News
2026-1-21: Our recent study published in ACS Catalysis! This study reports a series of well-defined molecular cobalt catalysts that reveal how pendant pyridine groups in the secondary coordination sphere enhance electrochemical CO2 reduction by facilitating proton transfer. Link
2025-11-15: Our lab had a strong presence in the Explore FAU event–Reaching out to perspective students with our chemistry demos.
2025-10-24: Following our participation in the Science Social the previous day, our group joined the Pumpkin Drop and Physics Carnival, the second event in our outreach week. With over 500 enthusiastic elementary students, it was the largest event yet! We had inspiring conversations and sparked curiosity in young minds. Special thanks to Sandra and Jonas for their great work!
2025-10-23: Our group participated in the Science Social event, presenting our CO₂ detection and “Fuel from Water” demos for the first time. Developed by Sandra, these demos showcase the chemistry behind traditional and renewable fuels. Meanwhile, Jonas represented our group by presenting his research on CO₂ reduction catalysts. It was a wonderful opportunity to share our science with the community. Great job to Sandra, Jonas and Rafael!
2025-3-28: Farewell party for Laxmi. We are very sorry to see you go but are incredibly grateful for your contributions. Wishing you all the best in your new role in industry!
2025-2-1: we are excited to welcome Sandra joining the group.
2024-11-30: Group outing at Red Reef Park to celebrate Thanksgiving and a wonderful year.
2024-11-15: Welcome two outstanding undergrads Jonas and Rafael to the group.
2024-11-2: First review published in Langmuir, talking about Recent Advances in Immobilizing and Benchmarking Molecular Catalysts for Artificial Photosynthesis. Link
2024-9-1: We are excited to welcome two graduate students, Muhammad and Popy, joining the group.
2024-7-31: Congratulations to Shaaz on being accepted by the Undergraduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement (URISE) Program. The URISE program is funded by NIH to train undergrads to do research and prepare them for PhD studies in Biomedical Sciences. We are excited that Shaaz will be supported by URISE and continue his research in the Xie group.
2024-5-20: We are excited to welcome Laxmi Devkota joining the group as a postdoc!
2024-5-2: Our recent Chemical Science article entitled ‘Photochemical charge accumulation in a heteroleptic copper(I)-anthraquinone molecular dyad via proton-coupled electron transfer’ has been selected and included in 2023 most popular catalysis articles collection.
2024-4-19: Another paper on Cu anthraquinone dyads has been published in JCP. We utilized ultrafast absorption spectroscopy to examine the electron-transfer dynamics of the dyads and uncovered the influence of bulky substituents attached to the phenanthroline moiety on the lifetime of the charge-separated state in these donor-acceptor dyads. Congratulations to the team! Link
2024-4-6: Dr. Lepore and Dr. Xie represented the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Explore FAU event. Together, we showcased the impact of chemistry on society through engaging and enjoyable experiments.
2024-3-15: Congratulations to Jordan on receiving Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF-LEARN). He will be supported to conduct research in the summer to develop bimetallic catalysts for CO2 reduction.
2024-3-2: Our years long study about using N k-edge XAS to distinguish site-specific electronic structure in large bridging ligand motifs has come to fruition. Excellent work! Link
2024-2-20: Welcome Juan to the group. Trust me, you have found a good way to apply what you have learnt. So, keep up the good work!
2023-12-2: The collaborative work on orientational analysis of nanocrystalline indium oxide thin films using PDF analysis has been published in IUCrJ.
2023-10-30: We welcome two NSF-LEARN program scholars, Shaaz and Jordan, to the group. Let’s do science!
2023-9-5: Dr. Xie officially started at FAU.
2023-9-1: Our work on photochemical charge accumulation using copper-anthraquinone molecular dyad has been accepted by Chemical Science.