Cheng Zhu received a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering in 2024 from the University of California, Berkeley. Before attending UC Berkeley, Cheng received his B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Tsinghua University. As a former Kavli fellow, Cheng developed an innovative supramolecular assembly strategy for designing metal halide perovskites by manipulating metal-halide complexes. He studied the construction of charge-neutral (crown ether@A)2MX6 motifs, formed from crown ethers and double perovskite A2MX6, which assemble into hexagonal single crystals.
Cheng also demonstrated near-unity photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) blue emission from the supramolecular assembly of [HfBr6]2- octahedral centers, a less explored configuration. Notably, (18C6@K)2HfBr6 solid powders exhibit a PLQY of 96.22%. Additionally, efficient green emission (82.69% PLQY) is achieved due to the high tunability of the dumbbell structural unit. The solution-processable nature of these materials enables their use in thin film and 3D printing applications. Cheng's research further expands the supramolecular approach to the one-dimensional (1D) molecular wire regium, with potential applications in miniaturized molecular optoelectronic devices.
Currently, Cheng is a product engineer at Lam Research.