Ting Xu

Title

Professor of Materials Science and Engineering

Department

Dept of Chemistry

Dept of Materials Science and Engineering

Faculty URL

http://chem.berkeley.edu/faculty/xu/

Research Group

http://www.mse.berkeley.edu/groups/xu/index.htm

tingxu@berkeley.edu

Phone

(510) 642-1632

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Research Expertise and Interest

polymer, nanocomposite, biomaterial, membrane, directed self-assembly, drug delivery, protein therapeutics, block copolymers, nanoparticles

Research Description

In the News

Using 3D STEM (scanning transmission electron microscope) tomography at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry, Ting Xu and her team captured the precise placement of nanoparticles in a self-assembling material. (Courtesy of ACS Nano)

February 4, 2022

With a Little Help, New Optical Material Assembles Itself

A research team led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has demonstrated tiny concentric nanocircles that self-assemble into an optical material with precision and efficiency.

Graduate student Ivan Jayapurna in a lab working with matter in a dish

August 31, 2021

VIDEO: How to make plastic truly biodegradable

UC Berkeley’s Ting Xu and her students have come up with one solution for the global problem of single-use plastics: embed enzymes in the plastic, so that once the bag or cup is no longer wanted, it will self-destruct with a little heat and water.

April 23, 2021

A new technique could make some plastic trash compostable at home

With moderate heat, enzyme-laced films of the plastic disintegrated in standard compost or plain tap water within days to weeks, Ting Xu and her colleagues

April 21, 2021

New process makes ‘biodegradable’ plastics truly compostable

University of California, Berkeley, scientists have now invented a way to make these compostable plastics break down more easily, with just heat and water, within a few weeks, solving a problem that has flummoxed the plastics industry and environmentalists.

A graphic shows a zoomed in molecular membrane with two channel proteins embedded inside

January 9, 2020

Lab-made proteins mimic cellular gatekeepers

In a new study published in the journal Nature, engineers at UC Berkeley and their collaborators describe the first lab-made versions of gatekeeper proteins that filter good from bad just as well as the real thing.

July 27, 2018

Five innovators join the ranks of the Bakar Fellows

Five UC Berkeley faculty innovators have been selected for the Bakar Fellows Program, which supports faculty working to apply scientific discoveries to real-world issues in the fields of engineering, computer science, chemistry and biological and physical sciences.

White fiber mat that is hanging from a cable

March 15, 2018

Researchers create a protein ‘mat’ that can soak up pollution

In a breakthrough that could lead to a new class of materials with functions found only in living systems, scientists have figured out a way to keep certain proteins active outside of the cell.

Upon solvent annealing, supramolecules made from gold nanoparticles and block copolymers will self-assemble into highly ordered thin films in one minute. - See more at: http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2014/06/09/nanoparticle-thin-films-that-self-assemble-in-one-minute/#sthash.715T7jT5.dpuf

June 9, 2014

Berkeley Lab Researchers Create Nanoparticle Thin Films that Self-assemble in One Minute

Berkeley Lab researchers have devised a technique whereby self-assembling nanoparticle arrays can form a highly ordered thin film over macroscopic distances in one minute.

February 1, 2012

Self-assembling nanorods

Berkeley Lab researchers have developed a relatively fast, easy and inexpensive technique for inducing nanorods to self-assemble into aligned and ordered macroscopic structures.

January 11, 2011

Polymer membranes with molecular-sized channels that assemble themselves

Many futurists envision a world in which polymer membranes with molecular-sized channels are used to capture carbon, produce solar-based fuels, or desalinate seawater, among many other functions. This will require methods by which such membranes can be readily fabricated in bulk quantities. A technique representing a significant first step down that road has now been successfully demonstrated. Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley researchers — led by materials scientist Ting Xu — have developed a solution-based method for inducing the self-assembly of flexible polymer membranes with highly aligned subnanometer channels.

July 1, 2010

Capturing carbon

Researchers at Berkeley and other universities to find ways to capture carbon dioxide, produced by burning coal and natural gas, from the waste stream of power plants so that it can be sequestered underground.

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