Professor Shangfeng Du FHEA, BEng, PhD

Professor Shangfeng Du

School of Chemical Engineering
Professor of Electrochemical Engineering
Director of School PGR

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0) 121 415 8696
Email
s.du@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@dushangfeng
View my research portal
Address
School of Chemical Engineering
The University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Shangfeng Du is leading Birmingham Electrochemical Engineering Group conducting interdisciplinary research of materials, components, devices, single cells and short stacks, focusing on low temperature fuel cells and electrolysers, as well as zinc-air batteries and electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide.

Qualifications

  • Fellow of The Higher Education Academy (HEA), 2017
  • PhD in Chemical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, 2005
  • BEng in Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, China, 1999

Biography

Shangfeng Du is a Professor of Electrochemical Engineering in the School of Chemical Engineering. He received his BEng in Materials Science and Engineering from Tsinghua University in 1999. He obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2005. After that, he moved to Max Planck Institute for Metals Research, working in Power Metallurgy Laboratory (PML).

In 2007, he joined Birmingham as a Marie Curie Research Fellow starting his research in fuel cells, working together with the JKR Theory developer, Professor Kevin Kendall FRS. He was awarded Science City Research Fellowship from SCRA in 2009. He was appointed as a lecturer in 2015, promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2020 and Professor of Electrochemical Engineering in 2024. Birmingham Electrochemical Engineering Group conducts interdisciplinary research activities in energy storage and conversion technologies in the Centre for Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Research, as part of Birmingham Energy Institute.

Shangfeng Du serves as Associate Editor for the journal of Frontiers in Nanotechnology, and member of the Editorial Boards of Scientific Reports, Journal of Power Sources and Automotive Innovation. He has authored and co-authored more than 70 journal papers, reviews, book chapters and patents.

Teaching

Teaching programmes

  • Advanced Electrochemical Applications (Leader)
  • Design Project
  • Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Technology
  • Introduction to Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Technologies
  • Materials for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies
  • Techniques for Fuel Cell Characterisation

Postgraduate supervision

Shangfeng Du is interested in supervising doctoral research students for the design, development and evaluation of materials, components and devices in the following areas:

  • Low temperature water electrolysis
  • Low temperature fuel cells
  • Electrochemical reduction of CO2
  • Zinc-air fuel cells/batteries

As principal supervisor

Current Members

Alumni

  • Huiyu Li (Visiting PhD, 2023)
  • Mingshui Yao (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow 2022, Professor at Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
  • Jie Meng (Visiting PhD, 2022)
  • Aalia Manzoor (Visiting PhD, 2022)
  • Milon Miah (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow 2021)
  • Haotian Ma (PhD 2021)
  • Gongjin Chen (PhD 2021)
  • Li Dai (Visiting Professor 2019, Professor at Harbin University of Science and Technology)
  • Liang Xu (Visiting scholar 2019, Associate Professor at Jilin Institute of Chemical Technology)
  • Yang Li (PhD 2019, Postdoc at Loughborough University)
  • Min Wang (Visiting PhD, 2017)
  • Sam Elderly (PhD 2016)
  • Elok Fidiani (PhD 2016, Lecturer at the Universitas Katolik Parahyangan)
  • Huixin Zhang (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow 2017, Associate Professor at Hebei University of Technology)
  • Peter Mardle (PhD 2015, Postdoc at NRC Canada)
  • Shengming Liu (Visiting scholar 2017, Professor at Xihua University)
  • Yaxiang Lu, (PhD 2012, Associate Professor at Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Self-funded candidates and candidates with external funds are welcome to contact. UK rate funding is also possible depending on the quality of the applicant.

Research

Research themes

  • Water electrolysers: proton exchange membrane (PEM), alkaline, anion exchange membrane (AEM)
  • Fuel cells: proton exchange membrane (PEM), alkaline, anion exchange membrane (AEM)
  • Liquid fuelled fuel cells: direct methanol fuel cell, direct ethanol fuel cell, direct formic acid fuel cell, etc.
  • Electrochemical reduction of CO2 to produce liquid fuels
  • Zinc-air fuel cells/batteries

Research activities

Design and development of catalyst electrodes and devices

  • 1D nanostructures from PGM and non-PGM materials, carbonaceous materials and metal oxides
  • Ionic liquid modification of catalysts and electrodes
  • Electrode structure design, e.g., 3D ordered nanostructures, 1D nanostructure array electrodes

Electrochemical engineering behaviour

  • Quantification of mass transport behaviour within catalyst electrodes
  • Nanoparticle behaviour in electrodes, e.g. adhesion between ionomer, particle aggregation, surface adsorption, etc.

Device and stack building

  • Composite membrane design for low fuel crossover
  • Porous transport layer fabrication by laser drilling and 3D printing
  • Surface coating for porous transport layer by electrochemical, PVD and plasma deposition
  • Flow field plate design and surface coating
  • Stack design and building

Electrochemical sensors

  • Electrochemical fuel cell breathalysers
  • Microbial fuel cell sensors for water and wastewater monitoring

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Hou, D, Qiao, G, Liu, L, Zhang, X, Yan, Y & Du, S 2025, 'Challenges in scaling up testing of catalyst coated membranes for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers', Frontiers in Energy Research, vol. 13, 1557069. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2025.1557069

Widijatmoko, SD, Yan, Y, Huang, Q, Du, S, Li, Y & Leeke, GA 2025, 'Have proton exchange membrane fuel cells been designed for recycling?', Waste Management and Research, vol. 43, no. 10, pp. 1467-1475. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734242X251360546

Luo, N, Gao, F, Wang, C, Yi, H, Zhao, S, Zhou, Y, Du, S & Tang, X 2025, 'Mechanistic insights into sulfation-induced deactivation of CoMn2O4/CeTiOx catalyst under low-temperature SCR conditions', Chinese Journal of Catalysis, vol. 77, pp. 70-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1872-2067(25)64781-4

Zhang, F, Zhou, Q, Zhang, C, Hua, M, Du, S, Duan, Y, Li, J, Williams, H & Xu, H 2025, 'Meta-Heuristic Adaptive Equivalent Consumption Minimization of a Fuel Cell Vehicle Incorporating Fuzzy Inference and Particle Swarm Optimization', IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 5237-5248. https://doi.org/10.1109/TTE.2024.3478187

Zhang, F, Yan, Y, Wang, S, Hua, M, He, X, Zhang, C, Li, J, Zhou, Q, Duan, Y, Williams, H, Du, S & Xu, H 2025, 'Optimal sizing and energy management for fuel cell electric vehicles with 3D-ordered MEAs: A pareto frontier study', International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, vol. 189, 152206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2025.152206

Hou, D, Liu, L, Qiao, G, Zhang, X, Yan, Y, Li, Y & Du, S 2025, 'Platinum functional layer for hydrogen crossover mitigation in proton exchange membrane water electrolysers', Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 512, 162524. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2025.162524

Zhang, F, Hua, M, Zhou, Q, Wang, S, Zhang, C, Du, S, Duan, Y, Williams, H & Xu, H 2025, 'Robustness Optimization of the Energy Management Strategy for a Fuel Cell Vehicle Using Adversary Evolutionary Learning', IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 8729-8741. https://doi.org/10.1109/TTE.2025.3549857

Luo, N, Gao, F, Liu, H, Yi, L, Niu, Z, Duan, E, Yi, H, Sun, L, Zhao, S, Zhou, Y, Du, S & Tang, X 2025, 'Synergistic reaction of NH3 selective catalytic reduction and CO oxidation on in-situ sulfated CoMn2O4/CeTiOx', Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 525, 169882. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2025.169882

Zhong, J, Li, T, He, Y, Yue, F, Du, S & Zhu, Y 2026, 'Synthesis of a carbon nanotube and carbon sphere coexisting catalyst for enhanced oxygen reduction reaction and its applications', Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, vol. 702, 138920. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2025.138920

Yildirim, E, Yan, Y & Du, S 2024, 'Catalyst electrode based on in-situ grown Pt nanowires', International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, vol. 75, pp. 625-636. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2024.05.071

Tahir, M, Farid, MA, Aliyev, E, Huang, Z, Zou, JJ & Du, S 2024, 'Cobalt Phosphide Decorating Metallic Cobalt With a Nitrogen‐Doped Carbon Nano‐Shell Surpasses Platinum Group Metals for Oxygen Electrocatalysis Applications', Battery Energy. https://doi.org/10.1002/bte2.20240029

Review article

Fareed, I, Khan, MD, Firdous, M, Maqsood, T, Farooq, MUH, Tahir, M, Butt, FK, Zou, JJ & Du, S 2025, 'Fundamentals and Perspectives on Materials for Bifunctional Electrocatalysis', Advanced Science, vol. 12, no. 38, e09902. https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202509902

Qadeer, MA, Fareed, I, Hussain, A, Farid, MA, Nazir, S, Butt, FK, Zou, JJ, Tahir, M & Du, SF 2025, 'Nanostructured Graphitic Carbon Nitride for Photocatalytic and Electrochemical Applications', Journal of Electrochemistry, vol. 31, no. 1, 2416001. https://doi.org/10.61558/2993-074X.3498

Li, Y, Yao, MS, He, Y & Du, S 2025, 'Recent Advances of Electrocatalysts and Electrodes for Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cells: from Nano to Meter Scale Challenges', Nano-Micro Letters, vol. 17, no. 1, 148. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-025-01648-w

Qadeer, MA, Zhang, X, Farid, MA, Tanveer, M, Yan, Y, Du, S, Huang, Z-F, Tahir, M & Zou, J-J 2024, 'A review on fundamentals for designing hydrogen evolution electrocatalyst', Journal of Power Sources, vol. 613, 234856. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2024.234856

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