of a chain silicate, Science, 2023, 379 (6629): 283-287. Highlight by Science: Russell E. Morris, Clicking zeolites together, Science, 379, 6629, (236-237), (2023).

10. Jian Li, Cong Lin, Tianqiong Ma, Junliang Sun* Atomic-resolution structures from polycrystalline covalent organic frameworks with enhanced cryo-cRED. Nat. Commun. 2022, 13, 4016.(Highlighted by Nature Reviews Materials, Kreutzer, J. Deciphering the structure of covalent organic frameworks. Nat. Rev. Mater. 7, 593 (2022).

9. Tianyang Chen, Jin-Hu Dou, Luming Yang, Chenyue Sun, Julius J. Oppenheim, Jian Li*, Mircea Dincă* Dimensionality Modulates Electrical Conductivity in Compositionally Constant One-, Two-, and Three-Dimensional Frameworks, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144, 12, 5583–5593

8. Qingfang Lin#, Zihao Rei Gao#, Cong Lin#, Siyao Zhang, Junfeng Chen, Zhiqiang Li, Xiaolong Liu, Wei Fan, Jian Li*, Xiaobo Chen*, Miguel A. Camblor*, Feijian Chen*, A Stable Zeolite with Intersecting Three-Dimensional extralarge Plus Large Pores, Science, 2021, 374, 1605-1608.

7. Zihao Rei Gao, Jian Li*, Cong Lin, Alvaro Mayoral, Junliang Sun, and Miguel A. Camblor* HPM-14, a New Germanosilicate Zeolite with Interconnected Extra-Large Pores Plus Odd-Membered and Small Pores. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 3438

6. Zihao Rei Gao, Salvador Rodrigue-Gomez Balestra, Jian Li*, Miguel A. Camblor*, HPM‐16, a New Stable Interrupted Zeolite with a Multidimensional Mixed Medium‐Large Pore System Containing Supercages. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 20249-20252.

5. Jian Li#，Fengjuan Pan#, Shipeng Geng#, Cong Lin#, Mathieu Allix, Xiaojun Kuang*, Jianhua Lin, Junliang Sun* Modulated structure determination and ion transport mechanism of oxygen ion conductor, Nat. Commun. 2020, 11, 4751.

4. Luis A. Villaescusa*#, Jian Li#, Zihao Gao, Junliang Sun*, Miguel A. Camblor* IDM-1, a new zeolite with intersecting medium and extra-large pores built as an expansion of zeolite MFI, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020, 132, 1-5.

3. Jian Li, Cong Lin, Yuxin Min, Youyou Yuan, Guobao Li, Sihai Yang, Pascal Manuel, Jianhua Lin, Junliang Sun*, Discovery of complex metal oxide materials by rapid phase identification and structure determination, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2019, 141, 4990-4996.

2.Jian Li, Junliang Sun*, Application of X-ray diffraction and electron crystallography for solving complex structures. Acc.Chem. Res., 2017, 50, 2737-2745.

1. Jian Li, Xiaotao Yuan, Cong Lin, Yanquan Yang, Le Xu, Xin Du, Jinlin Xie, Jianhua Lin*, and Junliang Sun*,. Achieving High Pseudocapacitance of 2D Titanium Carbide (MXene) by Cation Intercalation and Surface Modification. Adv. Energy Mater. 2017, 7, 160272. (ESI Highly Cited Papers)

#contributed equally, * Corresponding author