Overview
Our research interests range across various areas of Sustainable Manufacturing, including sustainable electrified ultrahigh-temperature (up to 3000 K) synthesis and manufacturing of functional nano/bulk materials, ultrahigh-temperature additive manufacturing, as well as wood nanotechnology. Our goal is to design and synthesize novel functional materials for applications in energy, catalysis, and sustainability, and to achieve a fundamental understanding of the high-temperature process using in-situ and in-operando characterizations.
Electrified Nanomanufacturing
Traditionally, industrial process heating by burning fossil fuels has been used to create the thermal energy needed to manufacture a wide variety of products. However, this energy-intensive process produces severe CO2 emissions that contribute to global warming. Recent development in the usage of renewable electricity to produce chemical feedstocks provides an unprecedented opportunity to decarbonize the emissions in chemical manufacturing. We will employ electrified high-temperature (3000 K) non-equilibrium nanomanufacturing to tackle the challenges in the manufacturing of functional nanomaterials, particularly focusing on morphological expansion (0D–2D), scalability, reliability, controllability, efficiency, yield, and cost for a wide range of applications for energy, catalysis, sustainability, and materials under extreme conditions.
Electrified Metal Additive Manufacturing
Metal additive manufacturing is an emerging process with great potential to fabricate geometrically complex structural metallic products with strong properties and performance. To achieve a high heating temperature for rapid multi-elemental melting/mixing during printing, focused high-energy sources (e.g., lasers, electron beam, electric arc) are commonly used to melt metal powders into dense products. We will explore the direct melt printing of metallic structural materials based on electrified heating. Successful completion of this project will enable new technologies for fabricating solid metal parts, improve our understanding of the mechanics of liquid metal wetting on substrates, improve feature resolution, and advance integration with traditionally fabricated rigid electronic systems.
Recycling/Upgrading/Extraction of Critical Materials
The high energy density and performance of Li-ion batteries have paved a mass transition to cleaner transportation. While the demand for Li is high, the supply chain itself is limited (U.S. produces less than 2% of the world’s supply of lithium). Recycling end-of-life Li-ion batteries for second use applications is an effective strategy to secure the supply chain of battery materials. In our lab, we are interested in electrified high-temperature processing for the recycling and upgrading of battery materials, and extraction of rare-earth elements from e-waste, etc.
