10/2024

Our group and collaborators Prof. Javier Read de Alaniz and Prof. Paolo Luzzatto-Fegiz demonstrate the use of photo-sensitive surfactants with fast switching kinetics to manipulate droplet motion on liquid-infused surfaces and inside solid-wall microchannels. This work is published at ACS Central Science. Congratulations to graduate student Xichen Liang!

10/2023

We introduce Transient Grating Spectroscopy which probes surface acoustic waves to study lithium deposition process in batteries. We show that changes in the acoustic wave taken at different points during the lithium electrodeposition process strongly correlated with the stages of lithium growth. This work is published at Applied Physics Letters, highlighted by the editor and Scilight.

11/2022

We developed an experimental setup using light-sensitive surfactants to tune bubbles and droplets, which will be sent to the International Space Station on Nov. 6th to perform microgravity experiment.  This is a collaborative research with Prof. Javier Read de Alaniz and Prof. Paolo Luzzatto-Fegiz, both at UCSB. This work is sponsored by the ISS National lab and the NSF. Our industry partner is Space Tango.

06/2022

Congratulations to Patrick Babb for being awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP), and congratulations to Xichen and Vijay for being awarded the travel grant for their presentation at the microFIP 2022 conference.

01/2022

Lei and Serena's paper that demonstrated the use of light-sensitive surfactants to manipulate bubble and droplet departure is published in ACS Central Science. 

09/2020

Lei's paper that calculated propagation of respiratory droplets and aerosol particles in different environmental temperature and humidity conditions is published in Nano Letters. The work is featured in UCSB news.

We open sourced the code for the paper on GitHub.

10/2020

Yangying and colleague Prof. Paolo Luzzatto-Fegiz participated as panelists in an NSF/ISS news briefing - Science in Space, alongside researchers and NASA astronauts.

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01/2020

Yangying, Prof. Evelyn Wang and colleagues contributed a chapter titled "Manipulating water and heat with nanoengineered surfaces" to a new book "Women in Nanotechnology" edited by Prof. Pamela M. Norris and Prof. Lisa Friedersdorf. We introduced the exciting advancements in heat transfer and water desalination realized by nanoengineering, and also shared our personal stories in pursuing a career in STEM.

07/2019

Understanding how temperature hotspots affect battery operations is crucial for battery safety. We used a micro-Raman spectroscopy as a thermometer to probe local temperatures of lithium-metal batteries and observed a temperature-triggered failure mechanism. This work is published in Nature Communications and highlighted in SLAC news.

07/2019

Extreme fast charging of batteries is a critical enabler for mass market adoption of electric vehicles. In a new review published on Nature Energy, we discuss materials and thermal requirements and opportunities for fast charging of batteries.