Nature Chemistry | The Sceptical Chymist

Reactions: Jun Chen

Jun Chen is in the Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education) at Nankai University, and works on nanomaterials chemistry and high-energy batteries.

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

Partly my interest in the abundant and beautiful chemical reactions, and partly my recognization of the key role that chemistry plays in modern society.

2. If you weren’t a chemist and could do any other job, what would it be – and why?

Perhaps a general manager of a company that manufactures advanced batteries, because there is an increasing need for batteries to power our daily life.

3. What are you working on now, and where do you hope it will lead?

I’m working on nanomaterials for electrochemical energy storage and conversion and hope to develop some new materials and/or structures for constructing rechargeable batteries with larger energy and power density, longer cycling life, lower cost, and higher safety.

4. Which historical figure would you most like to have dinner with – and why?

Michael Faraday. Learn his experience on anode, cathode, electrode and ion, carry out further creative research, and see his response and view if I told him the scientific development in the 21st century.

5. When was the last time you did an experiment in the lab – and what was it?

Yesterday, I performed the structural analysis of three pieces of metal nanoparticles using FEI transsion electron microscope.

6. If exiled on a desert island, what one book and one music album would you take with you?

Book: The Wealth of Nations (by Adam Smith). Music album: The Crescent Moon (A Chinese pop music).

7. Which chemist would you like to see interviewed on Reactions – and why?

Prof. John B. Goodenough. He is a respectable, prominent scientist with accomplished leading research in the field of solid-state chemistry and energy materials chemistry.

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