Prof. Xu Jian Wei

Jianwei Xu is a Principal Scientist at A*Star’s Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), and an adjunct Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Xu received his PhD from NUS. At IMRE, he leads a research group that focuses on electrochromic conjugated polymers, thermoelectric materials, polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS)-based functional hybrid materials and aggregation-induced emission-based materials.

Recent Highlight

Our current research focuses on the development of nanostructured polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) materials. We have recently synthesized a series of fluorinated POSS-type materials via a thiol-ene click reaction in high yields or by a hydrosilylation reaction catalyzed with a platinum complex. When the fluorinated POSS materials blend in a very small amount with hydrophilic polymers, they are able to tremendously alter the surface properties of polymers from hydrophilic to highly hydrophobic. The AFM study exhibits that the enhanced hydrophobic properties of polymers are due to migration and subsequent segregation of fluorinated POSS materials to the surface instead of their surface roughness. The POSS with alkyl thioether substituents have also been prepared using a similar synthetic methodology and the resulting POSS materials exhibit excellent thermal stability in air, making it useful as high temperature materials, e. g., lubricants, for aerospace application.