Under the supervision of Professor Suzana Nunes in Nanostructured Polymeric Membranes (NPM) lab, I am currently working on my PhD dissertation, "Nanostructured Polysulfone-based Copolymer Membranes". The research goal is to synthesize various linear triblock or graft copolymers containing polysulfone as the backbone, then use them to fabricate nanostructured (e.g. isoporous) membranes through a special technique, which has been developed by our group, called “Self-assembly and Non-solvent Induced Phase Separation (SNIPS)”. The primary application of our novel membranes is water treatment and desalination, while they also have tremendous potential in other fields where precise or controlled separation is required.

• Synthesis and Characterization of Polystyrene Coated Iron Oxide Nanoparticles and Asymmetric Assemblies by Phase Inversion
  Yihui Xie, Rachid Sougrat, Suzana P. Nunes
  Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 132, 41368, (2015), doi: 10.1002/app.41368
• Low Fouling Polysulfone Ultrafiltration Membrane via Click Chemistry
  Yihui Xie, Russell Tayouo, Suzana P. Nunes
  Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 41549, (2015), doi: 10.1002/app.41549

• M.Sc., Environmental Science and Engineering, KAUST, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, 2012
• B.Sc., Environmental Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, China, 2010

• MACRO 2014-Sponsored Financial Support, May 2014
• Provost Award of KAUST, Nov. 2010
• Academic Excellence Award of KAUST, Apr. 2010

• Biological & Environmental Sciences and Engineering Division (BESE)