Faculty Profile

Xiao Li

Title
Assistant Professor
Department
Materials Science and Engineering
College
College of Engineering

    

    

      


                          

            
Curriculum Vitae

            

              Click Here to View Faculty CV
            

          

        
                          

            
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





          

        
                

          
Current Scheduled Teaching*


          
MTSE 5400.030, Advanced Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Spring 2024 Syllabus
MTSE 5400.630, Advanced Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Spring 2024 Syllabus
MTSE 6950.040, Doctoral Dissertation, Spring 2024 
MTSE 6940.222, Individual Research, Spring 2024 
MTSE 6940.244, Individual Research, Spring 2024 
MTSE 4050.030, Polymer Science and Engineering, Spring 2024 Syllabus


          
*
  Texas Education Code 51.974 (HB 2504) requires each institution of
  higher education to make available to the public, a syllabus for
  undergraduate lecture courses offered for credit by the institution.
  

        

      

    

  


    

    

      


        


          


            
Previous Scheduled Teaching*


            
                    

                    MTSE 6950.041, Doctoral Dissertation, Fall 2023 
                    

                    MTSE 6940.051, Individual Research, Fall 2023 
                    

                    MTSE 6940.052, Individual Research, Fall 2023 
                    

                    MTSE 3090.005, Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory I, Fall 2023  SPOT
                    

                    MTSE 3090.006, Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory I, Fall 2023  SPOT
                    

                    MTSE 3090.007, Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory I, Fall 2023  SPOT
                    

                    MTSE 4900.002, Special Topics in Materials Science and Engineering, Fall 2023 
                    

                    MTSE 5400.030, Advanced Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Spring 2023  SPOT
                    

                    MTSE 5400.630, Advanced Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Spring 2023 Syllabus SPOT
                    

                    MTSE 6950.040, Doctoral Dissertation, Spring 2023 
                    

                    MTSE 6940.222, Individual Research, Spring 2023 
                    

                    MTSE 4050.030, Polymer Science and Engineering, Spring 2023 Syllabus SPOT
                    

                    MTSE 6950.041, Doctoral Dissertation, Fall 2022 
                    

                    MTSE 6940.050, Individual Research, Fall 2022 
                    

                    MTSE 3090.005, Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory I, Fall 2022 Syllabus SPOT
                    

                    MTSE 3090.006, Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory I, Fall 2022 Syllabus SPOT
                    

                    MTSE 3090.007, Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory I, Fall 2022 Syllabus SPOT
                    

                    MTSE 5400.030, Advanced Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Spring 2022 Syllabus SPOT
                    

                    MTSE 5400.630, Advanced Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Spring 2022 Syllabus SPOT
                    

                    MTSE 6950.040, Doctoral Dissertation, Spring 2022 
                    

                    MTSE 3000.006, Fundamentals of Materials Science and Engineering   I, Spring 2022 Syllabus SPOT
                    

                    MTSE 6940.222, Individual Research, Spring 2022 
                    

                    MTSE 4050.030, Polymer Science and Engineering, Spring 2022 Syllabus SPOT
                    

                    MTSE 5900.020, Special Problems in Materials Research, Spring 2022 
                    

                    MTSE 6950.041, Doctoral Dissertation, Fall 2021 
                    

                    MTSE 6940.050, Individual Research, Fall 2021 
                    

                    MTSE 6940.051, Individual Research, Fall 2021 
                    

                    MTSE 6940.052, Individual Research, Fall 2021 
                    

                    MTSE 3090.005, Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory I, Fall 2021 Syllabus SPOT
                    

                    MTSE 3090.006, Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory I, Fall 2021 Syllabus SPOT
                    

                    MTSE 3090.007, Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory I, Fall 2021 Syllabus SPOT
                    

                    MTSE 5400.030, Advanced Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Spring 2021 Syllabus SPOT
                    

                    MTSE 5400.630, Advanced Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Spring 2021 Syllabus SPOT
                    

                    MTSE 6950.040, Doctoral Dissertation, Spring 2021 
                    

                    MTSE 6940.040, Individual Research, Spring 2021 
                    

                    MTSE 6940.041, Individual Research, Spring 2021 
                    

                    MTSE 4050.030, Polymer Science and Engineering, Spring 2021 Syllabus SPOT
                    

                    MTSE 5930.040, Research Problems in Lieu of Thesis, Spring 2021 
                    

                    MTSE 6950.040, Doctoral Dissertation, Fall 2020 
                    

                    MTSE 3000.002, Fundamentals of Materials Science and Engineering   I, Fall 2020 Syllabus SPOT
                    

                    MTSE 6940.040, Individual Research, Fall 2020 
                    

                    MTSE 5950.040, Master's Thesis, Fall 2020 
                    

                    MTSE 5920.040, Research Problems in Lieu of Thesis, Fall 2020 
                    

                    MTSE 5400.030, Advanced Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Spring 2020 Syllabus
                    

                    MTSE 5400.630, Advanced Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Spring 2020 Syllabus
                    

                    MTSE 6950.040, Doctoral Dissertation, Spring 2020 
                    

                    MTSE 5950.040, Master's Thesis, Spring 2020 
                    

                    MTSE 4020.015, Materials in Medicine, Spring 2020 
                    

                    MTSE 4050.030, Polymer Science and Engineering, Spring 2020 Syllabus

          


          
*
  Texas Education Code 51.974 (HB 2504) requires each institution of
  higher education to make available to the public, a syllabus for
  undergraduate lecture courses offered for credit by the institution.
  

        

      

    

  

  
  	

	

	  

		

		   
Published Publications



  

  
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. 



	
		
		
	  

	

	

  
    
	

	

	  

		

		   
Awarded Grants



  
  
  	  
          
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).



	
		
		
	  

	

	

	
	

  
  
  

  	

		

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					Overall
Summative Rating		
					Challenge and
Engagement Index		
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out of 5		
					
out of 7		
					%
 of 
students responded		
					
					
				

			
		


		
    
			
  • Overall Summative Rating (median):
    
			This rating represents the combined responses of students to the four global summative items and is presented to provide an overall index of the class’s quality. Overall summative statements include the following (response options include a Likert scale ranging from 5 = Excellent, 3 = Good, and 1= Very poor):
				
      
					
    • The course as a whole was
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    • The course content was
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    • The instructor’s contribution to the course was
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    • The instructor’s effectiveness in teaching the subject matter was
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  • Challenge and Engagement Index:
    
			This rating combines student responses to several SPOT items relating to how academically challenging students found the course to be and how engaged they were. Challenge and Engagement Index items include the following (response options include a Likert scale ranging from 7 = Much higher, 4 = Average, and 1 = Much lower):
				
      
					
    • Do you expect your grade in this course to be
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    • The intellectual challenge presented was
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    • The amount of effort you put into this course was
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    • The amount of effort to succeed in this course was
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    • Your involvement in course (doing assignments, attending classes, etc.) was
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