Dr Xiangbing Zeng
PhD MSc BSc
School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering
Senior Lecturer in Polymers and Liquid Crystals


+44 114 222 5948
Full contact details
School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering
Sir Robert Hadfield Building
Mappin Street
葫芦影业
S1 3JD
- Profile
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Xiangbing Zeng was appointed as Lecturer in Polymers and Liquid Crystals in 2003. Formerly a research in the Polymer, Liquid Crystal and Supramolecular Structures Group, he obtained his PhD in 2001.
- Research interests
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Dr Zengs' research areas can be divided into two broad directions: one on polymer physics, in particular the polymer crystallisation process; the other on self-assembly, which covers systems such as supra-molecules, liquid crystals, more recently LC covered nanoparticles.
On the polymer side, he is involved in an eight-institution international collaboration supported under NSF-EPSRC Pire scheme, for developing new materials from natural sources for applications in the sustainable energy industry. On the self-assembly side, a research project on “Liquid quasicrystals and their approximants”, supported by Leverhulme Trust, started in 2013.
Another important aspect of his research on self–organized systems is to develop new nanomaterials for tailored optical and electrical properties. For example, metamaterials by self-assembled gold nanoparticles have been fabricated, by covering them with liquid crystal-forming molecules.
Dr Zeng has ample experience with scattering methods (X-ray and neutron) for characterisation of nanoscale structures, which often involve the use of large scale facilities such as synchrotron radiation sources (e.g. Diamond, ESRF) and neutron sources (ISIS, ILL). Other microscopic (optical, SEM, TEM, AFM) and spectroscopic (FTIR, UV-Vis, Raman etc) methods are employed whenever necessary.
Research impact:
The discovery of the first quasicrystalline structure at nanoscale, which has opened a new field of research published recently in several articles in Science and Nature. The original paper (Nature, 2004, doi:) has been cited over 200 times so far.
- Publications
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Journal articles
Chapters
Conference proceedings papers
Preprints