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Dr. Mohannad Mayyas's research expertise spans the areas of nanotechnology, interfacial science, electrochemistry, and chemical metallurgy. In 2011, he was awarded a master's scholarship under the nuclear cooperation agreement between the Kingdom of Jordan and the People's Republic of China to pursue research on uranium extraction from Jordanian phosphate rock. During this time, Dr. Mayyas investigated novel nano-sized dendrimers with metal chelating abilities to isolate uranium from the phosphoric acid solution that results from the acidulation of phosphate rock using sulfuric acid.

After completing his master studies, Dr. Mayyas worked at the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission and its commercial arm, the Jordan Uranium Mining Company (JUMCO), to develop a process for extracting uranium from the Upper Cretaceous uranium-bearing rocks (carbonates and phosphorites) in central Jordan.

In 2015, Dr. Mayyas was awarded a scholarship to pursue a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales. In his PhD, he worked in the fields of carbon materials and green steel technologies. 

Traditional pyrometallurgical processes for refining post-transition metals are inefficient and result in significant environmental pollution. A transformative alternative lies in low-temperature metal liquefaction and refining approach that leverages the unique properties of liquid alloys, low-melting-point post-transition metal alloys that remain liquid near room temperature. When immersed in electrolytic solutions, liquid alloys form a liquid–liquid interface. Electrifying this interface modulates the interfacial tension via electrocapillary effect. Electrocapillary herein refers to the modification of the interfacial tension of liquid alloys immersed in electrolytic solutions by introducing electric charge to their interfaces. The interfacial tension modulation via electrocapillary leads to changes in the atomic composition and dynamics at outermost surface atomic layer (1-2 atoms thick) at the liquid alloy interface.

In his attempts to utilize electrocapillary for studying the surface enrichment and crystallization phenomena in liquid alloys, Dr Mayyas encountered a unique type of phase separation where solute atoms get expelled rapidly from the alloy surface into the electrolyte phase as pure nano-sized particles. This phase separation phenomenon was named the ‘metal expulsion’. My research focuses on developing empirical and theoretical models, along with ab initio molecular dynamics, to uncover the fundamental mechanisms governing this process.
His research aims to explore the underlying mechanisms that lead to the interfacial segregation and expulsion of solute metals from the room-temperature liquid alloys. This knowledge will enable the use of such highly fusible liquid alloys as media to liquefy and refine 'hard-to-melt' alloys waste and impure metals that are difficult to process by conventional metallurgical methods. The commercial application of this process is expected to utilize proven renewable energy sources at low cost and carbon footprint. This approach offers several advantages that make it highly attractive for industrial applications as it provides a low-energy, environmentally friendly alternative to traditional metal refining processes, such as the Betterton–Kroll process, Cupellation Technique, Parkes and Pattinson's processes, and the Betts electrolytic method which rely on toxic and costly reagents. These conventional technologies typically require high energy inputs, specialized equipment, and involve environmentally hazardous chemicals or byproducts, which limits their use to specialized niche applications.

In addition, innovate high-yield methods to produce high-value niche metal-based products can be envisaged from the metal expulsion phenomenon. Nanostructured materials typically beget superior physical and chemical characteristics for advanced applications. In the metal expulsion, solute metal atoms are expelled from liquid alloys as solid entities with unique nanostructures, or otherwise, transformed into metal-based compounds by introducing chemical species, either organic or inorganic, to the interface (Figure 2). The structure and morphology of produced materials can be controlled by adjusting the electrolyte chemistry and pH as well as the type and magnitude of applied voltage signal. This project aims to extend this concept to devise high-yield methods to produce metals and metal compounds for applications in a broad range of research areas. Another great merit of using liquid alloys in this regard is that metals, when dissolved in gallium, become highly activated at the interface. This allows the use of low voltages while boosting reaction rates without compromising the product quality. Altogether, liquid alloys have great merits in this regard; they function as soft electrodes with atomically smooth and conductive interfaces, activation media, and nano-metal precursors

References

  • F. Gholampoursaadi, X. Zhi, S. Nour, J. Z. Liu, G. K. Li, M. Mayyas*, 2024, ‘Surface Enrichment in Gallium-Indium Liquid Alloys: Applied to CO2 Conversion’. Advanced Functional Materials, 2316435, https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202316435
  • Mayyas M*; Khoshmanesh K; Kumar P; Mousavi M; Yang J; Wang Y; Baharfar M; Xie W; Allioux FM; Daiyan R; Kalantar-Zadeh K*, 2021, 'Gallium-Based Liquid Metal Reaction Media for Interfacial Precipitation of Bismuth Nanomaterials with Controlled Phases and Morphologies', Advanced Functional Materials, pp. 2108673 - 2108673, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202108673
  • Baharfar, M., Zheng, J., Abbasi, R., Lim, S., Kundi, V., Kumar, P. V, Rahim, Md. A., Zhang, C., Kalantar-Zadeh, K., & Mayyas M* (2022). Interface-Controlled Phase Separation of Liquid Metal-Based Eutectic Ternary Alloys. Chemistry of Materials, 34(23), 10761–10771. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.2c02981
  • Mayyas M*; Mousavi M; Abbasi R; Li H; Christoe MJ; Han J; Wang Y; Zhang C; Tang J; Yang J; Allioux FM; O'Mullane AP; Kalantar-Zadeh K*, 2020, 'Pulsing liquid alloys for nanomaterials synthesis', ACS Nano, vol. 14, pp. 14070 - 14079, http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.0c06724
  • Mayyas M; Li H; Kumar P; Yang J; Wang Y; Lawes DJ; Han J; Lee SH; Seong WK; Russo SP; Kaner RB; Ruoff RS; Kalantar-Zadeh K, 2020, 'Liquid-Metal-Templated Synthesis of 2D Graphitic Materials at Room Temperature', Advanced Materials, vol. 32, pp. 2001997 - 2001997, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adma.202001997

 

Current Research at KFUPM:

  • Metal expulsion theory and applications
  • Liquid metal applications in thermochemical processes
  • Metal catalysts for CO2 reduction
  • Green metallurgical processes (iron making and steel production)
  • Process development and design (industry oriented, mineral processing and extractive metallurgy)

Previous Graduate Students:

• Ms. Xichao Zhang (Current PhD student at UoM): Currently investigating the metal expulsion phenomenon in room-temperature liquid alloys for recycling e-waste alloys.

• Ms. Fahimeh Gholampoursaadi (Current PhD student at UoM): Fahimeh is studying the quasi-crystalline atomic layers of liquid metals for CO2 electrocatalytic reduction into organic fuels.

(1) F. Gholampoursaadi, X. Zhi, S. Nour, J. Z. Liu, G. K. Li, M. Mayyas*, Surface Enrichment in Gallium-Indium Liquid Alloys: Applied to CO2 Conversion. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2024, 2316435.

• Dr. Maedehasadat Mousavi (Completed her PhD at UNSW): Dr. Mousavi’s research led to the discovery of a novel interfacial technique for nanoalloy deposition onto liquid metals. This technique has demonstrated significant advantages in energy storage and gas sensing. Dr. Mousavi demonstrated these advantages in her thesis and published the following articles under my supervision.

(2) Mousavi, M.; Mittal, U.; Ghasemian, M. B.; Baharfar, M.; Tang, J.; Yao, Y.; Merhebi, S.; Zhang, C.; Sharma, N.; Kalantar-Zadeh, K.; Mayyas, M.* Liquid Metal-Templated Tin-Doped Tellurium Films for Flexible Asymmetric Pseudocapacitors. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2022, 14 (45), 51519-51530.

(3) Mousavi, M.; Ghasemian, M. B.; Han, J.; Wang, Y.; Yang, J.; Tang, J.; Idrus-Saidi, S. A.; Guan, X.; Christoe, M. J.; Mayyas, M.* Bismuth Telluride Topological Insulator Synthesized Using Liquid Metal Alloys: Test of NO2 Selective Sensing. Appl. Mater. Today 2021, 22, 100954.

• Dr. Jiewei Zheng (Completed his PhD at UNSW). I supervised Dr. Zheng in the first year of his PhD program before I moved to UoM. Dr. Zheng's research looks into the chemical activity of liquid metal interfaces and their applications in MOF synthesis.

(4) Zheng, J.; Mousavi, M.; Baharfar, M.; Sharma, A.; Kumeria, T.; Han, J.; Kumar, P.; Kalantar-Zadeh, K.; Mayyas, M.* Liquid Metal-Based Electrosynthesis of Stratified Zinc–Organic Frameworks. J. Mater. Chem. C 2022, 10 (40), 14963-14970.

• Dr. Mahroo Baharfar (Completed her PhD at UNSW). I supervised Dr. Baharfar in the second and third years of her PhD program before I moved to UoM. Dr. Baharfar's research looks into the utilisation of liquid metal interfaces for advanced synthesis of functional materials, particularly for electrochemical biosensing applications. Dr. Baharfar published the following articles under my supervision:

(5) Baharfar, M.; Zheng, J.; Abbasi, R.; Lim, S.; Kundi, V.; Kumar, P. V.; Rahim, M. A.; Zhang, C.; Kalantar-Zadeh, K.; Mayyas, M.* Interface-controlled Phase Separation of Liquid Metal-based Eutectic Ternary Alloys. Chem. Mater. 2022. DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.2c02981.

(6) Baharfar, M.; Mayyas, M.*; Rahbar, M.; Allioux, F.-M.; Tang, J.; Wang, Y.; Cao, Z.; Centurion, F.; Jalili, R.; Liu, G.; Kalantar-Zadeh, K. Exploring Interfacial Graphene Oxide Reduction by Liquid Metals: Application in Selective Biosensing. ACS Nano 2021, 15 (12), 19661-19671.

• Mr Hongzhe Li (completed his honors program). Mr Li published the following article under my supervision:

(7) Li, H.; Abbasi, R.; Wang, Y.; Allioux, F. M.; Koshy, P.; Idrus-Saidi, S. A.; Rahim, M. A.; Yang, J.; Mousavi, M.; Tang, J.; Ghasemian, M. B.; Jalili, R.; Kalantar-Zadeh, K.; Mayyas, M.* Liquid Metal-supported Synthesis of Cupric Oxide. J. Mater. Chem. C 2020, 8 (5), 1656-1665.

• Dr. Yifang Wang (Completed her PhD at UNSW). I co-supervised Dr. Wang in the first and second years of her PhD program before I moved to UoM. Dr. Wang published the following articles under my supervision:

(8) Wang, Y.; Mayyas, M.*; Yang, J.; Tang, J.; Han, J.; Elbourne, A.; Kaner, R. B.; Kalantar-Zadeh, K. Self-Deposition of 2D Molybdenum Sulfides on Liquid Metals. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2021, 31 (3), 2005866.

(9) Wang, Y.; Mayyas, M.*; Yang, J.; Ghasemian, M. B.; Tang, J.; Mousavi, M.; Han, J.; Baharfar, M.; Mao, G.; Yao, Y.; Cortie, D. Liquid-Metal-Assisted Deposition and Patterning of Molybdenum Dioxide at Low Temperature. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2021, 13 (44), 53181-53193.

• Dr. Jialuo Han (completed his PhD). I co-supervised Dr. Han in the last year of his PhD program. Dr. Han published the following article under my supervision:

(10) Han, J.; Mayyas, M.*; Tang, J.; Mousavi, M; Cai, S.; Cao, Z.; Wang, Y.; Tang, J.; Jalili, R.; O'Mullane, A. P.; Kaner, R. B.; Khoshmanesh, K.; Kalantar-Zadeh, K. Liquid Metal Enabled Continuous Flow Reactor: A Proof-of-concept. Matter 2021, 4 (12), 4022-4041.

• Ms Jingxiao Lyu. Ms. Lyu completed her master’s studies and published the following article:

(11) Lyu, J.; Mayyas, M.*; Salim, O.; Zhu, H.; Chu, D.; Joshi, R. K. Electrochemical Performance of Hydrothermally Synthesized rGO Based Electrodes. Mater. Today Energy 2019, 13, 277-284.