Associate Professor
Yunfei Xi
Faculty of Science,
School of Chemistry & Physics
Biography
Qualifications:- Doctor of Philosophy, Queensland University of Technology, Australia, 2007
- Master of Engineering, Nankai University, China, 2002
- Bachelor (Honours), Tianjin University, China, 1998
Minerals Materials; Clays and Clay Minerals; Environmental Remediation (Wastewater and VOCs); Building Materials
Associate Professor Yunfei Xi (ARC Mid-career Industry Fellow) is a world leading scientist in Mineral Materials at the School of Chemistry and Physics, Faculty of Science, Queensland University of Technology (QUT). He is in Stanford University World’s Top 2% scientists list. Specifically, he is ranked No.3 in both “Clay Minerals” and “Mineral Materials” in the world according to Google Scholar.
With two decades of experience in structures, properties and utilisation of minerals, particularly clay minerals, his research has led to major breakthroughs on reactions on surfaces and interfaces of minerals with nano- and micro- particles, R&D of novel functional materials in environmental remediation and building materials. He has published/co-published more than 260 peer-reviewed journal articles and is a named inventor for two patents. These papers are highly cited by other researchers in the world, evidenced by more than 9,907 total citations (h-index at 50, Scopus) or via Google Scholar (12,271 citations, 6,578 citations since 2019, h-index at 55, i10-index at 158). His publications have been recognised with awards (six papers are ranked as Top 1% by Essential Science Indicators in the fields of Geosciences, Chemistry and Engineering, and two other papers are ranked as Top Cited Article and Most Cited Article by Elsevier).
For commercial industrial applications, his original and innovative research outcomes have provided tangible benefit to local industry partners, consumers, and the environment, which have made Australian manufacturing at a leading position in the world. Via the current research collaboration with Australian building materials manufacturer, over $10 million p.a. extra value has been created to the company through production efficiency and energy savings, improved products and premium new products. His expertise and knowledge have led to high performance raw mineral material designs. Techniques are adopted by 10 factories in Australia and implementation is underway for 10 factories in the United States of America.
A/Prof Yunfei has benefited significantly from his multidisciplinary educational background and experience (e.g., BE-polymer; ME-applied chemistry & engineering, with organic chemistry training; PhD-clay minerals and materials chemistry; and Postdoc–environmental remediation, IR and Raman spectroscopy). This experience has helped build exceptional understanding of closely related disciplines and to link closely with collaborators in different fields such as Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Geochemistry, Geology and Civil engineering. While his major research activity has been fundamentally focused on clay minerals and materials chemistry, he has directed this know-how towards application to global issues such as environmental remediation, effective building materials and energy efficiency.
His growing skills and expertise in minerals, particularly clay minerals and their physical or chemical attributes were critical for winning ten research grants with his colleagues since he joined QUT in 2011. In April 2023, he won an ARC Mid-career Industry Fellowship (25 awardees in Australia, the only one from QUT). This ARC Fellowship is his third highly competitively awarded fellowship over the past ten years. The other two are Advance Queensland Research Fellowship (mid-career) and QUT Vice Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellowship. He has demonstrated strong leadership of interdisciplinary research teams by successfully initiating and delivering high-quality research.
He is working as a participant in the Centre for Materials Science and a program leader in the Centre for Clean Energy Technologies & Practices at QUT. In addition, he is regularly invited to deliver research lectures on minerals and mineral materials at significant international conferences and leading overseas universities/research institutes. He is also working as committee members in international organisations such as the Clay Minerals Society (US) and has organised/co-organised a few key conferences in his research field.
A career legacy ambition for his is to train a cohort of alumni as future leading researchers in his discipline. Most of his students have received prestigious awards and seven former students have found on-going academic employment and three have been promoted to Professor/Associate Professors.
Some of his achievements have been recognised by:
- 2023: Australian Research Council (ARC) Mid-career Industry Fellowship, Australia
- 2022: Stanford University World’s Top 2% scientists
- 2017: Advance Queensland Research Fellowship (mid-career), QLD, Australia
- 2017: International Renowned Scholar, Chinese Academy of Science
- 2014-2019, Adjunct Professor, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- 2013: Vice Chancellor's Senior Research Fellowship, QUT, Australia
- 2023: Essential Science Indicators (ESI) Highly Cited Paper Top 1% in the field of Engineering (J. Build. Eng. 66, 105802, 2023); Top 1% in the field of Chemistry (Appl. Catal. B. 255, 2019); Top 1% in the field of Engineering (Chem. Eng. J. 346, pp.567-577, 2018); Top 1% in the field of Geosciences (Appl. Clay Sci. 159, pp.83-93, 2018); Top 1 % in the field of Engineering (Chem. Eng. J. 312, pp.336-350, 2017) and Top 1 % in the field of Geosciences (Appl. Clay Sci.123, pp.239-258, 2016)
- 2010-2011 Elsevier Top Cited Article Award (J. Colloid Interface Sci.341, pp.153-161, 2010)
- 2007-2008 Elsevier Most Cited Article Award (J Colloid Interf Sci, 305(1), 150-158, 2007)
- 2006: Representative of Australia to the 56th Meeting of Nobel Prize Winners (18th Lindau meeting in Chemistry), Lindau, Germany, 25-30th June 2006, nominated by Australian Academy of Science and approved by Lindau Council
- 2023-2027, ARC Mid-career Industry Fellowship (IM230100132), $1,060K, Novel minerals for advanced mix design in low embodied carbon concrete products, Fellow
- 2022-2023, QUT-Brickworks collaborative Project, $107K, Local industrial minerals for building materials, Lead CI
- 2021-2023, Linkage Spark, $52K, Multiscale characterisation of an expansive soil, Co CI
- 2021-2023, Queensland-Chinese Academy of Sciences (Q-CAS) Collaborative Science Fund (QCAS2020-00011), $443K, Novel mineral-carbon heterogeneous Fenton catalysts, Lead CI
- 2019-2020, Strategic Links Pilot Program (jointly funded by QUT and Brickworks Ltd.), $53K, Development of new generation boards with high performance characteristics using natural minerals as additives and reinforcements, Lead CI
- 2017-2020, Advance Queensland Research Fellowship (AQRF01716-17RD2), $724K, Value-added building materials using Queensland’s natural mineral resources, Fellow
- 2017-2020, Advance Queensland Innovation Partnerships (AQIP01515-16RD1), $1,719K, Biomanufacturing advanced animal feed supplements, Co CI
- 2017-2019, QUT-Guangdong Department of Science and Technology collaborative program (2017A050501048), Chinese Yuan 1000K (approx. $200K), Preparation and application of porous mineral-based VOCs adsorption – catalytic materials, QUT Lead CI
- 2015-2018, ARC Discovery (DP15010717), $306K, Characterisation of mechanical behaviour of TiO2 nanotube thin films, Co CI
- 2013-2016, QUT Vice Chancellor’s Research grant (open to global applicants), $404K, Remediation of contaminated water by modified clays, Fellow
Personal details
Positions
- Associate Professor/ARC Mid-Career Industry Fellow
Faculty of Science,
School of Chemistry & Physics
Keywords
Clay minerals, Mineral materials, Environmental remediation, Building materials, Utilisation of solid waste, IR and Raman
Research field
Inorganic chemistry, Environmental management, Materials engineering
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020
Qualifications
- PhD (Queensland University of Technology)
Professional memberships and associations
- 2023-, Organising Chair for the session “Clay Minerals for Building Products” for the 58th Annual Meeting of the Clay Minerals Society (USA, CMS) and the 5th Asian Clay Conference, to be jointly held in Hawaii in June 2024.
- 2021-, Committee Member of the Clay Minerals Society (USA) Program Development Committee.
- 2020-, Organising Committee Member for the 58th Annual Meeting of the Clay Minerals Society (USA, CMS) and the 5th Asian Clay Conference, to be jointly held in Hawaii in June 2024.
- 2020, co-Chair of “Clays and Functional Materials Session”, 4th Asian Clay Conference, Thailand, 8-9th June 2020.
- 2020-, Program Leader of “Energy efficiency and recovery”, the Centre for Clean Energy Technologies and Practices, QUT.
- 2020-, Chief Investigator of the Centre for Materials Science, QUT.
- 2019-, Committee member (representing EEBS) of the International and Engagement Advisory Group, QUT.
- 2019-, Editorial Board Member of “Minerals” (MDPI, Switzerland) and “International journal of Minerals, Metallurgy and Materials” (Springer).
- 2018, co-Convenor of ‘Mineral Materials Session’, XXII Meeting of the International Mineralogical Association, Melbourne, Australia, 13-17th August 2018.
- 2016, Chair of ‘Clays and Environments’ session, Organising Committee Member for the 3rd Asian Clay Conference, Guangzhou, China, 17-20th November 2016.
- 2014-, Committee Member/Representative of QLD, Australian Clay Minerals Society, Australia.
- External assessor for: Australian Research Council; the German-Israeli Water Technology Cooperation Program; the United States – Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund; and the Czech Science Foundation.
- Reviewer for more than 250 pre-publications from 65 peer-reviewed international journals (Source: Publon/Web of Science), 2018 Top Reviewers Award for Cross-Field, and nine Outstanding Reviewer Awards from Elsevier.
Teaching
I am a teaching team member for ERB205 (Earth Materials) and ERB301 (Chemical Earth) at the school of earth and atmospheric sciences. Other undergraduate practical and project teaching:
- Environmental Analytical Chemistry: CVB313_15se2 (20 July 2015 – 14 November 2015).
- Analytical Chemistry: CVB202_15se1(23 February 2015 – 23 June 2015).
- Analytical Chemistry: CVB202_14se1 (24 February 2014 – 24 June 2014).
- Nanotechnology and Nanoscience: PQB404_13se2 (22 July 2013 – 16 November 2013).
- Analytical Chemistry for Scientists and Technologists: PQB312_13se2 (22 July 2013 – 16 November 2013).
- Analytical Chemistry for Scientists and Technologists: PQB312_13se1 (25 February 2013 – 25 June 2013).
- Chemical research – PQB642, Thesis: Synthesis and characterisation of organoclays specifically designed for the removal of pollutants from water, Ms. Emily Grundgeider, 14/08/2013 – 03/11/2013;
- Chemical research - PQB642, Thesis: Synthesis and characterisation of nano zero-valent iron supported palygorskite specifically designed for the removal of simazine from water, Ms. Yachna Soni, 14/08/2014 – 03/11/2014;
- Chemical research - PQB642, Thesis: Removal of atrazine from aqueous solution using diatomite-supported nano zero-valent iron, Ms. Choyi Tang, 14/08/2014 – 03/11/2014;
- Industry project – SCB500, Report: Synthesis and characterisation of nano zero-valent iron supported Palygorskite applied with an advanced Fenton process specifically designed for the decolourisation of Orange II from water, Ms. Yachna Soni, 17/03/2015 - 12/06/2015;
- Mr Nathan Makelainen, Mr Edward Nevin, Mr Jack Cossart and Mr Daniel Rogers ‘Capstone’– Chemical research - CVB304, 2015.
Publications
- Zhu, Y., Zhu, R., Yan, L., Fu, H., Xi, Y., Zhao, H., Zhu, G., Zhu, J. & He, H. (2018). Visible-light Ag/AgBr/ferrihydrite catalyst with enhanced heterogeneous photo-Fenton reactivity via electron transfer from Ag/AgBr to ferrihydrite. Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 239, 280–289. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/121156
- Ezzatahmadi, N., Ayoko, G., Millar, G., Speight, R., Yan, C., Li, J., Li, S., Zhu, J. & Xi, Y. (2017). Clay-supported nanoscale zero-valent iron composite materials for the remediation of contaminated aqueous solutions: A review. Chemical Engineering Journal, 312, 336–350. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/101987
- Zhu, Y., Zhu, R., Xi, Y., Xu, T., Yan, L., Zhu, J., Zhu, G. & He, H. (2018). Heterogeneous photo-Fenton degradation of bisphenol A over Ag/AgCl/ferrihydrite catalysts under visible light. Chemical Engineering Journal, 346, 567–577. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/223761
- Wang, G., Xi, Y., Lian, C., Sun, Z. & Zheng, S. (2019). Simultaneous detoxification of polar aflatoxin B1 and weak polar zearalenone from simulated gastrointestinal tract by zwitterionic montmorillonites. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 364, 227–237. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/122461
- Zhu, J., Wen, K., Wang, Y., Ma, L., Su, X., Zhu, R., Xi, Y. & He, H. (2018). Superior thermal stability of Keggin-Al30 pillared montmorillonite: A comparative study with Keggin-Al13 pillared montmorillonite. Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 265, 104–111. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/120312
- Zhu, R., Chen, Q., Zhou, Q., Xi, Y., Zhu, J. & He, H. (2016). Adsorbents based on montmorillonite for contaminant removal from water: A review. Applied Clay Science, 123, 239–258. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/98396
- Ma, L., Chen, Q., Zhu, J., Xi, Y., He, H., Zhu, R., Tao, Q. & Ayoko, G. (2016). Adsorption of phenol and Cu(II) onto cationic and zwitterionic surfactant modified montmorillonite in single and binary systems. Chemical Engineering Journal, 283, 880–888. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/98359
- Ma, L., Rathnayake, R., He, H., Zhu, R., Zhu, J., Ayoko, G., Li, J. & Xi, Y. (2016). In situ sequentially generation of acid and ferrous ions for environmental remediation. Chemical Engineering Journal, 302, 223–232. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/98398
- Zhu, Y., Zhu, R., Zhu, G., Wang, M., Chen, Y., Zhu, J., Xi, Y. & He, H. (2018). Plasmonic Ag coated Zn/Ti-LDH with excellent photocatalytic activity. Applied Surface Science, 433, 458–467. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/223164
- Chen, H., Yang, H. & Xi, Y. (2019). Highly ordered and hexagonal mesoporous silica materials with large specific surface from natural rectorite mineral. Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 279, 53–60. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/123780
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Yunfei, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Selected research projects
- Title
- Characterization of Mechanical Behaviour of TiO2 Nanotube Thin Films
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- DP150101717
- Start year
- 2015
- Keywords
- nanotube thin film; mechanical characterization; nanoindentation
Projects listed above are funded by Australian Competitive Grants. Projects funded from other sources are not listed due to confidentiality agreements.