The Wu's research group is interested in the design, fabrication of nanoscale photoelectrical functional materials, with an emphasis on the photovoltaic application in solar cell.Photovoltaic solar cells and other optoelectronic devices often necessitate the use of single-crystalline active materials, because the analogous, low-cost polycrystalline substances tend to exhibit poor carrier transport. A polycrystalline material is made of small crystallites joined at their surfaces via grain boundaries. A notable exception is polycrystalline CuInSe2 solar cells, where today’s cell efficiencies (20%) outperform the best single-crystal devices (13%). This puzzle in polycrystalline CuInSe2 and related polycrystalline materials attracted recently considerable attention, because the understanding of the natural GB passivity in ternary chalcopyrites could lead in the future to the deliberate design of optoelectronic devices based on many low-cost polycrystalline materials.

Up to date, there are more than 10 research projects are undertaken in Wu research group, including those from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the program for the New Century Excellent Talents in University, Science and Technology Focus Item of the Ministry of Education of China, Henan Project for University Prominent Research Talents (HAIPURT). There are more than 30 academic papers from the group published in the international and domestic core journals.