His research focuses on photo(electro)catalysis and in-situ/operando characterization. Professor Liu has published more than 200 research and review articles in Nature Energy, Nature Catalysis, Nature Water, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Joule, Chem, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Energy and Environmental Science, Advanced Materials, Chemical Reviews, Chemical Society Reviews, Accounts of Chemical Research, etc. As at January 2023, his research has been cited over 30,000 times with an h-index of 85 (Google Scholar). Professor Liu was awarded emerging investigator by Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Royal Society of Chemistry in 2016, class of influential researchers by Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, American Chemical Society in 2018, and listed in the “Highly Cited Researchers” in Cross-Field in 2019 and Chemistry in 2020-2022 by Clarivate Analytics.