2020 News Archive

Hongxi Luo contributed to a collaborative research effort with the Choi and Paolucci research groups in the Department of Chemical Engineering at UVA. The work titled The Impact of Cation and Anion Pairing in Ionic Salts on Surface Defect Passivation in Cesium Lead Bromide Nanocrystals was accepted for publication in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C.

Congratulations to Dr. Kevin Chang for successfully defending his Ph.D. dissertation titled Structure-Property Relationships in Polymer Membranes for Desalination Applications! Dr. Chang will begin a full-time position on the Downstream Process Development Team at GlaxoSmithKline in early 2021.

The Geise Research Group is excited to welcome its newest member, Sean Bannon! Sean is a Chemical Engineering B.S. graduate from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Welcome to the group, Sean!

Graduate student, Saringi Agata, was selected to present her research during the DuPont GOLD Symposium as part of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE) conference! The title of her presentation was Molecular Layer-by-Layer (mLbL) Synthesis of Polyamide Thin Film Composite (PA-TFC) Membranes for Desalination Membrane Development.

Prof. Geise presented research results from the Geise Research Group via 3 invited research seminars over the summer and into this fall. The seminars were given to the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) Polymers Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Virginia, and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Virginia.

Graduate research assistants Hongxi Luo and Saringi Agata recently published a review article titled Connecting the Ion Separation Factor to the Sorption and Diffusion Selectivity of Ion Exchange Membranes. The invited contribution, published in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, is part of a collection of papers honoring the 2020 Class of Influential Researchers.

The Virginia Space Grant Consortium recently awarded the Geise Research Group a grant to support a research project to investigate a new approach to designing polymer electrolyte membranes to make lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries viable for space applications. The project will focus on engineering advanced membranes to be used as battery separators in extreme environments. Batteries made using advanced technologies are expected to be a critical part of addressing space-based energy storage needs associated with NASA’s Artemis Mission for moon and Mars exploration.

Graduate research assistant Patrick McCormack (along with co-advisor Prof. Gary Koenig and graduate student collaborator Hongxi Luo) published Conductivity, permeability, and stability properties of chemically tailored poly(phenylene oxide) membranes for Li+ conductive non-aqueous redox flow battery separators in the Journal of Power Sources. The invited contribution is part of a special issue in honor of the 2019 Nobel Prize award in the Battery field.

Graduate student Hongxi Luo was selected to receive the North American Membrane Society (NAMS) Student Fellowship Award. The award recognizes outstanding graduate students who have made contributions ot the membrane science and technology field. The award will support Hongxi’s participation in the NAMS 2020 meeting, and he will present on Engineering selective desalination membranes by controlling functional group configuration during the awards session at the meeting.