Designing and synthesizing exotic small and giant molecules for unusual properties, Associate Professor Yan Xia works at the interface of chemistry and materials science. His research combines catalysis, organic and polymer chemistry, and a range of advanced characterizations to create, control, and study novel (macro)molecular structures and organic materials with tailored conformations, nanostructures, properties, and functions. These new soft materials have interesting and unusual properties/functions for applications in energy-efficient molecular separations, sustainable plastics, electronics, and therapeutics.
Prof. Xia studied chemistry at Peking University (B.S. 2002), McMaster University (M.S. 2005), and Caltech (Ph.D. 2010). Following his PhD, he worked at Dow Chemical and MIT before joining the chemistry faculty at Stanford in the summer of 2013. His longstanding research interest is to develop novel organic materials at the interface of chemistry and materials science.
Research in the Xia Group combines vigorous function-driven syntheses, rational molecular design, and in-depth understanding of (macro)molecular reactivity, property, and function. Powerful synthetic methods are the enabling force behind their development of novel organic materials. They have developed various types of chemistry to generate diverse molecular ladder materials with high microporosity, antiaromaticity, or responsive behaviors; polymers with controlled microstructures and degradation; dynamic polymer networks and hydrogels.
Feist, J. D., Lee, D. C., & Xia, Y. (2021). A versatile approach for the synthesis of degradable polymers via controlled ring-opening metathesis copolymerization. Nature Chemistry.
Yang, J., Horst, M., Romaniuk, J. A. H., Jin, Z., Cegelski, L., & Xia, Y. (2019). Benzoladderene Mechanophores: Synthesis, Polymerization, and Mechanochemical Transformation. JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, 141(16), 6479–83.
Yang, J., Horst, M., Werby, S. H., Cegelski, L., Burns, N. Z., & Xia, Y. (2020). Bicyclohexene-peri-naphthalenes: Scalable Synthesis, Diverse Functionalization, Efficient Polymerization, and Facile Mechanoactivation of Their Polymers. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 142(34), 14619–26.
Elling, B. R., Su, J. K., & Xia, Y. (2020). Degradable Polyacetals/Ketals from Alternating Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization. ACS MACRO LETTERS, 9(2), 180–84.
Lou, J., Liu, F., Lindsay, C. D., Chaudhuri, O., Heilshorn, S. C., & Xia, Y. (2018). Dynamic Hyaluronan Hydrogels with Temporally Modulated High Injectability and Stability Using a Biocompatible Catalyst. Advanced Materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.), 30(22), e1705215.
Liu, S., Jin, Z., Teo, Y. C., & Xia, Y. (2014). Efficient Synthesis of Rigid Ladder Polymers via Palladium Catalyzed Annulation. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 136(50), 17434–37.
Feist, J. D., & Xia, Y. (2020). Enol Ethers Are Effective Monomers for Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization: Synthesis of Degradable and Depolymerizable Poly(2,3-dihydrofuran). Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Teo, Y. C., & Xia, Y. (2015). Importance of Macromonomer Quality in the Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization of Macromonomers. MACROMOLECULES, 48(16), 5656–5662.
Elling, B. R., & Xia, Y. (2015). Living Alternating Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization Based on Single Monomer Additions. JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, 137(31), 9922–26.
Friedowitz, S., Lou, J., Barker, K. P., Will, K., Xia, Y., & Qin, J. (2021). Looping-in complexation and ion partitioning in nonstoichiometric polyelectrolyte mixtures. Science Advances, 7(31).