Interfacial Transport
Theoretically understand and experimentally characterize liquid-gas interfacial transport phenomena
Simulation of evaporation into microchannels
Evaporation plays a critical role in energy transfer processes. Evaporation physics are often much simplified for designing of real systems, but the applicability of these simplifications to small-scale flows is unclear.
Bubble coalescence in boiling
Understand and control bubble coalescence for designing high-performance boilers and evaporators
Probing contamination in microscale porous evaporator
Investigate accumulation of impurities non-invasively with advanced metrology and spectroscopy
Thermal Management
Leverage phase change together with novel materials and advanced fabrication to create efficient thermal management solutions for buildings, food produce, and electronics
Smart material for controlled vapor sorption and water release
Hygroscopic metal organic framework (MOF)-based materials are promising for energy-efficient cooling and water harvesting.
Passive radiative cooling
Develop durable, weather-resistant passive radiative cooling panel, delivering silent, maintenance‑free cooling that slashes HVAC loads, lowers operating costs, and shrinks your carbon footprint.
Energy Conversion
Optimize interfacial heat and mass transfer to maximize the efficiency of converting energy from one form to another
Bubble-free water electrolysis
Design and optimize a bubble-free capillarity-driven flow cell for electrolysis. Investigate the effect of utilizing various electrodes and membranes with different geometries and materials
Transport-based modeling of nucleation on electrodes
Fundamental understanding of the nucleation process, which is critical to system optimization, remains limited as prior works generally focused on the thermodynamics and have not considered the coupling between surface geometries and different forms of transport in the electrolytes.