Prof. Zheng’s research has been focused on multifunctional carbon materials, including synthesis of graphene and graphene oxide, thermal and chemical reduction of graphene oxide, graphene based multifunctional sensors, flexible electronics, energy conversion and storage, surfaces and interfaces of materials, nanocomposites reinforced with nanofillers in various types, and molecular simulations of new carbon materials. He has published more than 60 peer reviewed papers in top-ranked scientific journals including Mater Today, Prog Mater Sci, ACS Nano, Adv Funct Mater, Mater Horiz, Nanoscale Horiz, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, and Carbon.

Advanced carbon materials

Many different carbon-based nanostructured materials, including graphene, carbon nanotube and carbon nanofiber have been explored to construct functional materials.   

Wearable sensors

Various design strategies are established for fabricating flexible, wearable sensors by using 1D fibrous, 2D planar and 3D cellular interconnected carbon architectures.

Transparent conductors

The exciting features in almost all modern portable and house-hold electronics are driven by optoelectronics that extensively use transparent conductive films (TCFs) in components, such as touch screens, liquid crystal displays, organic photovoltaic cells and organic light-emitting diodes. Graphene has been developed as an ideal material to replace the existing, expensive indium tin oxide (ITO) as TCFs. Several established approaches, such as chemical doping treatments, use of large size GO sheets, and hybrids with other nanostructured materials, are introduced to improve the optoelectrical performance of graphene-based TCFs.

Multifunctional nanocomposites

lightweight carbon structures with high electrical conductivities and high porosities are developed to realize composites with desired lightweights and multi-functionalities such as energy storage and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding.