Dr. Zishu Cao's Research Projects
Dr. Zishu Cao's Research Projects
A brief summary of each
Our research stays at the interface of materials synthesis and separation science, with an emphasis on precisely controlling morphology and chemistry of nanostructured materials for membrane, adsorption and catalysis applications. The overall objective is nano-engineering of microporous materials (mainly zeolites) with structural elucidation, growth mechanism perception, and industrial application exploration relevant to renewable energy and resources, chemical production, water quality, and the environment.
Nanosheets Laminated Membranes for Separation
Membrane separation is an energy-efficient purification technology to cut carbon emission and save energy cost. We are developing nanosheet laminated membranes for highly selectively separations achieved by molecular sieving with the uniformly sized pores. The interested applications include recovering lithium from produced water, separating biofuels/biochemicals from fermentation broth.
Hierarchical and 2D Adsorbents
Microporous materials, such as zeolites and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), are naturally good sorbents with large surface area and pore volume. Highly selective separation could be achieved through molecular sieving effect. However, a lot of potential applications have been limited by the slow adsorption or desorption when the adsorbate size approaches zeolite pore size. We are developing cheap hierarchical and 2D adsorbents to address the transport limitation. The interested applications include wastewater treatment (such as BTEX and PFAS) and separation of biofuel or biochemicals.
Hierarchical and 2D Zeolite Catalysts
Zeolites are important industrial catalysts for chemical industry. Their unique shape-selectivity and tunable chemistry make them great catalysts for various reactions. We will manipulate the zeolite crystal morphologies for targeted transport properties through understand crystal growth mechanism. The interested applications include cracking of biomass and large-molecule hydrocarbons.
