BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Memento EPFL// BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:MechE Seminar: Optimizing Liquid-Gas Interfacial Transport for a S ustainable Future DTSTART:20220214T133000 DTEND:20220214T143000 DTSTAMP:20260408T085204Z UID:5e3235badff5877856a490239ea2f6eebaeba0fcf49fca815ad041b7 CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars DESCRIPTION:Dr. Zhengmao Lu\, Department of Materials Science and Engineer ing\, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)\nAbstract: Liquid-gas in terfacial transport plays a critical role in 70% of the world’s electric ity generation\, 30% of global desalination\, most heating and cooling sys tems\, and all gas-evolving electrochemical reactions. Fundamental underst anding of interfacial transport\, which can broadly impact energy and wate r applications\, has been limited by the difficulty of experimentally isol ating and characterizing the interfacial thermal resistance. In the first part of my talk\, I will discuss how we overcame this challenge and elucid ated fundamental phase change kinetics with a specially designed ultrathin nanoporous membrane. This configuration allowed us to show a unified rela tionship for evaporation under different working conditions and subsequent ly provide a general figure of merit for phase change systems. In the seco nd part of my talk\, I will discuss how we translate the obtained understa nding into performance enhancement in practical applications leveraging no vel engineered materials. For electronics cooling\, we created a membrane- based hierarchical evaporator and demonstrated a record pure evaporation h eat flux for dielectric fluids. More importantly\, our design enabled a ne w paradigm for phase change heat transfer\, favoring low surface tension f luids rather than water. For thermal management of buildings and perishabl e goods\, we invented hydrogel-aerogel bilayer structures which achieves c ooling with evaporation while resisting environmental heating. Consequentl y\, we extended the cooling time by 400% compared to the conventional sing le layer design. Further\, we realized simultaneous evaporative and radiat ive cooling by optimizing the optical properties of the cooling architectu re. We demonstrated 300% daytime ambient cooling power enhancement over pu re radiative cooling and showed the significant benefit of our hybrid cool ing approach under a wide range of climate conditions. Overall\, we show t hat combining fundamental interfacial transport physics with novel materia ls and interface engineering presents unique opportunities for innovations toward more sustainable energy and water technologies.\n\nBio: Zhengmao L u is a postdoctoral scholar advised by Prof. Jeffrey Grossman in the Depar tment of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. Prior to this appointme nt\, he obtained his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at MIT\, advised by P rof. Evelyn Wang. His Ph.D. thesis focused on establishing modeling framew orks and experimental platforms to elucidate evaporation kinetics and crea te high flux phase change devices for thermal management of electronics. C urrently\, Zhengmao is developing novel passive cooling solutions for buil dings\, food\, and pharmaceutical products and engineering natural carbona ceous materials for industrial separation processes. Zhengmao is a recipie nt of the Keck Travel Award in Thermal Sciences and the Wunsch Foundation Silent Hoist and Crane Award for Outstanding Graduate Research from MIT Me chanical Engineering. LOCATION:https://epfl.zoom.us/j/63518506901 STATUS:CONFIRMED END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR