Among his many contributions, Liu pioneered the development and understanding of nanoporous materials, containing specially designed pores thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair. The resulting technology, for example, could be used to remove mercury from waste water produced at offshore oil platforms. The technology has unprecedented efficiency and capacity. It was commercialized and has received major awards, including a recent U.S. Department of Energy award for technology transfer.
Liu also developed an environmentally friendly method for the large-scale production of oriented nanostructured films. His method is based on understanding and controlling the films growth at the molecular level. The underlying principles have applications in America’s energy future, specifically preparing solar cells and power-generating devices based on nanowires.