Bingjun Xu
Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering
Office: Colburn 329
Tel: 302-831-6725
Email: bxu@udel.edu
Current Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr. Hong Je Cho
Ph. D. in Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Project: Synthesis of metal/zeolite composite catalysts with well defined structure
Email: hongje@udel.edu
Google Scholar page: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VvCMNiIAAAAJ&hl=en
Dr. Junhua Wang (Co-advised by Dr. Yushan Yan, joined 2011)
Ph.D. in Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry
Project: Synthesis of highly conductive and durable hydroxide exchange membranes (HEMs) for electrochemical devices
Email: jimwangl@udel.edu
Research Update: December 2015
A series of poly(2,4-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) hydroxide-exchange membranes (HEMs) with cation strings of a well-defined number of cations (1 to 6 denoted as CS-1 to CS-6) and similar, high ion-exchange capacities are synthesized to investigate the effect of cation distribution on key hydroxide exchange membrane properties. As the number of cations on each string grows, the size of ionic clusters increases from 10 to 55 nm. Well-connected ion pathways and hydrophobic framework are observed for n = 4 and above. The enhanced phase segregation increases the hydroxide conductivity from CS-1 to CS-6 (30 to 65 mS cm-1) and suppresses the water uptake (from 143% to 62%). Moreover, molar hydroxide conductivities for CS-n membranes show two distinctive stages as n increases: ~23 S cm2 mol-1 for n = 3 or below; and ~34 cm2 mol-1 for n greater than or equal to 4.
Dr. Xuan Yang (Co-advised by Dr. Yushan Yan, joined 2017)
Ph.D. in Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry
Project: Synthesis of highly active and selective nanostructured electrocatalysts
Email: xuanyang@udel.edu
Google Scholar page: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=TTdMxCsAAAAJ&hl=en
Dr. Leo DeRita (Co-advised by Dr. Orazov, joined 2018)
Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, University of California – Riverside
Project: Non-oxidative Dehydrogenation of Propane
Email: ldderita@udel.edu
Dr. Xiaoxia Chang (Joined 2018)
Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University
Project: Chemical looping and CO2 utilization
Email: changxx@udel.edu
Dr. Leelavathi Annamalai (Joined 2019)
Ph. D. in Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, Indian Institute of Science
Project: Propane dehydrogenation
Email: leela@udel.edu
Current Graduate Students
Casper Brady
Graduate Student (Joined 2015)
Undergraduate Institution: New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Project: Methane Conversion
Email: cbrady@udel.edu
Nicholas Gould
Graduate Student (Joined 2014)
Undergraduate Institution: Cornell University
Project: Catalytic Design of Renewable Pathways for Conversion of Biomass to Polymer Precursors
Email: ngould@udel.edu
Arnav Malkani
Graduate Student (Joined 2016)
Undergraduate Institution: Cornell University
Project: Electrochemical reduction of CO2
Email: amalkani@udel.edu
Jacob Anibal
Graduate Student (Joined 2016)
Undergraduate Institution: Michigan State University
Project: Electrochemical ammonia synthesis
Email: anibalja01234@gmail.com
Jingcheng Wu
Visiting Graduate Student (Joined UD 2017)
Visiting from: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion (Started PhD 2014)
E-mail: wujc@udel.edu
Doyoung Kim
Graduate Student (Joined 2017)
Undergraduate Institution: Hanyang University
Project: Multi-domain, multi-functional catalysts for cascade reactions
Email: dykim@udel.edu
Jian Pan
Graduate Student (Joined 2018)
Undergraduate Institution: Fudan University
Project: High temperature electrochemical hydrocarbon upgrading
Email: jianpan@udel.edu
Yong Yuan
Graduate Student (Joined 2018)
Undergraduate Institution: Tianjin University
Project: Light hydrocarbon conversion
Email: yongyuan@udel.edu
Nicholas Oliveria
Graduate Student (Joined 2018)
Undergraduate Institution: University of Connecticut
Project: Mechanistic study of electrochemical hydrogen oxidation reaction
Email: njo@udel.edu
Current Undergraduate Students
Group Alumni
Postdoctoral Fellows
Dr. Shoucheng Du (2017-2018)
Intel Incorporation
Email: shouchengdu@gmail.com
Dr. Hongjie Tang (2016-2018)
Ph.D. in Material Science, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Email: thj880211@gmail.com
Ph.D. Students
Dr. Jie Zheng (2014-2016)
Current position: Researcher at HP inc.
Brian Murphy (2013-2018)
Email: bmmurphy@udel.edu
Marco Dunwell (2013-2018)
Lincoln Park High School
Email: mdunwell@udel.edu
Matthew Gilkey (2013-2018)
Stoner Solutions
Email: mgilkey@udel.edu
Jared Nash (2014-2019)
Undergraduate Institution: Tufts University
Master Students
Jeffrey Heyes (2014-2016)
Eric Steinman (2018-2019)
REU or Undergraduate Researchers
Leerang Yang (REU student, 2015)
Juliana Soreo (2016-2018)
Email: jsoreo@udel.edu
Rachana Balakumar (2016-2017)
Email: rachanab@udel.edu
Greg Facas (undergraduate researcher)
Current position: Graduate student at University of Minnesota
Abhilash Sharma (undergraduate researcher)
Ryan Van Manen (undergraduate researcher)
Michael Letterio (undergradaute researcher)
Current position: Doosan Fuel Cell America
Brian Dinkelacker (undergraduate researcher)
Harrison Landfield (2018-2019)
High School Summer Interns
Victoria Deng (2018)
Chelsea Gbemudu (2017)
Cynthia He (high school intern 2015)