Xingyu "Xander" Wang Email & Phone Number

Boston, MA, US

Richland, WA, US

• Studied carboxylic acid reactivity on Anatase TiO2(101) single crystals and deposited nanoparticles by TPD in UHV
• Designed and built a heated quartz tube (up to 500℃) ketene source for introducing ketene in situ into UHV to prove ketonization reaction mechanism
• Assembled Knudson cell evaporator and deposited MoO3 clusters onto Anatase single crystal in UHV for kinetics study
• Observed key reaction intermediates of carboxylic acid on anatase by reflective adsorption FTIR
• Identified surface structure, surface species, and orientation of the Anatase TiO2(101) single crystals by LEED
• Examined film formation and the morphology and distribution of nanoparticles deposited on substrate by SEM

Charlottesville, Virginia, US

• Prepared peptides into stock solution and maintained proper storage in -80 freezer
• Studied the bacterial killing mechanism using Circular Dichroism by observing the conformation change of peptides upon adding liposomes or metal cations
• Studied the stability of antibacterial peptides by measuring oxidation rate in air using Ellman’s assay by UV-Vis spectroscopy in multimode plate reader
• Prepared liposomes via freeze-thawing and filter extrusion of chloroform-methanol extracted E. coli polar lipids
• Developed SOPs for junior lab technician

Charlottesville, VA, US

• Work on two sophisticated surface analysis ultra-high vacuum chambers with multiple detection techniques (RGA, AES, XPS, MS/TPD)
• Integrated data collection from older instruments with modern computer interfaces using LabVIEW for easier and more efficient data processing
• Improved sticking coefficient measurement experiments using AES to acquire more precise results and obtain an extra parameter while more than doubling the speed of data collection
• Studied the reaction kinetics and dynamics of methane and ethane activation on the Rh catalytic surface
• Applied dynamically-biased microcanonical unimolecular rate theory with tunneling to model non-equilibrium experiments to extract transition state properties and to predict the outcomes of other experiments (e.g..
• Showed that tunneling contributes significantly to the overall reactivity of methane thermal dissociative chemisorption on Rh evaporated films where the surface sites are dominated by defects

Hefei, Anhui, CN

• Modified gold electrodes with L-Cysteine
• Made the thin-film electrochemical cell
• Conducted FT-IR electrospectroscopy test on CO2 reduction on modified electrodes in ionic liquid
• Collected, analyzed, and plotted the data by Python and Origin

• Synthesized various compounds (Vilsmier-Haack reaction, Schiff base, Ullman reaction, thiophene terpyridine, Claisen-Schmidt reaction, MOFs) using multiple methods (Schlenk line, ice-bath, heating reflux, solvothermal.
• Separated and purified compounds by recrystallization, GC, HPLC, and Column Chromatography
• Adopted multiple methods (TGA, XRD, NMR, IR, UV-Vis) to test the structure and properties of compounds synthesized
• Tested the photo-physical properties of a Zn complex in various organic solvent, found the limit of detection of water in organic solvent by UV-Vis, and determined the linear relation of concentration and attenuation

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Physical Chemistry

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Chemistry