Prof. XU Zhenghe 徐政和
Chair Professor of Interfacial Sciences and Engineering of Materials
Area of Specialization: Interfacial Science and Engineering; Mineral Processing; Oil Sands Extraction; Functional Materials; Physical Separation; Renewable Energy; Environmental Technology and Materials Recycling
- FG617
- 2766-4567
- zhenghe.xu@polyu.edu.hk
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Short Description
Zhenghe Xu graduated with B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Mineral Processing in 1982 and 1985, respectively, from Central-South Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Changsha, China; and Ph.D. in Materials Engineering Science in 1990 from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.
During his academic career at McGill University (assistant professor from 1992 to 1996) and University of Alberta (associate professor from 1997 to 2000 and full professor from 2000 to 2021), Prof. Xu was Canada Research Chair in Mineral Processing (2006-2017), NSERC-Industry Research Chair in Oil Sands Engineering (2008-2017), and NSERC-EPCOR-AERI Industry Research Chair in Advanced Coal Cleaning and Combustion Technology from 2002-2008. In 2016, he joined Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen (China) as a Chair Professor in the Materials Science and Engineering and founding Dean of College of Engineering (until January2024), and was appointed as founding director of Yunna Institute for Advanced Studies, Ministry of Education (China) in 2025.
Prof. Xu’s main research area is in the interfacial sciences as applied to natural resources processing and utilization with recent focus on energy storage materials and recovery of valuables from wastes. He published 500+ peer-reviewed scientific journal papers (more than 28,800 citations and an h-index of 82) and 60+ technical conference proceeding papers, and co-authored two books and co-edited two books, with 12 book chapter contributions. Prof. Xu was named Teck professor in 2007 (until 2021); and elected to Fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering (FCAE) in 2008, CIM Fellow in 2010, Fellow of Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) in 2015 and International Member of Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE(IM)) in 2021. He was awarded the APEGA Frank Spragins Award in 2012, The Teck Environmental Award in 2013, Syncrude Award for Excellence in Sustainable Development of CIM in 2015, MetSoc Award for Research Excellence in 2016, Alberta Science and Technology (ASTech) Leadership Foundation Award in 2018, Airey Award of MetSoc in 2021 and Antoine M. Gaudin Award in 2025. He was the President of Metallurgical and Materials Society of CIM (MetSoc, 2016-2017), Canada, and a council member of International Mineral Processing Council (2016-2020). Prof. Xu is Funding Editor-in-Chief of cMat since October 2023.
Selected Publications
- Kang, X., Liu, Y., Zeng, C. ... and Z. Xu, 2026, Direct Revival of Spent Graphite Via an Elastic Rippled Carbon Nanoskin for High-Performance Anodes, Adv. Funct. Mater., 0:e76938 (14 pages).
- Liu, Y., Yang, H., Li, Q. ... and Z. Xu, 2026, A Restacking Inhibited Carbonization Pathway for Graphitization-Prone Precursors Toward Long-Life Sodium-Ion Batteries, Adv. Mater., 38: e73451 (17 pages).
- Lu, B., Wang, X., ... Lu, Z. and Z. Xu, 2025, Beyond Ion Exchange: Unraveling the complexity of lithium-ion adsorption on H2TiO3, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 17: 39628-39641 (14 pages).
- Tan, W., Yang, F., Yi, T., Liu, G., Wei, X., Long, Q., Liu, Y., Li, Y., Guo, C., Liu, K., Lu, Z., Liu, Q. and Z. Xu, 2022, Fullerene-like elastic carbon coatings on silicon nanoparticles by solvent controlled association of natural polyaromatic molecules as high-performance lithium-ion battery anodes, Energy Storage Materials, 45: 412-421.
- Lu, J., Misha, P., Hunter, T., Yang, F., Lu, Z., Harbottle, D. and Z. Xu, 2022, Functionalization of mesoporous carbons derived from pomelo peel as capacitive electrodes for preferential removal/recovery of copper and lead from contaminated water, Chem. Eng. J., 433: 134508 (10 pages).
- Chang, J., Liu, B., Grundy, J., Shao, H., Manica, R., Li, Z., Liu, Q. and Z. Xu, 2021, Probing specific adsorption of electrolytes at kaolinite−aqueous interfaces by atomic force microscopy, J. Phys. Chem. Letter, 12: 2406-2412.
