Xuejun Pan

About

Xuejun Pan is a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and Douglas D. Sorenson Professor in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research focuses on pretreatment and fractionation of lignocellulosic biomass, enzymatic and chemical saccharification of lignocellulose to produce sugars, and the chemical and biological conversion of lignocellulose to liquid fuels and platform chemicals. He has a background with two Ph.D. degrees, one in Applied Bioscience from Hokkaido University, Japan, obtained in 1999, and another in Chemical Engineering from Tianjin University of Science and Technology, China, obtained in 1993. His work involves fundamental understanding of physical and chemical changes of plant cell wall components during biorefining, and he has contributed to the development of methods for producing oligosaccharides, liquid hydrocarbon fuels, and functionalized materials from cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin. Pan is actively involved in teaching courses related to engineering properties of food and biological materials and biorefining, and he has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles and patents in the field of biomass conversion and biorefining.

Research topics

• Materials science
• Organic chemistry
• Chemistry
• Composite material
• Chemical engineering
• Polymer chemistry
• Nanotechnology
• Nuclear chemistry
• Engineering
• Pulp and paper industry

Selected publications

• A strong, biodegradable and recyclable lignocellulosic bioplastic

  Nature Sustainability · 2021 · 711 citations

  DOI

• Sustainable high-strength macrofibres extracted from natural bamboo

  Nature Sustainability · 2021 · 344 citations

  DOI

• Depolymerization of plastics by means of electrified spatiotemporal heating

  Nature · 2023 · 287 citations

  DOI

• Selective lignin arylation for biomass fractionation and benign bisphenols

  Nature · 2024-05-29 · 255 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Cellulose II Aerogel‐Based Triboelectric Nanogenerator

  Advanced Functional Materials · 2020 · 244 citations

  . Given its architectural merits, the cellulose II aerogel-based TENG presents an excellent mechanical response sensitivity and high electrical output performance. By blending with other natural polysaccharides, i.e., chitosan and alginic acid, electron-donating and electron-withdrawing groups are introduced into the composite cellulose II aerogels, which significantly improves the triboelectric performance of the TENG. The cellulose II aerogel-based TENG is demonstrated to light up light-emitti…

  DOI

Recent grants

• Fundamental Understanding of HDA Process: One-Step Conversion of Lignocellulosic Biomass to Furan-Based Precursors for Drop-in Liquid Fuel

  NSF · $337k · 2012–2016

• Fabrication and fundamental understanding of cellulase-mimetic bifunctional solid acids for hydrolyzing cellulose

  NSF · $325k · 2017–2022

• CAREER: Fundamental Understanding of Behaviors and Impacts of Cell Wall Lignin during Bioconversion of Lignocellulose to Fuel Ethanol

  NSF · $450k · 2009–2014

Frequent coauthors

• J. Y. Zhu

  39 shared

• Ning Li

  31 shared

• Chang Geun Yoo

  York University

  21 shared

• Qiang Yang

  China Academy of Engineering Physics

  20 shared

• Roland Gleisner

  Forest Products Laboratory

  17 shared

• John Ralph

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  17 shared

• Xiaohui Yang

  15 shared

• Wenshuai Zhu

  14 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Biological Systems Engineering

  University of Wisconsin-Madison

  2008

• M.S., Biological Systems Engineering

  University of Wisconsin-Madison

  2004

• B.S., Biological Systems Engineering

  University of Wisconsin-Madison

  2002

Awards & honors

• Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor
• Douglas D.. Sorenson Professor

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