January 2015:

• Our user proposal "Imaging Two-dimensional MXene Catalysts Using ToF-SIMS" has been approved by the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS) of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Our group will have 10-day access to AFM/FIB-ToF-SIMS (Atomic Force Microscopy/Focused Ion Beam - Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry) at ORNL.

December 2024:

• In collaboration with Dr. Mingzhou Jin from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, our paper entitled "Techno-economic Analysis and Network Design for CO2 Conversion to Jet Fuels in the United States" is published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. Check it HERE.

• Congratulations to Tobias K. Misicko and Joaquin Herrero on receiving $1,000 each NASCRE 5 Travel Awards to attend the 5th North American Symposium on Chemical Reaction Engineering (NASCRE-5) to be held in Houston on February 16-19, 2025.

• Our College of Engineering and Sciences Faculty Spotlight highlights Dr. Xiao and our research group. See the link here.

•Welcome two undergraduate students join the group: Katherine Cortez and Sabrina Stone. They are both from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Louisiana Tech University.

•Welcome Jacob Robinson join the group as a PhD student! Jacob receives B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Louisiana Tech University.

November 2024:

•Tobias Misicko, a PhD candidate in the Xiao Group, presented a poster "ToF-SIMS Analysis of Two-Dimensional Metal Carbide Catalysts" at the AVS70 conference in Tampa, FL.

October 2024:

• Congratulations to Henrik Ketting as he has successfully defended his Master's thesis entitled "Techno-Economic Analysis of Waste Plastic Gasification".

• Dr. Xiao will chair the session of "Catalysis on Low Dimensional Materials" at the 2024 AIChE Annual Meeting, Time: 3:30 PM PT - 6:00 PM PT, Location: San Diego Convention Center, Room 28B, Thursday, October 31, 2024. Check more info here.

• Dr. Xiao will present an oral talk of "Catalytically Active Edge Sites of Mxene-Confined Pt Nanolayers for Conversion of Short Alkanes" at the 2024 AIChE Annual Meeting, Time: 5:18 PM PT - 5:36 PM PT, Location: San Diego Convention Center, Room 28B, Thursday, October 31, 2024. Check more info here.

• Dr. Xiao will present an oral talk of "Thermal Runaway of Chemical Reactors: An Experimental, Modeling Andmachine-Learning Investigation" at the 2024 AIChE Annual Meeting, Time: 9:48 AM - 10:06 AM PT, Location: San Diego Convention Center, Room 28A, Thursday, October 31, 2024. Check more info here.

• We enjoyed attending the Louisiana Space Grant Consortium (LaSPACE) Annual Meeting at Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, Louisiana on October 4-5, 2024. Thank my students - Caroline Cresap and Piper Smith for co-presenting a poster! Thank LaSPACE for funding us with two Research Enhancement Awards (REA).

September 2024:

• In collaboration with Dr. Cao from Zhejiang University, our paper entitled "One-pot Synthesis of 5-Norbornene-2,3-Dicarboxylic Anhydride with High Exo/Endo Ratio in a Microreactor under High Temperature and Appropriate Pressure" is published in Chemical Engineering Journal. Check it HERE.

•Welcome four undergraduate students join the group: Gregory Allen, Kaleigh Louque, Suraj Dahal, and Sudip Regmi. They are all from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Louisiana Tech University.

•Welcome Jiaping Weng join the group as a PhD student! Jiaping receives B.S. in Environment Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzhou, China.

•Welcome Kritik Saxena join the group as a PhD student! Kritik is co-advised by Prof. Mainardi. Kritik receives B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Medicaps Institute of Technology and Management, Indore, India, and M.S. in Manufacturing Technology, National Institute of Technology, Calicut, India.

August 2024:

•Congratulations to Tobias Misicko, the 1st PhD student in the group, for passing his qualifier exams and becoming a PhD candidate.

July 2024:

•More Great News - The Xiao Group, for the second time, received the LAMDA 1B Collaborative Partnership Award from Louisiana Materials Design Alliance (LAMDA) supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. OIA-1946231 and the Louisiana Board of Regents. This is a $40K one-year project to investigate catalyst stability using both DFT (density functional theory) and MD (Molecular Dynamics) methods.

•Welcome Jacob Robinson to join the group as an undergraduate research assistant.

June 2024:

•Great News - The Xiao Group, for the second time, received the Research Enhancement Award (REA) from Louisiana Space Grant Consortium (LaSPACE, NASA EPSCoR Program). This is a $70K one-year project to conduct catalytic oligomerization of olefins to liquid rocket propellant fuels.

•Great News - The Xiao Group received a second grant this year from the National Science Foundation (NSF). It is funded by the Catalysis program from the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET). This is a $336K three-year project to convert ethane to ethylene and hydrogen. The project conneccts the former NSF ERI project (link), in which methane is converted to ethane and carbon-free hydrogen. Check more info here.

May 2024:

• Our group is highlighted in the College's press release - "Xiao wins prestigious NSF grant to convert shale gas into clean energy". Check more info here. Check the NSF award here.

• Congratulations to Piper Smith on receiving a $5,000 scholarship from the ACS (American Chemistry Society) SEED project.

• Our LTRC TIRE grant (Louisiana Transportation Research Center - Transportation Innovation for Research Exploration grant) and the research group are highlighted in Louisiana Tech University's press release as "Xiao awarded funding for energy sustainability research through TIRE grant". Check more info here.

•Great News - The Xiao Group has received the Engineering Research Initiation (ERI) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). It is funded by the Catalysis program from the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET). This is a $200K two-year project to convert methane, the primary component of Louisiana's shale gas, to ethane and carbon-free hydrogen. Ethane can be used to produce ethylene, a precursor of polyethylene plastics. Hydrogen is a clean fuel, and its burning does not produce CO₂ thus easing global warming. In addition, we will build a steady-state isotopic transient kinetic analysis - operando transmission Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (SSITKA-FTIR) in a single flow reactor to investigate catalytic mechanisms under working conditions. Check more info here.

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