In 1989, he earned his Ph.D. degree in inorganic chemistry from the University of Houston, Texas, where his research advisor was Professor Jay K. Kochi.
Since 2000, he has showed that a new functional material can be produced through 2D and 3D arrays of silica nanobeads and zeolite microcrystals by using them as nanometer and micrometer scale building blocks.
This finding not only shows that nano- and micro-sized particles can be included as a new class of building blocks but also means that organization of zeolite microcrystals has been settled down as a field of study in the future of material chemistry(Acc.
[1][2] He also showed diversity in the field of organization of microparticles, indicating that in the case of microcrystals synthesis, they are synthesized and self-assembled, similar to the 2D and 3D aligned supercrystals made up of atoms and molecules.
[3][4] Yoon developed an innovative method named "Forced Manual Assembly" which significantly contributed to a very simple, time saving, and highly precise organization of nano and microparticles into monolayers on flat substrates (Angew.
[6] Since the opening of the Korea Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (KCAP) at Sogang University in 2009, he has been working to develop this field.