Research
Research in the Xiao group is mainly concerned with homogeneous catalysis for sustainable chemical synthesis. The focal point of our research is on discovering and developing innovative catalytic methods, aiming at:
1. Faster, more productive and greener organic synthesis.
2. Building molecular complexity from simple, renewable molecules.
3. Gaining molecular-level understanding of the catalytic machinery.
We devise molecular metal catalysts and engineer the catalytic systems for target reactions, and we do this by a cross-disciplinary approach, harnessing chemistry from organometallics through synthetic organic chemistry to physical chemistry, and by close collaboration with academic colleagues and industrialists.
Research groups
Research grants
Experimental and Theoretical Study of Cheap Metal-Catalysed Hydrogenation
ROYAL SOCIETY
March 2017 - February 2020
Iron-Catalysed Oxygenation with O2
ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL
January 2018 - March 2022
Liquid antennas
ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL
June 2017 - May 2021
Design and Catalysis of Base-Metal Nanoparticles Encapsulated on Heteroatom-Doped Porous Carbon Derived from Biomass
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY AND INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY (BEIS) (UK)
December 2018 - November 2022
Single-Coordination-Site Catalysts for Asymmetric Reduction
ASTRAZENECA LIMITED (UK)
October 2019 - September 2024
KTP with ChiroChem Ltd
INNOVATE UK (UK), LIVERPOOL CHIROCHEM LIMITED (UK)
February 2019 - January 2022
Aqueous-Phase Depolymerisation of Lignin to Oil via Hydrogen Transfer
ROYAL SOCIETY (CHARITABLE)
December 2017 - August 2023
Catalytic chemistry of higher olefins in supercritical carbon dioxide.
ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL
October 1998 - September 2001
Knowledge Centre for Materials Chemistry
NORTH WEST DEVELOPMENT AGENCY (UK)
October 2008 - March 2012
Manufacture of chiral amines using catalytic and flow processing methods
ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL
February 2013 - January 2015
PIA IMPACTS GRANT
ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL
August 2010 - March 2011
Enabling and Accelerating Metallocatalysis with Hydrogen Bonding.
ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL
December 2007 - June 2011
Metal-Bronsted Acid Cooperative Catalysis for Asymmetric Direct Reductive Amination
ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL
September 2009 - June 2013
KEL09/13 - Molecular design and chemoinformatics: A combined approach to novel molecules
ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL
December 2010 - March 2012
Green synthesis: heterogeneous molecular asymmetric catalysis in water.
ROYAL SOCIETY
April 2005 - March 2006
Preperation of the Nitrogen Heterocyclic Compounds by Assymetric Transfer Hydrogenation.
PFIZER LTD (UK)
December 2009 - November 2013
Impact Acceleration Account - University of Liverpool 2012
ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL
October 2012 - March 2017
Suppressing tumourigenicity and metastatic ability of prostate cancer cells by cutaneous fatty acid-binding protein (C-FABP) inhibitors.
PROSTATE RESEARCH CAMPAIGN UK
June 2009 - April 2012
Ionic liquid-promoted regioselective catalysis by palladium.
ROYAL SOCIETY (CHARITABLE)
October 2004
Asymmetric catalysis in supercritical carbon dioxide.
ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL
April 2000 - March 2003
State of the art in situ HPNMR studies of functional chemical systems.
ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL
July 2005 - November 2008