About me

My reasearch

My current position is a doctoral student in the research group of Prof. Thomas Wiegand at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion (MPI CEC) and RWTH Aachen University. With close collaboration with colleagues from both the MPI and the university, I’m using solid-state NMR to investigate real problems involved in the studies of various catalytic systems.

One major project I’m working on is to study surface properties of supported ionic liquid phases (SILPs), which serve as a support to Ru nanoparticles used for selective hydrogenation reactions. Interesting questions include the structure and conformations, the interactions between SILPs and the nanoparticles, and the adsorption of small molecules on the surface.

Another major project is the structural study of frustrated Lewis pairs (FLP). A series of 11B and 31P NMR observables can provide us information about the chemical environments and distances of both Lewis centers in the FLP, making solid-state NMR a particularly suitable tool in FLP chemistry.

I also have experiences as a teaching assitant for graduate-level NMR lectures.

My name

Written in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), my name “Yufei Wu” shall be pronunced as [yfeiwu]. For english speakers the only thing to notice is the “yu” in “Yufei”, which is pronunced as the close front rounded vowel [y], same as the letter “ü” in German or “u” in French.

My first name in Chinese has the meaning of “spaceship”. My parents gave me this name when they saw the successful lauch of China’s first prototype of manned spacecraft “Shenzhou 1” on Nov. 20th 1999, shortly after my birth. Witnessing the fast developing of China’s space exploration (now with the space station “Tiangong”, sample return from the Moon “Chang’e”, and Mars exploration “Tianwen”), I have well carried my parents’ wish on to embrace challenges and explore the unknown since then.

My home

I was born in the city of Baoji [pɑutɕi], Shaanxi province. Located near the exact geometric center of China, this is a small city (“small” in China) surrounded by mountains with a river flowing through the middle. For foreign visitors the landscape is similar to that in Chur, Switzerland.

For high school I moved 170 km east to Xi’an [ɕiʔan], the capital city of my province. Being the capital city of several of the most important dynasties in ancient China including Han and Tang, this city is known internationally for its unique position in China’s history and culture. This city is home to 6 UNESCO world cultural heritages, especially the Terracotta Army and the starting node of the Silk Road. Surrounding the city center there is also a well preserved city wall which was built as early as in the 14th century.

More personal information can be found on my private homepage.