Research

Our research interests lie in modeling homogeneous and enzymatic redox catalysis using quantum chemical methods.

Most cited publications

(Updated 9th Jun. 2026)

1. Margareta R. A. Blomberg, Tomasz Borowski, Fahmi Himo, Rong-Zhen Liao, Per E. M. Siegbahn*
Quantum Chemical Studies of Mechanisms for Metalloenzymes
Chem. Rev. 2014, 114, 3601-3658.
[541 citations]

2. Xiao-Jun Su, Meng Gao, Lei Jiao, Rong-Zhen Liao*, Per E. M. Siegbahn, Jin-Pei Cheng, Ming-Tian Zhang*
Electrocatalytic Water Oxidation by a Dinuclear Copper Complex in a Neutral Aqueous Solution
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 4909-4914.
[251 citations]

3.  Ningning Sun, Jianjian Huang, Junyi Qian, Taiping Zhou, Juan Guo, Langyu Tang, Wentao Zhang, Yaming Deng, Weining Zhao, Guojiao Wu, Rongzhen Liao, Xi Chen*, Fangrui Zhong*, Yuzhou Wu*
Enantioselective [2+2]-cycloadditions with triplet photoenzymes
Nature 2022, 611, 715-720
[193 citations]

4. Rong-Zhen Liao, Walter Thiel*
Convergence in the QM-only and QM/MM Modeling of Enzymatic Reactions: a Case Study for Acetylene Hydratase
J. Comput. Chem. 2013, 34, 2389-2397.
[126 citations]

5. Rong-Zhen Liao, Jian-Guo Yu, Fahmi Himo*
Mechanism of Tungsten-dependent Acetylene Hydratase from Quantum Chemical Calculations.
Proc. Natl. Acda. Sci. U.S.A. 2010, 107, 22523-22527.
[100 citations]

6. Qi-Fa Chen, Ze-Yu Cheng, Rong-Zhen Liao*, Ming-Tian Zhang*
Bioinspired Trinuclear Copper Catalyst for Water Oxidation with a Turnover Frequency up to 20,000 s−1
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 19761-19768.

[91 citations]

7. Rong-Zhen Liao, Walter Thiel*
Comparison of QM-only and QM/MM Models for the Mechanism of Tungsten-dependent Acetylene Hydratase
J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2012, 8, 3793-3803.
[90 citations]

8. Maofu Pang, Jia-Yi Chen, Shengjie Zhang, Rong-Zhen Liao*, Chen-Ho Tung, Wenguang Wang*
Controlled partial transfer hydrogenation of quinolines by cobalt-amido cooperative catalysis
Nat. Commun. 2020, 11, 1249.

[80 citations]

9. Rong-Zhen Liao*, Per E. M. Siegbahn*
Quantum Chemical Modeling of Homogeneous Water Oxidation Catalysis
ChemSusChem 2017, 10, 4236-4263.
[76 citations]

10. Ming Yi, Cher Hon Lau, Shu Xiong, Wenjie Wei, Rong-Zhen Liao, Liang Shen, Ang Lu, Yan Wang*
Zwitterion-Ag Complexes That Simultaneously Enhance Biofouling Resistance and Silver Binding Capability of Thin Film Composite Membranes
ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2019, 11, 15698-15708.

[74 citations]

11. Ya-Jing Chen, Wen-Hao Deng, Jia-Dong Guo, Rui-Nan Ci, Chao Zhou, Bin Chen, Xu-Bing Li, Xiao-Ning Guo, Rong-Zhen Liao*, Chen-Ho Tung, Li-Zhu Wu*
Transition Metal-Free, Site-Selective C-F Arylation of Polyfluoroarenes via Electrophotocatalysis
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144, 17261−17268.

[73 citations]

Theoretical collaborators

Prof. Per E. M. Siegbahn                 Stockholm Univ., Sweden (34 publications together)

Prof. Fahmi Himo                            Stockholm Univ., Sweden (19 publications together)   

Prof. Jian-Guo Yu                             Beijing Normal Univ. (17 publications together)

Prof. Ruo-Zhuang Liu                      Beijing Normal Univ. (8 publications together)

Prof. Wei-Hai Fang                          Beijing Normal Univ. (6 publications together)

Prof. Shi-Lu Chen                            Beijing Inst. of Tech. (5 publications together)

Prof. Yue-Jie Ai                               North China Electric Power Univ. (4 publications together)

Prof. Yi Luo                                     Univ. Sci. Tech. China (4 publications together)

Prof. Evert-Jan Meijer                    Univ. of Amsterdam, Netherlands (2 publication together)

Prof. Zhenyang Lin                        Hong Kong Univ.  Sci. Tech. (1 publication together)

 

Experimental collaborators:

Prof. Bjorn Akermark                  Stockholm Univ., Sweden (11 publications together)

Prof. Wenguang Wang                Beijing Normal Univ. (12 publications together)   

Prof. Fang-Rui Zhong                  HUST (7 publications together)

Prof. Ming-Tian Zhang               Tsinghua Univ. (7 publications together)

Prof. Li-Zhu Wu                           Tech. Inst. of Phys. and Chem. CAS (7 publications together)

Prof. Yong-Gui Zhou                   Dalian Inst. Chem. Phys. CAS (6 publications together)

Prof. You-Wei Xie                        HUST (5 publications together)

Pro. Shengfa Ye                          Dalian Inst. Chem. Phys. CAS(5 publications together)

Prof. Mei Wang                            Dalian Univ. of Tech. (3 publications together)

Prof. Le-Le Duan                          Southern Univ. Sci. Tech. (3 publications together)

Prof. Yonggui Liao                      HUST (2 publications together)

Prof. Yan Zhang                           Tianjin Univ. (2 publications together)

Prof. Chun-Mao He                     South China Univ. Tech. (1 publication together)

Prof. Lian-Peng Tong                   Guangzhou Univ. (1 publication together)

Prof. Lei Wang                             Taizhou Univ. (1 publication together)

Prof. Qi Zhang                             Fudan Univ. (1 publication together)