Dr. Xiao Li
University of North Texas
Materials Science and Engineering
(940) 565-2603
Email:

Education

PhD, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, 2011.
Major: Polymer Chemistry and Physics
Degree Specialization: Polymer Physics
Dissertation Title: The Manufacture of Antireflective film by Phase Separation of Block Copolymer
BS, Wuhan University of Technology, 2005.
Major: Material Science and Engineering
Degree Specialization: Polymer Material Science and Engineering
Dissertation Title: Modification of Polyurethane towards to biocompatible polymer materials

Professional Positions

Academic - Post-Secondary
Visiting Resident Associate, Argonne National Laboratory. (November 2015 – August 2019).
Postdoctoral Researcher, The University of Chicago. (January 2013 – October 2015).
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Wisconsin-Madison. (March 2012 – January 2013).
Professional
Research Scientist, The University of Chicago. (November 2015 – August 2019).

Professional Memberships

American Chemistry Society. (October 30, 2023 – Present).

American Physical Society. (March 3, 2014 – Present).

Development Activities Attended

Workshop,"DoD Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions (HBCUs and Mis) opportunities workshop," DoD, Washington D. C., United States of America. (July 26, 2023 – Present).

Workshop,"NSF Engineering Career proposal workshop," NSF, United States of America. (May 8, 2023 – Present).

Workshop,"NSF Career workshop webinar," NSF, remote, Texas, United States of America. (May 10, 2022 – Present).

Faculty Fellowship,"Faculty fellow at UNT’s ‘Diversity & Excellence in Engineering Network’," UNT, Denton, Texas, United States of America. (2022 – Present).

Faculty Fellowship,"UNT Cohort of Washington D.C. Fellows," UNT, Denton, Texas, United States of America. (2022 – Present).

Workshop,"UNT Grantsmanship Workshop," University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, United States of America. (December 7, 2021 – December 10, 2021).

Other,"NSF-DMR open webinar," NSF, United States of America. (September 9, 2021 – September 9, 2021).

Other,"NSF career webinar," NSF, United States of America. (May 14, 2021 – May 14, 2021).

Workshop,"NSF ENG Career workshop," NSF, United States of America. (April 21, 2021 – April 23, 2021).

Workshop,"UNT grantsmanship workshop," UNT, United States of America. (November 30, 2020 – December 3, 2020).

Workshop,"NSF grants visual workshop," NSF, United States of America. (November 16, 2020 – December 3, 2020).

Other,"NSF career webinar," NSF, United States of America. (May 13, 2020 – May 13, 2020).

Workshop,"UNT grantsmanship workshop," University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, United States of America. (December 09, 2019 – December 09, 2019).

Workshop,"Promotion and Tenure workshop," University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, United States of America. (September 23, 2019 – September 23, 2019).

Workshop,"NIH grant workshop," University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, United States of America. (September 19, 2019 – September 19, 2019).

Teaching

Teaching Experience

University of North Texas
MTSE 3000, Fundamentals of Materials Science and Engineering I, 2 courses.
MTSE 3090, Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory I, 9 courses.
MTSE 4020, Materials in Medicine, 1 course.
MTSE 4050, Polymer Science and Engineering, 5 courses.
MTSE 4900, Special Topics in Materials Science and Engineering, 1 course.
MTSE 5400, Advanced Polymer Physics and Chemistry, 10 courses.
MTSE 5900, Special Problems in Materials Research, 1 course.
MTSE 5920, Research Problems in Lieu of Thesis, 1 course.
MTSE 5930, Research Problems in Lieu of Thesis, 1 course.
MTSE 5950, Master's Thesis, 2 courses.
MTSE 6940, Individual Research, 13 courses.
MTSE 6950, Doctoral Dissertation, 9 courses.

Non-Credit Instruction

Public Lecture, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. (2022 – Present).

Public Lecture, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. (June 2021 – Present).

Directed Student Learning

Major Professor,"Porous Liquid Crystal Elastomers for Dynamic Oil/Water Separation," Materials Science and Engineering. (2022 – Present).

Supervised Research,"Chiral nematic liquid crystal for hierarchical helix structure," Materials Science and Engineering. (2022 – Present).

Dissertation Defense Committee Member, Materials Science and Engineering. (September 2021 – Present).

Dissertation Committee Member, Materials Science and Engineering. (July 2021 – Present).

Supervised Research,"Investigation of structure-function relationships for improving ion transport in liquid crystal-based ion transport devices using thin-film directed self-assembly," Materials Science and Engineering. (July 2021 – Present).

Master's Thesis Committee Member, Materials Science and Engineering. (2021 – Present).

Major Professor,"Synthesis of Three-Dimensional Mesoporous Structured Materials by Molecular Diffusion and Directed Self-Assembly within Blue Phase Liquid Crystals," Materials Science and Engineering. (September 1, 2019 – Present).

Supervised Research,"Self-assembly of block copolymer into ordered asymmetric structure," Materials Science and Engineering. (January 27, 2021 – 2022).

Supervised Research, Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science. (2021 – 2022).

Supervised Research,"Directed self-assembly of chiral nematic liquid crystal by chemically patterned surfaces," Materials Science and Engineering. (November 9, 2020 – 2022).

Major Professor,"Gradient Nano-Structures from Dissipative Nonequilibrium Self-Assembly of Block Copolymers," Materials Science and Engineering. (September 1, 2019 – 2022).

Supervised Research, Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science. (2020 – 2021).

Supervised Research,"Supramolecular self-assembly of liquid crystals," Materials Science and Engineering. (September 2021 – November 30, 2021).

Major Professor,"Active Particles with Synthetic Multi-Asymmetric Attributes in Anisotropic Liquid Medium," Materials Science and Engineering. (September 1, 2020 – May 30, 2021).

Major Professor,"Engineering the Uniform Lying Helical Structure in Chiral Nematic Liquid Crystal Phase: From Morphology Transition to Dimension Control," Materials Science and Engineering. (September 1, 2019 – October 29, 2020).

Supervised Research,"self-assembly of nanoparticle in liquid crystals," Materials Science and Engineering. (October 18, 2019 – February 3, 2020).

Research

Published Intellectual Contributions

Journal Article
Pawale, T., Hashemi, S., Swain, J. D., Tierra Chica, G., Li, X. (2023). Directed stabilization and annihilation of defects in nematic phase of liquid crystal by chemically patterned surfaces. Advanced Materials Interfaces. 10(2300136), .
Li, X. (2022). A Generalizable Approach to Direct the Self-Assembly of Functional Blue-Phase Liquid Crystals. Advanced Functional Materials. 32(32), 2202721. Wiley.
Li, X., Hnatchuk, N., Pawale, T. (2022). Asymmetric Polymer Materials: Synthesis, Structure, and Performance. Polymer. 242, 124607.
Li, X., Pawale, T. (2022). Impact on the Formation and Catalytic Property of Pt-Based Nanocatalysts by Galvanic Reaction with Co-Reduction Agents. Chemistry of Materials.
Li, X., Hnatchuk, N., Hathaway, E., Cui, J. (2022). Non-equilibrium Self-Assembly of Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Block Copolymers into Asymmetric Nanostructure. ACS Applied Polymer Materials.
Li, X., Pawale, T., Hnatchuk, N., Cheng, S. (2022). Synergistic self-assembly of rod-like monomers in blue phase liquid crystal for tunable optical properties. Journal of Materials Chemistry C. 10(37), 13778-13788.
Li, X., Pawale, T., Wang, X. (2022). The Fate of Liquid Crystal Topological Defects on Chemically Patterned Surfaces during Phase Transitions. 18(32), 5939-5948. Soft Matter.
Li, X. (2021). Broadband liquid crystal tunable metasurfaces in the visible: liquid crystal inhomogeneities across the metasurface parameter space. 8, 567-575. ACS.
Li, X. (2021). Nucleation and growth of blue phase liquid crystals on chemically-patterned surfaces: a surface anchoring assisted blue phase correlation length. Molecular Systems Design and Engineering. 6, 534-544. Royal Society of Chemistry. DOI https://doi.org/10.1039/D1ME00044F
Li, X. (2021). Engineering the Uniform Lying Helical Structure in Chiral Nematic Liquid Crystals: From Morphology Transition to Dimension Control. Crystals. 11(4), . MDPI. https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst11040414
Li, X. (2020). Prolate and oblate chiral liquid crystal spheroids. Science Advances. 6(28), eaba6728. https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/28/eaba6728.abstract
Li, X. (2020). Soft crystal martensites: An in situ resonant soft x-ray scattering study of a liquid crystal martensitic transformation. Science Advances. 6(13), eaay5986. https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/13/eaay5986.abstract
Li, X., Martinez-Gonzalez, J. A., Park, K., Yu, C., Zhou, Y., de Pablo, Juan J.,, Nealey, P. F. (2019). Perfection in Nucleation and Growth of Blue-Phase Single Crystals: Small Free-Energy Required to Self-Assemble at Specific Lattice Orientation. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. 11(9), 9487-9495.
Li, X., Martinez-Gonzalez, J. A., Guzman, O., Ma, X., Park, K., Zhou, C., Kambe, Y., Jin, H. M., Dolan, J. A., Nealey, P. F., de Pablo, Juan J., (2019). Sculpted grain boundaries in soft crystals. Science Advances. 5(11), .
Yanagimachi, T., Li, X., Nealey, P. F., Kurihara, K. (2019). Surface anchoring of nematic liquid crystal on swollen polymer brush studied by surface forces measurement. Other. 272, .
Li, X., Yanagimachi, T., Bishop, C., Smith, C., Dolejsi, M., Xie, H., Kurihara, K., Nealey, P. F. (2018). Engineering the anchoring behavior of nematic liquid crystals on a solid surface by varying the density of liquid crystalline polymer brushes. Other. 14(37), 7569-7577.
Xie, H., Li, X., Ren, J., Bishop, C., Arges, C. G., Nealey, P. F. (2017). Controlling Domain Orientation of Liquid Crystalline Block Copolymer in Thin Films Through Tuning Mesogenic Chemical Structures. Other. 55(6), 532-541.
Li, X., Armas-Perez, J. C., Hernandez-Ortiz, J. P., Arges, C. G., Liu, X., Martinez-Gonzalez, J. A., Ocola, L. E., Bishop, C., Xi, H., de Pablo, Juan J.,, Nealey, P. F. (2017). Directed Self-Assembly of Colloidal Particles onto Nematic Liquid Crystalline Defects Engineered by Chemically Patterned Surfaces. ACS Nano. 11(6), 6492-6501.
Martinez-Gonzalez, J. A., Li, X., Sadati, M., Zhou, Y., Zhang, R., Nealey, P. F., de Pablo, Juan J., (2017). Directed self-assembly of liquid crystalline blue-phases into ideal single-crystals. Nature Communications. 8, .
Li, X., Martinez-Gonzalez, J. A., Hernandez-Ortiza, J. P., Ramirez-Hernandez, A., Zhou, Y., Sadati, M., Zhang, R., Nealey, P. F., de Pablo, Juan J., (2017). Mesoscale martensitic transformation in single crystals of topological defects. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 114(38), 10011-10016.
Armas-Perez, J. C., Li, X., Martinez-Gonzalez, J. A., Smith, C., Hernandez-Ortiz, J. P., Nealey, P. F., de Pablo, Juan J., (2017). Sharp Morphological Transitions from Nanoscale Mixed-Anchoring Patterns in Confined Nematic Liquid Crystals. Langmuir. 33(43), 12516-12524.
Xie, H., Li, X., Suh, H. S., Ren, J., Wan, L., Craig, Gordon S. W.,, Arges, C. G., Nealey, P. F. (2017). Water-Soluble Top Coats for Orientation Control of Liquid Crystal-Containing Block Copolymer Films. Other. 55(21), 1569-1574.
Wu, G., Liu, X., Chen, X., Suh, H. S., Li, X., Ren, J., Arges, C. G., Li, F., Jiang, Z., Nealey, P. F. (2016). Directed Self-Assembly of Hierarchical Supramolecular Block Copolymer Thin Films on Chemical Patterns. Other. 3(13), .
Xiong, S., Chapuis, Y., Wan, L., Gao, H., Li, X., Ruiz, R., Nealey, P. F. (2016). Directed self-assembly of high-chi block copolymer for nano fabrication of bit patterned media via solvent annealing. Nanotechnology. 27(41), .
Li, X., Armas-Perez, J. C., Martinez-Gonzalez, J. A., Liu, X., Xie, H., Bishop, C., Hernandez-Ortiz, J. P., Zhang, R., de Pablo, Juan J.,, Nealey, P. F. (2016). Directed self-assembly of nematic liquid crystals on chemically patterned surfaces: morphological states and transitions. Other. 12(41), 8595-8605.
Li, X., Liu, Y., Wan, L., Li, Z., Suh, H., Ren, J., Ocola, L. E., Hu, W., Ji, S., Nealey, P. F. (2016). Effect of Stereochemistry on Directed Self-Assembly of Poly(styrene-b-lactide) Films on Chemical Patterns. Other. 5(3), 396-401.
Li, X., Yu, X., Han, Y. (2013). Polymer thin films for antireflection coatings. Journal of Materials Chemistry C. 1(12), 2266-2285.
Li, X., Yu, X., Han, Y. (2012). Intelligent Reversible Nanoporous Antireflection Film by Solvent-Stimuli-Responsive Phase Transformation of Amphiphilic Block Copolymer. Langmuir. 28(28), 10584-10591.
Li, X., Xue, L., Han, Y. (2011). Broadband antireflection of block copolymer/homopolymer blend films with gradient refractive index structures. Journal of Materials Chemistry. 21(15), 5817-5826.
Li, X., Han, Y. (2011). Tunable wavelength antireflective film by non-solvent-induced phase separation of amphiphilic block copolymer micelle solution. Journal of Materials Chemistry. 21(44), 18024-18033.
Gao, J., Li, X., Li, B., Han, Y. (2010). Fabrication of polymer antireflective coatings by self-assembly of supramolecular block copolymer. Polymer. 51(12), 2683-2689.
Li, X., Gao, J., Xue, L., Han, Y. (2010). Porous Polymer Films with Gradient-Refractive-Index Structure for Broadband and Omnidirectional Antireflection Coatings. Advanced Functional Materials. 20(2), 259-265.

Presentations Given

Invited Talk

Li, X. (Chair), MS&T23, Blue Phase Liquid Crystal Templated Nucleation and Growth of Inorganic Materials, Materials science & technology, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America. (2023 – ).

Li, X. (Author), Soft Matter Photonics—Blue Phase Liquid Crystals, University of North Texas, Fort Worth Museum, United States of America. (2022 – ).

Li, X. (Author), Self-Assembly of Soft Matter—Three-Dimensional Structure in Blue Phase Liquid Crystals, Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX, United States of America. (2022 – ).

Li, X. (Author), Self-Assembly of Soft Matter—Three-Dimensional Structure in Blue Phase Liquid Crystals, LeTourneau University, Longview, TX, United States of America. (2022 – ).

Li, X. (Author & Presenter), International Materials Research Congress, The Fate of Focal Conic Domain Defect of Smectic Liquid Crystal Formed Under Confined Chemically Patterned Surfaces: Direct Observation of Saddle-Shape Defect, Cancun, Mexico, Mexico. (2022 – ).

Oral Presentation

Li, X. (Author & Presenter), APS March meeting, Dynamic Motion Control of Topological Defects in Nematic Liquid Crystals by Chemically Patterned Surfaces, American Physics Society, Las Vegas, United States of America. (2023 – ).

Li, X. (Author & Presenter), APS March meeting, Self-Assembly of Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Block Copolymer under Dissipative Solvent Vapor Annealing, American Physics Society, Chicago, United States of America. (2022 – ).

Li, X. (Author & Presenter), AIChE Annual meeting, Asymmetric Nanoparticle Interaction with Nematic Liquid Crystals, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Boston, United States of America. (2021 – 2021).

Li, X. (Author & Presenter), APS March meeting, Nucleation and Growth of BPII Liquid Crystals on Chemically Patterned Surfaces: A Surface Anchoring Assisted BPII-Coherence Length, American Physical Society, Denvor, United States of America. (2020 – 2020).

Symposium

Li, X. (Chair), 31st International Materials Research Congress, Equilibrium and Beyond‐Equilibrium Self‐Organization in Soft Materials: A Symposium in Honor to Prof. Juan De Pablo, 31st International Materials Research Congress, Cancun, Mexico. (2023 – 2023).

Media Contributions

Internet
"What if liquid crystals could clean up oil spills? UNT's The lab," UNT's YouTube series "The Lab". (April 17, 2023).
Newspaper
"Army research office grant," UNT Today. (January 21, 2021).

Contracts, Grants and Sponsored Research

Grant - Research
Li, X. (Principal), "CAREER: Liquid Crystal-Templated Sequential Infiltration Synthesis of Hybrid Organic/Inorganic Materials with Multidimensional Chiral Structures," Sponsored by NSF, Federal, $715009 Funded. (March 1, 2024 – February 28, 2029).
Li, X. (Principal), "Porous Liquid Crystal Elastomers for Dynamic Oil/Water Separation," Sponsored by ACS PRF, National, $110000 Funded. (2022 – 2025).
Li, X., Tierra Chica, G., "Investigation of structure-function relationships for improving ion transport in liquid crystal-based ion transport devices using thin-film directed self-assembly," Sponsored by Division of Research and Innovation, University of North Texas, $9770 Funded. (2023 – 2023).
Li, X. (Principal), "4D Printing of Blue Phase Liquid Crystal Elastomers for Flexible Photonic Devices with Voxel Control," Sponsored by AMMPI Seed Grant, Local, $8000 Funded. (2022 – 2023).
Li, X., "Active Particles with Synthetic Multi-Asymmetric Attributes in Anisotropic Liquid Medium," Sponsored by UNT Office of Research and Innovation, University of North Texas, $8000 Funded. (November 30, 2020 – November 30, 2021).
Li, X., "Gradient Nano-Structures from Dissipative Nonequilibrium Self-Assembly of Block Copolymers," Sponsored by Army Research Office, Federal, $59864 Funded. (December 11, 2020 – September 10, 2021).

Copyrights, Patents

Patent
Li, X., "Blue phases on patterned surfaces," US20190049767A1. Regular, Date Submitted to University: July, 30, 2017 –.

Awards and Honors

NSF CAREER, National Science Foundation. (March 1, 2024 – February 28, 2029).

Service

University Service

Member, Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Processes Institute. (2022 – Present).

Committee Member, Assistant/associate Professor - joint with EE. (2022 – Present).

Committee Member, CENG Academic Integrity Committee. (2022 – Present).

Committee Member, Research Assistant Professor - Additive Manufacturing with Emphasis on Materials Science and Engineering position. (2022 – Present).

Committee Member, Course 3000-Materials Fundamentals and Selection Committee. (2021 – Present).

Committee Member, MTSE Research Roadmap Committee. (2021 – Present).

Committee Member, MTSE website and publicity Committee. (2021 – Present).

Program Organizer, PhD candidate qualify exam. (September 2019 – Present).

Professional Service

Reviewer, Journal Article, ACS Applied Nano Materials. (2023 – Present).

Reviewer, Journal Article, Applied Polymer Materials. (2023 – Present).

Reviewer, Journal Article, Journal of Polymer Science. (2023 – Present).

Reviewer, Journal Article, Material Horizon. (2023 – Present).

Reviewer, Journal Article, Materials Advances. (2023 – Present).

Reviewer, Journal Article, Nanoscale. (2023 – Present).

Reviewer, Grant Proposal, NSF, Denton. (2023 – Present).

Editorial Review Board Member, Current Research in Material Chemistry, Denton, Texas. (2021 – Present).

Editorial Review Board Member, Liquid Crystals-Frontiers in Soft Matter, Denton, Texas. (2021 – Present).

Editorial Review Board Member, MDPI-Crystals, Denton, Texas. (2021 – Present).

Editor, Guest Editor, MDPI-Crystal, Denton, Texas. (December 2020 – June 2021).

Reviewer, Journal Article, MDPI-Molecules. (November 2020 – November 2020).

Reviewer, Journal Article, MDPI-Crystal. (September 2020 – September 2020).

Reviewer, Journal Article, Nature communication. (September 2020 – September 2020).

Reviewer, Grant Proposal, NSF. (November 8, 2019 – December 2019).

Editor, Guest Editor, Advances in Polymer Technology. (August 9, 2019).

Public Service

Other, 'Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair', Dallas, Texas. (May 17, 2023 – Present).

Guest Speaker, Northwest ISD Career & Technical Education, Denton, Texas. (February 23, 2023 – Present).

Other, Northwest High School, Denton, Texas. (2022 – Present).

Grant Proposal Reviewer, External, NSF, Denton, Texas. (2022 – Present).

Grant Proposal Reviewer, External, NSF, Denton, Texas. (December 29, 2021 – Present).

Guest Speaker, Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, Denton, Texas. (September 8, 2021 – Present).

Other, Northwest Independent School District’s STEM Academy, Denton, Texas. (May 25, 2021 – Present).

Grant Proposal Reviewer, External, NSF, Denton, Texas. (November 2019 – Present).

Other, STEM Field Trips for middle and high school students, Denton, Texas. (April 14, 2023 – April 21, 2023).

Attendee, Meeting, Texas Women in Higher Education, Denton, Texas. (March 26, 2023 – March 28, 2023).