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Research

  • Electrochemistry
  • Electrokinetics
  • Fluid Mechanics
  • Applied Mathematics

  • Press

    • Overview

    My research aims to advance the frontiers of science, mathematics and engineering, motivated by societal needs in energy, sustainability, and human health. My group integrates chemical engineers with physicists, mathematicians, materials scientists and mechanical engineers. Our interdisciplinary research spans electrochemistry, transport phenomena, energy storage, water purification, nanotechnology, and medical physics, and strives to combine theory, experiment and computation to achieve deep understanding of important engineering problems.

    Electrochemistry

    Our research focuses on fundamental aspects of electrochemical interfaces, reaction kinetics, phase transformations and transport with applications in batteries, fuel cells, electrodeposition, corrosion, and electrocatalysis. We develop mathematical models, motivated and validated by experiments and molecular simulations. Recent topics include double-layer structure, coupled ion-electron transfer kinetics, control of metal dendrites, the molecular structure of ionic liquids, transport in bromine flow batteries, metal-insulator transition in lithionic memristors, and non-equilibrium thermodynamics of Li-ion batteries. Related to this research, I serve as director of D3BATT: Data-Driven Design of Rechargeable Batteries for Toyota Research Institute.

    PUBLICATIONS

    Electrokinetics

    Electrokinetics is another long-standing interest, since my early work on induced-charge electro-osmosis in microfludics and colloids. Over the past decade, our group has been developing a new approach to water desalination and purification called "shock electrodialysis", based on passing extreme currents through charged porous media to drive ionic separations. Recent topics in also include electrokinetic control of viscous fingering, electro-osmotic vortices in porous media, shock electrodeposition, capacitive deionization and electroneutrality breakdown in nanochannels.

    PUBLICATIONS

    Fluid Mechanics

    My work in fluid mechanics spans micro/nanofluidics, multiphase in porous media, granular flow, gas dynamics and aerosols. I am interested in deriving exact solutions and asymptotic approximations, and applying fundamental fluid dynamics to engineering problems. Recent topics include moisture sorption and cryotolerance of charged porous media, nanofluidic transport, coating flows, heat transfer, and airborne transmission of respiratory diseases.

    PUBLICATIONS

    Applied Mathematics

    Advanced mathematics permeates all of my work, including both continuum and statistical models. I love complex analysis, conformal mapping, partial differential equations, stability analysis, matched asymnptotic expansions, scaling and self-similarity and random walks. Recently, my group has also focused on data-driven modeling, especially learning physics from images in a variety of contexts.

    Press

    Past Research Snapshots

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