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SUMMARY:MechE Colloquium: Leveraging the physics of sunlight-surface inter
 actions to derive photothermal materials controlling atmospheric vapor con
 densation
DTSTART:20221122T120000
DTEND:20221122T130000
DTSTAMP:20260427T204143Z
UID:d116e6354c3786fec42365edd35c84a2c52ebba1de848b5aad67b54b
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Dimos Poulikakos\, Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerg
 ing Technologies\, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering\, ETH 
 Zurich\nAbstract: Interfaces separating different kinds of matter\, or dif
 ferent phases of the same matter\, abandon in nature and technology. What 
 is more\, they invariably play a critical role in all systems where they o
 ccur\, from regulating transport of energy and species\, to dictating syst
 em shape and form. Interfaces differ in their structure and properties fro
 m the bulk matter they surround and can be engineered to effect remarkable
  outcomes in a broad palette of applications. In this lecture\, I will pri
 marily focus on liquid/gas and liquid/solid interfaces\, and their interac
 tion with sunlight\, employed in the rational design of photothermal devic
 es and metasurfaces\, to control atmospheric water condensation\, accordin
 g to our will. On the one hand\, I will discuss energy neutral devices yie
 lding maximum water harvesting from atmospheric air. Their function is bas
 ed on radiative cooling to the outer space with optimized solar radiation 
 shielding\, coupled with a fully passive superhydrophobic condensate harve
 ster\, and yields uninterrupted atmospheric water harvesting\, not only du
 ring night-time but also during daytime. On the other hand\, when condensa
 tion is undesirable\, I will demonstrate materials (photothermal metasurfa
 ce coatings) that prohibit condensation “fogging” from forming on tran
 sparent surfaces\, functioning with selective sunlight absorption\, which 
 enables them to maintain surface transparency to visible light. These phot
 othermal coatings are unprecedented in their thinness (less than 10 nm) an
 d performance\, can be easily deposited also on deformable and soft materi
 als\, and are fabricated with common industrial processes. These combined 
 capabilities render them a perfect candidate for a host of applications su
 ch as eyewear\, car windows and windshields\, mirrors and building windows
 .\n\nBiography: Professor Dimos Poulikakos holds the Chair of Thermodynami
 cs at ETH Zurich\, where in 1996 he founded the Laboratory of Thermodynami
 cs in Emerging Technologies. He served as the Vice President of Research o
 f ETH Zurich in the period 2005-2007. Professor Poulikakos was the ETH dir
 ector of the IBM-ETH Binnig-Rohrer Nanotechnology center\, a unique privat
 e-public partnership in nanotechnology at the interface of basic research 
 and future oriented applications (2008-2011). He served as the Head of the
  Mechanical and Process Engineering Department at ETH Zurich (2011-2014). 
 He was the Chairperson of the Energy Science Center of ETH Zurich (2018-20
 21) and is currently a member of CORE\, the advisory board of the Swiss go
 vernment on issues related to energy. As of January 2020\, he is also the 
 president of Division IV of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) an
 d member of the presiding board of SNF. His research is in the area of int
 erfacial transport phenomena\, thermodynamics and related materials nanoen
 gineering\, with a host of related applications. The focus is on understan
 ding the related physics\, in particular at the micro- and nanoscales and 
 employing this knowledge to the development of novel technologies. Specifi
 c current examples of application areas are the direct printing of complex
  liquids and colloids with nanoscale feature size and resolution\, the sci
 ence-based design of supericephobic and omniphobic surfaces\, the chip/tra
 nsistor-level\, bio-inspired 3D integrated cooling and energy optimization
  of supercomputer electronics\, the development of facile methods based on
  plasmonics for sunlight management in energy applications and the develop
 ment of nanofluidic technologies and surface textures for biological appli
 cations under realistic fluidic environments (accelerated and guided cell 
 adhesion\, re-endothelialization\, antifibrotic surface textures and mater
 ials\, single virus trapping and transport).
LOCATION:BM 5202 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==BM%205202 https://epfl.zoom.u
 s/j/65387864766
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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