Introduction:

Name: Ronghui Qi

Title: Professor

E-mail: qirh@scut.edu.cn

Personal homepage: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=35559674600

Supervisor: Master’s ＆ PhD Supervisor

Area: 

Energy and Chemical Engineering; Engineering Thermophysics and Energy Utilization; Heat and mass transfer; membrane transport–reaction coupling; multi-scale modelling; electrolyte-membrane electrolysis and dehumidification; moisture-enabled power generation; passive dehumidification materials; solar-driven desalination and hydrogen production.

Education:

Prof. QI Ronghui is a Professor and doctoral supervisor in the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at South China University of Technology (SCUT). She received her B.S. and M.S. degrees from Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences， respectively， and her Ph.D. from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She subsequently conducted nearly three years of postdoctoral research at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and was a visiting scholar at the University of Waterloo， Canada.

Research interests:

My research focuses on advanced heat and mass transfer phenomena and their applications in energy and environmental systems. Specifically， I work on:Coupled transport–reaction mechanisms and multi-scale modelling of porous membranes， integrating thermodynamic， kinetic， and electrochemical processes.Electrolyte-membrane precision dehumidification and humidity-driven hydrogen production， exploring electrochemical pathways for active moisture control and clean energy conversion.Moisture-enabled power generation technologies that utilise ambient humidity gradients for self-sustained energy harvesting.Passive dehumidification and hygroscopic material development， including the design of advanced sorbents and functional composites for thermal–humidity regulation.Solar-driven seawater desalination and hydrogen production， with an emphasis on membrane-based photothermal and photoelectrochemical coupling systems for sustainable energy and water utilisation.

Representative publications :

(1) Ronghui Qi， Li-Zhi Zhang，Multi-scale modelling on PEM-based electrolyte dehumidifier: Transient heat and mass transfer in anode catalyst layer with microstructures，International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer，Volume 179，2021，121720

(2) Zhuoan Cui， Ronghui Qi， First-principles simulation of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalytic performance of IrO2 bulk-like structures: Nanosphere， nanowire and nanotube， Applied Surface Science， Volume 554， 2021， 149591，

(3) Zhixian Tang， Ronghui Qi， Meng Ni，Ionomer-involved moisture transfer and electrochemical reaction within porous catalyst layer of PEM vapor electrolyzer/dehumidifier: Numerical simulation development and parameter analysis，International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer，Volume 159， Part C，2024，108276

(4) Huping Yan， Ronghui Qi， Zhen Liu， Han Wang， Chuanshuai Dong， Li-zhi Zhang， Unlocking the potential of hydrogel-electrode electrical double layer for high-performance moisture-enabled electric generators， Device， Volume 3， Issue 2， 2025， 100568

(5) Z. Liu， L. Li， H. Yan， C. Dong， M. Li， and R. Qi， “ Efficient Humidity-to-Hydrogen Photocatalysis: Engineering Polymer-Catalyst Bonds in Hygroscopic Hydrogels with Sulfur-Vacancy-Rich Nanosheets.” Small 21， no. 37 (2025): 21， e06127. https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202506127