Albert Xiao

Graduate reading for DPhil Materials
Materials
St. Catherine's College
University of Oxford

Short Biography

I’m originally from Berkeley, California, back in the good ol’ U S of A, a city that some have called the most pimpin’ place on the planet. Not many… But some… So far just me. Although my unending Bay Area pride might suggest that I never wanted to leave, 18 year old me knew that I was destined for more. So I packed my bags and left my gangsta’s paradise in search of knowledge. After descending to the darkest depths of the East Coast, I found myself at the University of Pennsylvania, where I became a member of the inaugural class of the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research (basically the SEAL Team 6 of undergraduate energy research). The classes at Penn were so nice, I did my bachelor’s twice (at the same time), graduating with degrees in Materials Science Engineering and Chemistry. As an undergraduate, I earned my black belt in colloidal nanoparticle synthesis under Professor Chris B. Murray and also spent a summer training with Jeffrey J. Urban at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Outside of research, I enjoy swimming, cooking, snowboarding, sunsets and long walks on the beach.

Research Summary

My research focuses primarily on the controlled synthesis and arrangement of nanoscale building blocks (inorganic nanoparticles, carbon nanomaterials) for the scalable and rational design of lithium ion battery electrodes. I’m currently working on two major research projects: the colloidal synthesis of transition metal fluoride nanoparticles with precise size and shape control and the fabrication of freestanding carbon nanotube films using electrophoretic deposition.