Faculty Profile for Dr. Wenting Cai

profile photo for Dr. Wenting Cai
Dr. Wenting Cai
Assistant Professor — Chemistry and Biochemistry
CHEM 313
phone: (512) 245-2156
Scholarly/Creative Work
Service

Biography Section

Biography and Education

 Wenting Cai obtained her Ph.D. from Huazhong University of Science and Techonology (HUST) in 2015. During her doctoral studies, she was a visiting Ph.D. candidate at Tsukuba University in Japan from 2012 to 2013. After completing her Ph.D., she worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Luis Echegoyen at University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) from 2015 to 2019. She then joined Prof. Ray H. Baughman's research group as a visiting research scholar at University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) from 2019 to 2021. She began her independent academic career at Xi'an Jiaotong University since 2021. In September 2024, she joined the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Texas State University, where she currently serves as an assistant professor.
Her research interests include the generation and characterization of synthetic carbon allotropes, along with exploring their potential applications in perovskite solar cells, single-molecule magnets, electrocatalysis, mechanical energy harvester and artificial muscles. Her research work has been published in the high-impact journals including Science, Nature Energy, J. Am. Chem. Soc., Acc. Chem. Res., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Chem. Sci. and so on.

Teaching Interests

 CHEM 1341 General Chemistry I

Research Interests

 Welcome to the realm of carbon nanomaterials. Our research focuses on the fundamental chemistry and applications of synthetic carbon allotropes and their hybrids, particularly endohedral metallofullerenes (EMFs). Compared to empty fullerenes, EMFs offer unique advantages due to their ability to encapsulate diverse metal species, undergo exohedral functionalization, and exhibit remarkable metal-cage interactions and novel bonding motifs within the confined fullerene structure. The versatility conferred by these characteristics endow EMFs with multifunctional properties, making them promising candidates for molecular device fabrication with applications in biomedical technologies, single-molecule magnets, electrocatalysis and electronic devices.

In our group, we are primarily interested in:

1. Stabilizing unique clusters that are otherwise synthetically inaccessible by using the inner isolated space of the fullerene cages as an ideal platform. This offers an excellent environment and opportunity for investigating the nature of previously unobserved metal―metal, metal―non-metal, and metal―fullerene interactions, which are of fundamental scientific interest and importance.

2. Exploring new functionalities of EMFs and their derivatives, guided by their distinct inhomogeneity of electron density, which is caused by encapsulated metal moieties, external functional groups and enhanced electron transport properties. This advancement will greatly expand the potential applications of EMFs, surpassing empty fullerenes in emerging fields such as perovskite solar cells, single-molecule magnets, and electrocatalysis.

3. Developing the application of novel synthetic carbon allotrope hybrids for use in mechanical energy harvesting and artificial muscles. This research focuses on designing and fabricating macroscopic architectures based on hybrid materials to optimize their performance in these applications.

We are actively seeking talented researchers interested in carbon nanomaterials, organic synthesis, supramolecular chemistry, and crystallography. Qualified candidates are encouraged to send your CV and a brief research statement to Dr. Wenting Cai at oqz10@txstate.edu.

Please visit our group website for more information.
https://cainanocarbon.wp.txstate.edu/

Selected Scholarly/Creative Work

  • Lin, Y., Lin, Z., Lv, S., Shui, Y., Zhu, W., Zhang, Z., … Liang, C. (2025). A Nd@C82-polymer interface for efficient and stable perovskite solar cells. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08961-9
  • Zhang, M., Fang, S., Cai, W., Huynh, C., Göktepe, F., Oh, J., … Baughman, R. H. (2025). Mandrel-free fabrication of giant spring-index and stroke muscles for diverse applications. Science, 387(6738), 1101–1108. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adr6708
  • Zhang, M., Cai, W., Wang, Z., Fang, S., Zhang, R., Lu, H., … Baughman, R. H. (2023). Mechanical energy harvesters with tensile efficiency of 17.4% and torsional efficiency of 22.4% based on homochirally plied carbon nanotube yarns. Nature Energy, 8(2), 203–213. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-022-01191-7
  • Cai, W., Alvarado, J., Metta-Magaña, A., Chen, N., & Echegoyen, L. (2020). Interconversions between Uranium Mono-metallofullerenes: Mechanistic Implications and Role of Asymmetric Cages. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 142(30), 13112–13119. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.0c04888
  • Cai, W., Abella, L., Zhuang, J., Zhang, X., Feng, L., Wang, Y., … Chen, N. (2018). Synthesis and Characterization of Non-Isolated-Pentagon-Rule Actinide Endohedral Metallofullerenes U@C1(17418)-C76, U@C1(28324)-C80, and Th@C1(28324)-C80: Low-Symmetry Cage Selection Directed by a Tetravalent Ion. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 140(51), 18039–18050. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.8b10435

Selected Service Activities

Reviewer / Referee
The Innovation Materials
November 6, 2024-December 6, 2024