Dr Zou has worked at Khalifa University as full professor for nearly 10 years since 2014. Her research interests are in the areas of developing nanostructured materials such as membranes, adsorbent and electrodes for more efficient water purification and desalination technologies, such as capacitive deionization and membrane fouling minimization. She led the “ground-breaking” research project on using nanotechnology to develop cloud seeding materials, which was awarded by the inaugural UAE Research Program on Rain Enhancement Science for 2016-2019. Now she is the lead PI of a 2D nanomaterials for water purification project funded by UAE government. She has published numerous journal articles as senior author (SCOPUS h-index 53, Google Scholar h-index 59) and are invited frequently as keynote speaker at membrane and nanomaterials conferences. Prof Zou is in the 2020 and 2021, 2022, 2023 Stanford University’s List of World’s Top 2% of Scientists in single year ranking, as well as World’s Top 2% of Career-long Scientists with the greatest citation impact. She has supervised 15 PhD students to successful completion as the main advisor, and currently supervises 5 PhD students. Prof Zou serves as associated editor of Environmental Technology & Innovation journal, and as editorial board member of water technology journals such as Desalination, Membrane, and NPJ Clean Water. In 2023 she is nominated to be a Management Committee Member of IWA's Membrane Technology Specialist Group. For public recognition, she is among the first 20 recipients in 2019 of the UAE Government's Golden Residence program for scientific excellence.
Project title: 2D nanocomposite membrane for catalytic wastewater treatment
This research developed the 2D nanomaterials-assisted composite membrane for efficient catalytic degradation of organic contaminants in water and wastewater.
Project title: Hybrid pseudocapacitive nanocomposite electrodes in capacitive deionization
This research synthesized pseudocapacitive nanomaterials, and employed as electrodes in capacitive ionization. The hybrid mechanism of ion intercalation and electrical double layer opened up the possibility of using pseudocapacitive nanocomposite electrodes in efficient salt removal.
Project title: 2D materials-enhanced hydrogels for osmosis water purification
This research designed and synthesized an efficient osmosis material that purified water by removing salinity, organic contaminants, bacteria and viruses.
Project title: Nanotechnology enabled efficient removal of oil from wastewater
This research designed and fabricated amphiphilic nanocomposite membrane, evaluated the oil removal performance of the membrane under different initial oil concentrations and explored the anti-oil fouling property, long-term stability, and self-cleaning of this amphiphilic membrane
Project title: Core/shell microstructure as efficient cloud seeding materials
We designed and synthesized a core/shell NaCl/TiO2 (CSNT) particles with controlled particle size, which successfully adsorbed more water vapor and form liquid droplet at lower environmental relative humidity. The observed excellent and consistent performances in the laboratory confirmed that CSNT particles could be the promising cloud-seeding materials.
Public recognition and Professional Services
Member of MOHAMMED BIN RASHID ACADEMY OF SCIENTISTS (MBRAS)
Deputy Director of Women In Science Committee, MBRAS
Associate Editor: Environmental Technology & Innovation - Elsevier
Guest Editor: Desalination Special Issue : Capacitive Deionization & Electrosorption - Elsevier
Editorial Board: Desalination - Elsevier
Editorial Board: npj Clean Water - Nature
Editorial Board: Membranes - MDPI
Management Committee Member of International Water Association (IWA)'s Membrane Technology Specialist Group
Recent Peer Reviewed Journal Publications as the Correspondence Author (2019-2024)
ORCID: 0000-0001-5222-6173
SCOPUS h-index: 53
Google Scholar h-Index: 59
1. D E. Al Momani , F Arshad , L Zou Chitosan/MoS2/GO membrane for catalytic degradation of organic contaminants; Environmental Technology & Innovation, 2023, 32, 103410.
2. A Alabi, L Zou, Graphene oxide/alginate/polyacrylate hydrogels as a draw agent for osmosis water purification, Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, 2023, 9 (12), 3446-3457
3. R Alam, M Faheem, Y He, X Su, L Zou Ion selective electrosorption by two pseudocapacitive intercalating nanocomposite electrodes; Desalination, 2023, 116923
4. M Faheem, R Alam, Y He, L Zou, Hybrid pseudocapacitive sodium titanate/rGO and MXene/rGO nanocomposite electrodes in capacitive deionization, Desalination, 2023, 551, 116435.
5. A Alabi, C Aubry, L Zou, Graphene Oxide-alginate Hydrogel for Drawing Water through an Osmotic Membrane, ACS Omega, 2022, 7, 43, 38337-38346.
6. Z Al Ansari, F Arshad, LD Nghiem, L Zou, Amphiphilic cellulose acetate membrane incorporated with MoS2 nanospheres for oil in water separation. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, 2022, 8 (11), 2694-2704
7. F Arshad, C Aubry, and L Zou, Highly Permeable MoS2 Nanosheet Porous Membrane for Organic Matter Removal. ACS Omega, 2022, 7, 2, 2419–2428.
8. K Thangavelu and L Zou, Evaluating oil removal by amphiphilic MoS2/cellulose acetate fibrous sponge in a flow-through reactor and by artificial neural network, Environmental Nanotechnology, Monitoring & Management, 2022, Volume 18, 100684.
9. H Younes, D Lou, MM Rahman, D Choi, H Hong, L Zou, Review on 2D MXene and graphene electrodes in capacitive deionization, Environmental Technology & Innovation, 2022, 102858.
10. F Arshad, C Aubry, F Ravaux, L Zou, 2D MoS2 nanoplatelets for fouling resistant membrane surface, Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 2021, volume 590, 415-423.
11. K Thangavelu, C Aubry, L Zou, Amphiphilic Janus 3D MoS2/rGO Nanocomposite for Removing Oil from Wastewater, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2021, 60, 3, 1266–1273.
12. K Thangavelu, F Ravaux, L Zou, Cellulose acetate-MoS2 amphiphilic Janus-like fibrous sponge for removing oil from wastewater, Environmental Technology & Innovation 2021 Volume 24, November 2021, 10187
13. A Alabi, L Cseri, A Al Hajaj, G Szekely, P Budd, L Zou, Graphene–PSS/L-DOPA nanocomposite cation exchange membranes for electrodialysis desalination. Environmental Science Nano, 2020, 7, 3108-3123.
14. M Alhumaidi, F Arshad, C Aubry, F Ravaux, J McElhinney, A Hasan and L Zou, Electrostatically coupled SiO2 nanoparticles/L-DOPA antifouling coating on a nanofiltration membrane, Nanotechnology, volume 31 , 2020, 275602
15. H Younes and L Zou, Asymmetric configuration of pseudocapacitive composite and rGO electrodes for enhanced capacitive deionization, Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, Volume 6, 2020, 392.
16. A Alabi, L Cseri, A Al Hajaj, G Szekely, P Budd, L Zou, Electrostatically-coupled graphene oxide nanocomposite cation exchange membrane, Journal of Membrane Science, Volume 594, 2020, pages 117457.
17. Liang, O Möhler, S Griffiths, L Zou, Enhanced Ice Nucleation and Growth by Porous Composite of rGO and Hydrophilic Silica Nanoparticles, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 124, 2020, 667-685.
18. H Younes, F Ravaux, N El Hadri, Linda Zou, Nanostructuring of pseudocapacitive MnFe2O4/Porous rGO electrodes in capacitive deionization, Electrochimica Acta, Volume 306, 20 May 2019, Pages 1-8.
19. F Al Suwaidi, H Younes, V Sreepal, RR Nair, C Aubry, L Zou, Strategies for tuning hierarchical porosity of 3D rGO to optimize ion electrosorption, 2D Materials, 6, 2019, 045010.
20. H Liang, MT Abshaev, AM Abshaev, BM Huchunaev, S Griffiths, L Zou, Water vapor harvesting nanostructures through bioinspired gradient-driven mechanism, Chemical Physics Letters 728, 2019 167-173
21. M Ćurić, M Lompar, D Romanic, L Zou, H Liang, Three-Dimensional Modelling of Precipitation Enhancement by Cloud Seeding in Three Different Climate Zones, Atmosphere 10 (6), 2019, 294
