Our experiment will be launched to the International Space Station

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.

Graduate students awarded fellowship and travel grants

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.

Using light to depart bubbles and droplet

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. 

New paper on COVID-19 published

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.

NSF/ISS briefing Science in Space

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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Book chapter in Women in Nanotechnology published

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.

Dr Lei Zhao joined Tfel!

10/2019

We are excited to welcome Dr. Lei Zhao to join our lab! Dr. Zhao obtained his PhD in the Mechanical Engineering department at Virginia Tech in 2019, and his Bachelor's Degree in Power, Energy Systems and Automation from Xi'an Jiaotong University in 2014. 

Temperature hotspot effect in batteries published

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.

Review on fast-charging of batteries published

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. 

Yangying joined UCSB! 

07/2019

Yangying will start as an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department of UCSB in 2019 Fall! She will develop an interdisciplinary research program that intersects the fields of thermo-fluid engineering and materials science for more efficient thermal management and sustainable energy solutions. Interested students and postdocs are welcome to contact her at yangying@ucsb.edu