A longstanding effort Prof. Yuan-Hsiang Yu's lab focuses on the research and development in materials science. His research area is primarily on the preparation, property studies, and applications of nanocomposites based on two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials. 2D nanomaterials are layer structure materials composed of thin layers with at least one atomic layer or several atomic layers in a thickness. 2D nanomaterials have a high aspect ratio and high surface-area-to-volume ratio; therefore, many atoms expose on their surface provide extremely outstanding properties compared with the bulk materials. Since 2003, Prof. Yu has started his research works on 2D materials. There are three types of 2D nanomaterials developed in his research progress: nano clay, graphene, and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Besides, he also created other special nanocomposite and realized in display and semiconductor technologies because of his industry and teaching experience.

2D nanomaterials exhibit excellent properties depending on their structure and composition. For example, ceramic nano clay exhibits excellent gas barrier, thermal stability, mechanical and insulator properties. Graphene exhibits excellent electronic conductivity, thermal conductivity, gas barrier, thermal stability, and mechanical properties. MOFs demonstrate variable metallic and ligand-dependent physicochemical properties, including semiconducting or insulating properties. Prof. Yu focuses on polymers/clay nanocomposites and organic-inorganic hybrid materials during 2003-2011. From 2012 until now, his research interests shifted to graphene-based nanocomposites, especially developing the covalent-bonding approach to form the chemical boning on the graphene surface with functional materials such as small molecules and polymers. He is also investigating another candidate 2D MOFs materials since 2020. The application fields of nanocomposites based on 2D nanomaterials are versatile and innovative. His group develops various applications such as anti-corrosive coatings, electrospinning nanofibers, counter electrodes of dye-sensitized solar cells, perovskite solar cells, sensors, conductive films, optoelectronics, and polymer nanocomposites, etc. His published journal articles showed high quality and high impact in material science with total citations of more than 2220 based on the statistic collecting on Google Scholar.