Kai Huang was educated in Beijing (China), Toronto (Canada) and Berlin (Germany). He obtained his BSc from Peking University (北京大学) in 2006, and his PhD with Prof. John Polanyi (Nobel Laureate) from the University of Toronto in 2011. In the following years, he conducted research work at the University of Toronto and at the Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck- Gesellschaft, prior to joining GTIIT as an associate professor of chemistry in the fall of 2018. His past research profile is most represented by the following aspects:  (a) patterned molecular reaction at silicon surfaces; (b) morphology control of metal-deposits at non-metals; (c) electron-induced molecular dynamics on metals. His research findings were published in Nat. Commun., J. Am. Chem. Soc., ACS Nano, Angew. Chem. In. Ed, J. Phys. Chem. Lett.

At GTIIT, the Huang laboratory studies physics and chemistry at solid surfaces, by ultrahigh vacuum scanning probe microscopy and spectroscopy (experiment), and by first principles computations (theory). Of particular note, our expertise centers at the control of surface dynamics to fabricate, characterize and understand novel surface materials for energy, catalysis and health applications, as sketched below:

1. Chemical characteristics at oxide surfaces
2. Formation Dynamics of Functionalized nanostructures on Group IV semiconductors
3. CO2 capture and transformation at solid material surfaces

• Physics and Chemistry at Solid Surfaces
• Novel Surface Materials for Energy, Catalysis and Health Applications
• Scanning Probe Microscopy and Spectroscopy
• First-principles Computations

Huang, K.; McNab, I. R., Polanyi, J. C.*; Yang, J. (S. Y.).  (2012) Adsorbate Alignment in Surface Halogenation: Standing Up is Better than Lying Down, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 51: 9061-9065. 

Huang, K.; Leung, L.; Lim, T.; Ning, Z.; Polanyi, J. C.* (2013) Single-Electron Induces Double-Reaction, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 135: 6220-6225.

Wang, C.–G.; Huang, K.*; Ji, W.* (2014) Dissociative Adsorption of CH3X (X= Br and Cl) on a Silicon(100) Surface Revisited by Density Functional Theory, The Journal of Chemical Physics, 141: 174701. 

Huang, K.; Leung, L.; Lim, T.; Ning, Z.; Polanyi, J. C.* (2014) Vibrational Excitation Induces Double-Reaction, ACS Nano, 8, 12468-12475. 

Anggara, K.+; Huang, K.+; Leung, L.+; Chatterjee, A.; Cheng, F.; Polanyi, J. C.* (2016) Bond-Selectivity in Electron-Induced Reaction Due to Directed Recoil on an Anisotropic Substrate, Nature Communications, 7, 13690. 

Anggara, K.+; Huang, K.+; Leung, L.+; Chatterjee, A.; Cheng, F.; Polanyi, J. C.* (2016) Clocking surface-reaction by in-plane product rotation, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 138,7377-7385. 

MacLean, O.+; Huang, K.+; Leung, L.; Polanyi, J. C.* (2017) Direct and Delayed Dynamics in Electron-Induced Surface Reaction, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 139, 17368-17375. 

Huang, K.; Huxter, W. S.; Singh, C. V.; Nogami, J.* (2018) Identification of Tetramers in Silver Films Grown on the Si(001) Surface at Room Temperature, The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 9, 6275-6279.