Yonghua Du
TES Lead Beamline Scientist, Spectroscopy Program, National Synchrotron Light Source II

Brookhaven National Laboratory
National Synchrotron Light Source II
Bldg. 743, Room 3L108
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000
(631) 344-6234
ydu@bnl.gov
Yonghua Du joined NSLS-II in 2019 as the lead beamline scientist of the Tender Energy X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (TES) beamline. Before that he worked for 10 years at the Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences (ICES), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) of Singapore. During this period, Yonghua built a world-class in situ Tender XAFS beamline for catalysis research at the Singapore Synchrotron Light Sources, called XAFCA. He also built strong collaborations with researchers working on catalysts and batteries, which led to great scientific impact.
After joining NSLS-II, Yonghua mainly focus on three aspects:
TES beamline upgrades
Development of advanced autonomous beamline techniques enhanced by AI/ML methods
Collaborations development in catalyst, energy storage, and geoscience etc.
Research | Education | Appointments | Publications | Highlights | Awards
Research Activities
Yonghua's current research activities mainly focus on the following three aspects:
- Development of advanced autonomous beamline techniques enhanced by AI/ML, including automatic beamline optimization, high throughput XAS, etc.
- Application of tender x-ray microspectracopy in catalyst, energy storage, and geoscience fields
- XAFS data analysis method
Education
- 2001.9– 2007.2 Ph.D. Physics, Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
- 1997.9– 2001.7 B.S. Physics, Shandong University, Shandong, China
Professional Appointments
- 2019.06 – Present Sr. Physicist, National Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven National Lab, USA
- 2009.02 – 2019.06 Scientist I – III, Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences (ICES), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore
- 2007.02 – 2009.02 Postdoctoral, Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Selected Publications
- Xiaopeng Wang, Shibo Xi, Pengru Huang, Yonghua Du, Haoyin Zhong, Qing Wang, Armando Borgna, Yong-Wei Zhang, Zhenbo Wang, Hao Wang, Zhi Gen Yu, Wee Siang Vincent Lee & Junmin Xue, (2022) Pivotal role of reversible NiO6 geometric conversion in oxygen evolution. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05296-7
- Wang X, Xi S, Lee WSV, Huang P, Cui P, Zhao L, Hao W, Zhao X, Wang Z, Wu H, Wang H, Diao C, Borgna A, Du Y, Yu ZG, Pennycook S, Xue J (2020) Materializing efficient methanol oxidation via electron delocalization in nickel hydroxide nanoribbon. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-18459-9
- Wang XP, Wu HJ, Xi SB, Lee WSV, Zhang J, Wu ZH, Wang JO, Hu TD, Liu LM, Han Y, Chee SW, Ning SC, Mirsaidov U, Wang ZB, Zhang YW, Borgna A, Wang J, Du YH, Yu ZG, Pennycook SJ, Xue JM (2020) Strain stabilized nickel hydroxide nanoribbons for efficient water splitting. Energy & Environmental Science 13:229–237. doi: 10.1039/c9ee02565k
- Yao C, Guo N, Xi S, Xu C-Q, Liu W, Zhao X, Li J, Fang H, Su J, Chen Z, Yan H, Qiu Z, Lyu P, Chen C, Xu H, Peng X, Li X, Liu B, Su C, Pennycook SJ, Sun C-J, Li J, Zhang C, Du Y, Lu J (2020) Atomically-precise dopant-controlled single cluster catalysis for electrochemical nitrogen reduction. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-18080-w
- Rakitin MS, Giles A, Swartz K, Lynch J, Moeller P, Nagler R, Allan D, Caswell T, Wiegart L, Chubar O, Du Y (2020) Introduction of the Sirepo-Bluesky interface and its application to the optimization problems. Advances in Computational Methods for X-Ray Optics V. doi: 10.1117/12.2569000
- Tang Y, Zhang Y, Malyi OI, Bucher N, Xia H, Xi S, Zhu Z, Lv Z, Li W, Wei J, Srinivasan M, Borgna A, Antonietti M, Du Y, Chen X (2018) Identifying the Origin and Contribution of Surface Storage in TiO2(B) Nanotube Electrode by In Situ Dynamic Valence State Monitoring. Advanced Materials 30:1802200. doi: 10.1002/adma.201802200
- Chen G, Chu S, Sun T, Sun X, Zheng L, An P, Zhu J, Wu S, Du Y, Zhang J (2017) Confocal depth-resolved fluorescence micro-X-ray absorption spectroscopy for the study of cultural heritage materials: a new mobile endstation at the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Journal of Synchrotron Radiation 24:1000–1005. doi: 10.1107/s1600577517010207
- Xi S, Borgna LS, Zheng L, Du Y, Hu T (2017) AI-BL1.0: a program for automatic on-line beamline optimization using the evolutionary algorithm. Journal of Synchrotron Radiation 24:367–373. doi: 10.1107/s1600577516018117
- Xi S, Borgna LS, Du Y (2015) General method for automatic on-line beamline optimization based on genetic algorithm. Journal of Synchrotron Radiation 22:661–665. doi: 10.1107/s1600577515001861
- Du Y, Zhu Y, Xi S, Yang P, Moser HO, Breese MBH, Borgna A (2015) XAFCA: a new XAFS beamline for catalysis research. Journal of Synchrotron Radiation 22:839–843. doi: 10.1107/s1600577515002854
- Du Y, Wang J, Jiang L, Borgna LS, Wang Y, Zheng Y, Hu T (2014) Data analysis method to achieve sub-10 pm spatial resolution using extended X-ray absorption fine-structure spectroscopy. Journal of Synchrotron Radiation 21:756–761. doi: 10.1107/s1600577514010406
- Du Y, Wang Y, Hua W, Huang Y, Hu T (2006) Measurement of synchrotron radiation spectra using combined attenuation method and regularized inversion. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 565:855–860. doi: 10.1016/j.nima.2006.05.169
Research Highlights
- Developed a general method for automatic beamline optimization based on AI/ML and extended this method to multiple beamlines & light sources
- Discovered the first stable Ni(OH)2 nanoribbon phase. It has been proven to be one of the best oxygen evolution reaction catalysts. Moreover, it also shows excellent methanol oxidation reaction performance, which is expected to replace Pt in the fuel cell. This material will play an important role in the future of clean energy.
- Developed a novel method based on operando XAFS technique to study the surface storage mechanism of batteries. An important application is to study a TiO2(B) Li-ion battery. The surface storage effect can contribute 90% more extra capacity of the battery. This is a general method, which can be applied to study other battery system.
- Developed the highest spatial resolution EXAFS data analysis method, which is three time more precise than conventional methods and approaching the resolution limit of the uncertainty principle.
Awards & Recognition
2022 - 2024 Highly Cited Researcher in the field of Chemistry

Brookhaven National Laboratory
National Synchrotron Light Source II
Bldg. 743, Room 3L108
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000
(631) 344-6234
ydu@bnl.gov