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Applied Physical Sciences, Research Talk: Dr. Yang Yang, University of Central Florida
Tuesday, January 16 @ 9:30 am - 11:00 am
Dr. Yang Yang
Associate Professor, University of Central Florida
Tuesday, January 16, 2024, 9:30am-11:00am
Dey Hall, the Toy Lounge, 4th floor, Room 409
Interface-Engineered Materials for Energy and Sustainability
Abstract:
The surface and interface of the functional materials play a dominant role in determining the performance of electrochemical systems for energy and sustainability. At the beginning of the talk, I will share my views on the application of interface engineering for the rational design of new materials for energy conversion and storage. I will also briefly cover the major research projects that are currently underway, including solar fuel conversion, green hydrogen production, harvesting energy and fuel from seawater, reduction of greenhouse gases, design and programable nanomanufacturing of porous and thin-film materials, flexible electronics, batteries, and catalysis. In the main part of the talk, I will present our most recent representative works on the surface and interface engineering of functional materials for aqueous batteries and fuel cells. Particularly, in the first work, I will discuss the significance of designing new materials with hierarchically rough surfaces across different length scales, and how concave surfaces facilitate the heterogeneous nucleation in multivalent metal-ion batteries. In this work, I will also discuss how digital twin technology and data science can be integrated with battery studies to advance research. In the second work, I will introduce how to design a preferred metal/carbon interface for bio-fuel conversion in direct ethanol fuel cells.
Bio:
Dr. Yang has been a principal investigator at the University of Central Florida (UCF) since 2015 and now is an associate professor of materials science and engineering. He received comprehensive training in materials science and obtained his Ph.D. in 2010. From 2010 to 2012 he was supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship and worked at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. From 2012 to 2015 he was supported by the Peter M. & Ruth L. Nicholas Fellowship and worked at the Richard E. Smalley Institute, Rice University. His current research interests cover surface and interface engineering of energy materials, clean energy generation and storage, and programmable nanomanufacturing