Photo of Professor Jianliang Xiao

Professor Jianliang Xiao PhD

Professor Chemistry

    Research

    Research Overview

    Research in the Xiao group is mainly concerned with homogeneous catalysis for sustainable chemical synthesis. The focal point of our research is on discovering and developing innovative catalytic methods, aiming at:
    1. Faster, more productive and greener organic synthesis.
    2. Building molecular complexity from simple, renewable molecules.
    3. Gaining molecular-level understanding of the catalytic machinery.
    We devise molecular metal catalysts and engineer the catalytic systems for target reactions, and we do this by a cross-disciplinary approach, harnessing chemistry from organometallics through synthetic organic chemistry to physical chemistry, and by close collaboration with academic colleagues and industrialists.

    Research Group Membership

    Research Grants

    Experimental and Theoretical Study of Cheap Metal-Catalysed Hydrogenation

    ROYAL SOCIETY

    March 2017 - February 2020

    Iron-Catalysed Oxygenation with O2

    ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL

    January 2018 - March 2022

    Liquid antennas

    ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL

    June 2017 - May 2021

    Design and Catalysis of Base-Metal Nanoparticles Encapsulated on Heteroatom-Doped Porous Carbon Derived from Biomass

    DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY AND INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY (BEIS) (UK)

    December 2018 - November 2022

    Single-Coordination-Site Catalysts for Asymmetric Reduction

    ASTRAZENECA LIMITED (UK)

    October 2019 - September 2024

    KTP with ChiroChem Ltd

    INNOVATE UK (UK), LIVERPOOL CHIROCHEM LIMITED (UK)

    February 2019 - January 2022

    Aqueous-Phase Depolymerisation of Lignin to Oil via Hydrogen Transfer

    ROYAL SOCIETY (CHARITABLE)

    December 2017 - August 2023

    Catalytic chemistry of higher olefins in supercritical carbon dioxide.

    ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL

    October 1998 - September 2001

    Knowledge Centre for Materials Chemistry

    NORTH WEST DEVELOPMENT AGENCY (UK)

    October 2008 - March 2012

    Manufacture of chiral amines using catalytic and flow processing methods

    ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL

    February 2013 - January 2015

    PIA IMPACTS GRANT

    ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL

    August 2010 - March 2011

    Enabling and Accelerating Metallocatalysis with Hydrogen Bonding.

    ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL

    December 2007 - June 2011

    Metal-Bronsted Acid Cooperative Catalysis for Asymmetric Direct Reductive Amination

    ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL

    September 2009 - June 2013

    KEL09/13 - Molecular design and chemoinformatics: A combined approach to novel molecules

    ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL

    December 2010 - March 2012

    Green synthesis: heterogeneous molecular asymmetric catalysis in water.

    ROYAL SOCIETY

    April 2005 - March 2006

    Preperation of the Nitrogen Heterocyclic Compounds by Assymetric Transfer Hydrogenation.

    PFIZER LTD (UK)

    December 2009 - November 2013

    Impact Acceleration Account - University of Liverpool 2012

    ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL

    October 2012 - March 2017

    Suppressing tumourigenicity and metastatic ability of prostate cancer cells by cutaneous fatty acid-binding protein (C-FABP) inhibitors.

    PROSTATE RESEARCH CAMPAIGN UK

    June 2009 - April 2012

    Ionic liquid-promoted regioselective catalysis by palladium.

    ROYAL SOCIETY (CHARITABLE)

    October 2004

    Asymmetric catalysis in supercritical carbon dioxide.

    ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL

    April 2000 - March 2003

    State of the art in situ HPNMR studies of functional chemical systems.

    ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL

    July 2005 - November 2008