About Dr. Zhao

Education

B.S. Chemistry, 1993, Nankai University
M.S. Chemistry, 1996, Peking University
Ph.D. Inorganic, 2002, Texas A&M University

Previous Experience

2002-2005, Post Doc, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Research Interests

My research involves areas of inorganic, organometallic, bioinorganic chemistry and chemical biology, with particular interest in the design and engineering of models for the oxygen-evolving center in photosystem II, through either synthetic methods using organic ligands or biosynthetic approach using small, stable and well-characterized proteins.

Recent Publications

• Wang, P.; Le, N.; McCool, J. D.; Donnadieu, B.; Erickson, A. N.; Webster, C. E.; Zhao, X. A Molecular Cobalt Complex for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production in Alkaline Aqueous Solutions. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, Under revision (ja-2023-12928r).
  
  
• Homogeneous Water Splitting, Xuan Zhao, ACS In Focus, 2023, eISBN: ‍9780841299733, DOI: 10.1021/acsinfocus.1027e7005.
  
  
• McCool, J. D.; Zhang, S.; Cheng, I.; Zhao, X. Rational development of molecular earth-abundant metal complexes for electrocatalytic hydrogen production. Chinese J. Catal. 2022, 43, 3019-3045.
  
  
• DiMarco, B. N.; Polyansky, D. E.; Grills, D. C.; Wang, P.; Kuwahara, Y.; Zhao, X.; Fujita, E. Structural and Electronic Influences on Rates of Tertpyridine−Amine CoIII−H Formation During Catalytic H2 Evolution in an Aqueous Environment. ChemPhysChem 2021, 22, 1478-1487.
  
  
• Wang, P.; Liang, G.; Webster, C. E.; Zhao, X. Structure-Functional Analysis of Hydrogen Production Catalyzed by Molecular Cobalt Complexes with Pentadentate Ligands in Aqueous Solutions. Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2020, 3534-3547.
  
  
• Wang, P.; Liang, G.; Smith, N.; Hill, K.; Donnadieu, B.; Webster, C. E.; Zhao, X. Enhanced Hydrogen Evolution in Neutral Water Catalyzed by a Cobalt Complex with a Softer Polypyridyl Ligand. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2020, 59, 12694-12697.
  
  
• Wang, P.; Liang, G.; Reddy, M. R.; Long, M.; Driskill, K.; Lyons, C.; Donnadieu, B.; Bollinger, J. C.; Webster, C. E.; Zhao, X. Electronic and Steric Tuning of Catalytic H2 Evolution by Cobalt Complexes with Pentadentate Polypyridyl-Amine Ligands. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, 140, 9219-9229.

 

Please see CV for a comprehensive list of publications