Zhang was appointed to the Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO) project, which saw her working on electrochemiscopy at the Kyushu University in Sendai, Japan. She joined the faculty at the Technical University of Denmark in 1998, where she was eventually promoted to Professor in 2016. Her research considered electrochemistry for nanomedicines and sustainable energy. In particular, she was interested in the electrochemistry that occurs at interfaces. During the late nineties, electrochemistry rapidly grew as a research area, integrating aspects of solid state physics and materials science. Zhang was quick to pick up new materials and characterisation techniques, including atomic force microscopy at single molecule resolution. She was particularly interested in redox metalloproteins and enzymes and new (bio)electrochemical surfaces. These surfaces included graphene, nanoparticles and nanoporous metallic surfaces.
She was awarded the Danish Society of Engineers Agnes and Betzy Prize in 2011. The following year she was elected to the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. In 2017 Zhang was appointed to the Akademiet for de Tekniske Videnskaber. Zhang was a member of the editorial board of ChemElectroChem. A special issue of ChemElectroChem honouring Zhang and her legacy was published in 2021.