Dr Zhu’s research focuses on catalytic conversion of biomass and CO₂ to valuable chemicals and fuels. He uses kinetics, spectroscopy, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations to understand the reaction mechanism, to identify the active site, to design new catalyst and catalytic processes.

Dr Zhu has authored more than 80 peer reviewed papers, with citations more than 2800 (google scholar).  He serves as reviewer for more than 60 international journals.