Polymers has now touched almost every aspect of human life. Functional polymers have unique properties, depending on the type of molecular building blocks being utilized and how they are connected. They hold great potential for applications in revolutionary technologies. The research in functional polymers was developed in the 1960s and is an interdisciplinary field involving polymer chemistry, polymer physics, materials science, biology, energy, nanoscience, and environment. They have become an important cornerstone of the modern industry and advanced technology. The research in our group is highly multi-disciplinary with a special focus on functional polymer materials. Our goal is to achieve deep understanding of novel synthetic polymer materials from both chemistry and physics aspects and develop their innovative applications in various areas. We will collaborate with different research groups across the world using advanced characterization techniques and theoretical calculations/simulations. Current research topics primarily include:
1. Developing Conjugated Polymers for Solar-to-Chemical Energy Conversion: Water Splitting, CO2 Reduction, N2 Fixation
2. Integrating Polymer Materials with Biological Materials for Semi-Artificial Photosynthesis
3. Developing Functional Polymer Composites for Energy Dissipation

Hangxun Xu received his B.S. degree (summa cum laude) in Polymer Chemistry in 2006 from University of Science and Technology of China and his Ph.D. in Materials Chemistry in 2011 from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Advisor: Prof. Kenneth S. Suslick). Thereafter, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate with Prof. John A. Rogers at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Department of Materials Science Engineering & Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory). He came back to the University of Science and Technology of China in 2013. Until now, he has published more than 90 papers and ~30 of them are published in Adv. Mater., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Nat. Commun., Nano Lett. etc. His publications have received more than 10000 citations. His H-index is 52 (Google Scholar). In 2018, he received the Chinese Chemical Society Prize for Young Scientists.