News
Small victories, big discoveries, and everything in between.
• 01/2026, Prof. Xu won U.S. Department of Energy Early CAREER Research Grant, $875,000, 2025-2030
• 01/2026, Prof. Xu published a study in Nature Materials examining how thin a surface coating needs to be to help improve solid-state batteries. Press coverage is available here.
• 01/2026, We are pleased to welcome Qiwen Chen to the group as a PhD student starting in Spring 2026. Qiwen received her Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and her research will focus on ion transport at interfaces in electroceramics.
• 01/2026, Congratulations to Undergraduate Researcher Lia Ryan and Matthew Sample on receiving competitive ASU FURI Fellowships, which include a $1,500 stipend and $400 in research supplies. Their projects focus on the synthesis of porous solid electrolytes and the development of an ultra-fast sintering system, respectively.
• 12/2025, Prof. Xu organized and chaired a symposium with Dr. Yi Lin (NASA), Prof. Kelsey Hatzell (Princeton), and Prof. Julia Yang (Georgia Tech) on “New Chemistries, Multiscale Modeling and Advanced Manufacturing for Solid-State Batteries”, MRS Fall 2025, November 30-December 5, Boston, MA.
• 10/2025, Prof. Xu chaired and delivered an invited talk at the ACerS Robert B. Sosman Award Symposium during MS&T 2025 in Columbus, Ohio.
• 08/2025, Prof. Xu chaired a session of “Low Dimensional Battery Chemistries: Nanostructures, Coatings, and Thin Films” along with Dr. Yukio Cho (Stanford University) and Prof. Hui Wang (University of Louisville) at ACS Fall 2025, Washington, DC
• 02/2025, Prof. Xu was invited to speak in the sessions of S2-Next generation electrodes and electrolytes and S11-Emergent phenomena in complex oxide thin films, Electronic Materials and Applications (EMA) 2025, Denver CO
• 12/2024, Congrats Brendan Sourwine and Keegan Erdmann from Barrett, The Honors College for winning the prestigious FURI Scholarship for their proposed work on solid-state batteries!
• 12/2024, Prof. Xu was invited to speak in the session of CH04: Coupled Mechanism and Mechanical Characterization at MRS Fall 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts
• 12/2024, Prof. Xu contributed a talk in the session of EN08: Solid State Battery at MRS Fall 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts
• 08/2024, We are pleased to welcome Xukun Ma and Cauê de Souza Coutinho Nogueira as they begin their PhD journey in the Xu Group!
• 08/2024, Xu was invited to deliver a lecture on defects in electroceramics at a seminar hosted by the Department of Chemistry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
• 06/2024, Congrats! Xu was selected a Phase I Finalist in the Bezos Earth Fund Greenhouse Gas Removal Ideation Prize in collobration with Prof. Lin and Prof. Wei.
• 06/2024, Xu was invited back to his alma mater, Northwestern University, by Professor Sossina Haile to provide a talk on navigating a career in clean energy.
• 05/2024, Xu was invited to serve as a panelist for the early-career faculty panel in the 1st RCSA Fellows Conference.
• 03/2024, Xu was invited to give a seminar talk in the Department of Physics & Engineering Physics at Tulane University on transport mechanism in oxide electroceramics.
• 03/2024, Xu was invited to give a talk at the ACS Spring 2024 at the Symposium: “Energy Storage Systems: In-Situ Characterization Studies,” Sunday, March 17, 2024 from 2:00 PM – 2:30 PM, New Orleans, LA
• 02/2024, Congrats! Xu won Scialog Collaborative Award on Negative Emissions Science.
• 02/2024, Xu was selected as 2023 Top Reviewer by Materials Today Energy.
• 11/2023, Xu was selected as Scialog Fellow: Negative Emissions Science.
• 09/2023, Xu was nominated as an Early Career Distinguished Presenter in MRS Fall 2023.
• 08/2023, Xu was scheduled to give a talk at the MRS Fall 2023 Symposium titled “EN02—Solid-State Batteries—Materials, Processes, Characterizations, and Scale-up,” on November 28, 2023 in Boston, MA
• 06/2023, set to launch in January 2024, Xu Lab will be dedicated to pioneering next-generation clean energy technology.