Assistant Professor in Environmental Engineering Research Faculty, NSF NEWT Center

• Self-healing Materials for Environmental Applications (including membranes)
• Electrochemical Fouling and Scaling Removal from Membranes
• Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Membrane Materials

Select Publications:

Cho, S., Kang, D., Kirienko, N.V. and Getachew, B., 2023. Understanding the Relationship between Electrochemical Fouling Control and Electrode Surface Coverage. ACS ES&T Engineering, 3(11), pp.2062-2070. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestengg.3c00335

Karunarathna, M. J. S., Kim, D., Parulski-Seager, D. C., Cho, S., Mendoza, V., Han, Y., & Getachew, B. A. (2022). Reactivity and Release of Isocyanates from Microcapsules Used in Self-Healing Materials. Environmental Science & Technology Letters. 9 (11), 949-954. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.2c00691

Bergsman, D.S.‡, Getachew, B.A.‡, Cooper, C.B., Grossman, J.C., Preserving Nanoscale Features in Polymers During Laser Induced Graphene Formation Using Sequential Infiltration Synthesis. Nature Communications 11 (2020) 1-8 (‡Co-first authors).https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17259-5

Norman Hackerman Welch Young Investigator, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

• Bottom-up polymer construction for PFAS capture
• Anion recognition platforms for environmental remediation
• Supramolecular architectures advancing host:guest chemistry

Select Publications:

Khosravi, H.;§ Stevens, V.;§ Hernández Sánchez, R.* "HFIP as a versatile solvent in resorcin[n]arene synthesis". Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2469. https://www.beilstein-journals.org/bjoc/articles/20/211

Mirzaei, S.; Espinoza Castro, V. M.; Hernández Sánchez, R.* "Nonspherical anion sequestration by C-H hydrogen bonding". Chem. Sci. 2022, 13, 2026. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2022/SC/D1SC07041J

Mirzaei, S.;§ Castro, E.;§ Hernández Sánchez, R.* "Tubularenes". Chem. Sci. 2020, 11, 8089. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2020/sc/d0sc03384g#!divAbstract

Karl F. Hasselmann Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Department of Materials Science and Nanoengineering

• Multi-scale modeling (electronic and atomistic scales)
• Heterogeneous catalysis
• Energy and environmental applications

Sharma, M.K., Muhammad, A., He, Z., Younas, M., Sameti, M., Rezakazemi, M., Li, Q.* Understanding the Phenomena of negative vapor flux in nanophotonics-enhanced solar membrane distillation. Chemical Engineering Journal, 2024, 483:149005. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2024.149005

Zuo, K., Garcia-Segura, S., Cerrón-Calle, G.A., Chen, F.Y., Tian, X., Wang, X., Huang, X., Wang, H., Pedro, J.J. A., Lou, J., Elimelech, M., Li, Q.* Electrified Water Treatment: Fundamentals and Roles of Electrode Materials. Natural Reviews Materials, 2023, 8: 472-490. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-023-00564-y

Zuo, K., Zhang, X., Huang, X., Oliveira, E.F., Guo, H., Zhai, T., Wang, W., Alvarez, P.J.J., Elimelech, M., Ajayan, P.M., Lou. J., Li, Q.* Ultrahigh resistance of hexagonal boron nitride to mineral scale formation. Nature Communication. 2022, 13: 4523. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32193-4

Chen, J., Zuo, K., Li, Y., Huang, X., Hu, J., Yang, Y., Wang, W., Chen, L., Jain, A., Verduzco, R., Li, X., and Li, Q.* Eggshell Membrane Derived Nitrogen Rich Porous Carbon for Selective Electrosorption of Nitrate from Water. Water Research, 2022, 216: 118351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2022.118351

Professor, Materials Science and NanoEngineering and Rice Advanced Materials Institute

• Nanomaterials for energy, environmental and sustainability applications
• Development of in situ small-scale mechanical, electromechanical, chemo-mechanical and biomechanical testing methods
• Additive manufacturing of advanced material systems

Select Publications:

Y. Zhu, H. Shen, Q. Ai, Y. Feng, B. Shin, M. Gonzales, Y. Yan, Z. He, X. Huang, X. Zhang, Y. Han, P.M. Ajayan, Q. Li and J. Lou, Double Layer SiO2-Coated Water-Stable Halide Perovskite as a Promising AntimicrobialPhotosensitizer under Visible Light, Nano Lett., Vol. 24 (43), 13718-13726, 2024. DOI: https:// doi/10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c03793

K. Zuo, W. Wang, A. Deshmukh, S. Jia, H. Guo, R. Xin, M. Elimelech, P.M. Ajayan, J. Lou, Q. Li, Multifunctional Nanocoated Membranes for High-rate Electrothermal Desalination of Hypersaline Waters, Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 15, 1025-1032, 2020. #: co-first author DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-020-00777-0

J. Zhang, X. Tian, M. Liu, H. Guo, J. Zhou, Q. Fang, Z. Liu, Q. Wu, J. Lou, Cobalt-Modulated Molybdenum–Dinitrogen Interaction in MoS2 for Catalyzing Ammonia Synthesis, Journal of American Chemical Society, Vol. 141(49), 19269-19275, 2019. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b02501

Associate Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, NSF NEWT Center

• Multi-scale modeling (electronic and atomistic scales)
• Heterogeneous catalysis
• Energy and environmental applications

Select Publications:

Chen, Y.; Senftle, T. P.*, “Theoretical insight into the NO* Coverage-Dependent selectivity of Pd and Cu electrocatalysts for nitrate reduction.” Journal of Catalysis 2024, 438, 115706. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0021951724004196

Khalil, S.*; Alazmi, A.; Gao, G.; Martínez-Jiménez, C.; Saxena R.; Chen, Y.; Jiang, S-.Y.; Jianhua Li, J.; Alhashim S.; Senftle, T. P.; Martí A. A.; Verduzco, R., “Continuous synthesis and processing of covalent organic frameworks in a flow reactor.” ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces 2024, 16 (41), 55206-55217. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.4c09577

Long, M.; Chen, Y.; Senftle, T. P.; Elias, W.; Heck, K.; Zhou, C.*; Wong, M. S.; Rittmann, B. E. “The method of H2 transfer is vital for catalytic hydrodefluorination of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).” Environmental Science and Technology 2024, 58, 2, 1390-1398. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.3c07650

Wong, M. S.*, Lin, W.; Senftle, T. P. “Advancing environmental research through computational modeling.” ACS ES&T Engineering 2024, 4, 1, 1-3. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsestengg.3c00606

Professor and Associate Chair, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Professor, Rice Advanced Materials Institute

• Polymeric Membranes for Recovery and Decontamination
• Organic Nanoporous Materials
• Complex polymers for sustainability and energy applications

Select Publications:

Zhu, D.; Zhu, Y.; Chen, Y.; Yan, Q.; Wu, H.; Liu, C.-Y.; Wang, X.; Alemany, L. B.; Gao, G.; Senftle, T. P.; Peng, Y.; Wu, X.; Verduzco, R. Three-Dimensional Covalent Organic Frameworks with Pto and Mhq-z Topologies Based on Tri- and Tetratopic Linkers. Nat Commun 2023, 14 (1), 2865. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38538-x.

Lee, D.; Wang, H.; Jiang, S.-Y.; Verduzco, R. Versatile Light-Mediated Synthesis of Degradable Bottlebrush Polymers Using α-Lipoic Acid. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2024, 63 (48), e202409323. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202409323.

Nnorom, N. C.; Rogers, T.; Jain, A.; Alazmi, A.; Elias, W. C.; DuChanois, R. M.; Flores, K.; Gardea-Torresdey, J. L.; Cokar, M.; Elimelech, M.; Wong, M. S.; Verduzco, R. Sulfonated Polymer Coating Enhances Selective Removal of Calcium in Membrane Capacitive Deionization. Journal of Membrane Science 2022, 662, 120974. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2022.120974.

Associate Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Materials Science & NanoEngineering, and Chemistry
Dean Fellow for Sustainability, George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing

• Electrochemical separation
• Electrocatalysis
• Electrolyzer engineering

Select Publications:

Feng-Yang Chen, Ahmad Elgazzar, Stephanie Pecaut, Chang Qiu, Yuge Feng, Sushanth Ashokkumar, Zhou Yu, Chase Sellers, Shaoyun Hao, Peng Zhu & Haotian Wang*, “Electrochemical nitrate reduction to ammonia with cation shuttling in a solid electrolyte reactor“.Nature Catalysis, DOI: 10.1038/s41929-024-01200-w (2024).

Peng Zhu^, Zhen-Yu Wu^, Ahmad Elgazzar, Changxin Dong, Tae-Ung Wi, Feng-Yang Chen, Yang Xia, Yuge Feng, Mohsen Shakouri, Jung Yoon (Timothy) Kim, Zhiwei Fang, T. Alan Hatton & Haotian Wang*, “Continuous carbon capture in an electrochemical solid-electrolyte reactor“.Nature, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06060-1 (2023).

F.Y. Chen^, Z.Y. Wu^, S. Gupta^, D. Rivera, S. Lambeets, S. Pecaut, J.Y. Kim, P. Zhu, Y.Z. Finfrock, D. Meira, G. King, G. Gao, W. Xu, D.A. Cullen, H. Zhou, Y. Han, D. Perea*, C. Muhich*, and H. Wang*, Efficient conversion of low-concentration nitrate sources into ammonia on Ru dispersed Cu nanowire electrocatalyst, Nature Nanotechnology, DOI: 10.1038/s41565-022-01121-4 (2022).