TITLE:  Engineering Nanomaterials for Energy Conversion

SPEAKER: Dr. Xiaolin Zheng, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University

Tuesday, June 20, 2017  11:30 AM – 1:00  pm

Texas Instruments (TI) Auditorium E-1
2900 Semiconductor Drive
Santa Clara, CA  map

Cost $6, discount for IEEE Members, Students & Unemployed. Please register here.

ABSTRACT:

Nanomaterials are broadly studied and used in renewable energy and sustainability-focused science and technology. And yet, a key challenge is to develop scalable and economic synthetic routes for the mass production of nanomaterials. In this talk, I will present a new pathway of using flame as a scalable reactor to synthesis binary, ternary, doped and branched metal oxide nanowires with controlled physical morphology and chemical compositions. I will also report a combined solution-flame method that combines flame synthesis with sol-gel chemistry to modify existing nanomaterials with coatings, doping, reduction and oxidation. These new flame synthesis routes exhibit the unique advantages of self-purification process, ultrafast growth rate, atmospheric and continuous operation. These flame-synthesized nanomaterials are of high quality and when they are applied as key elements in photoelectrochemical (or solar) water-splitting devices that has led to the best performance to date. Finally, I will discuss a peel-and-stick method for manufacturing flexible and light weight thin film solar cells that could enable the attachment of solar cells to virtually any surface, ranging from existing building walls and windows, car roofs, light poles, backpacks and paper to portable electronics, significantly broadening the applications of solar cells.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY:

Xiaolin Zheng is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. She received her Ph.D. in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University (2006), B.S. in Thermal Engineering from Tsinghua University (2000). Prior to joining Stanford in 2007, she did her postdoctoral work in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. Her research interests include flame synthesis of nanomaterials and their applications in solar energy conversion, and developing manufacturing methods for flexible electronic devices. She is a member of MRS, ACS and the Combustion Institute. Her research has been honored with awards including the Resonant Energy Award from Caltech (2016), Nano Letters Young Investigator Lectureship (2015), MIT Technology Review (2013), one of the 100 Leading Global Thinkers by the Foreign Policy Magazine (2013), 3M Nontenured Faculty Award from 3M (2013), Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from the White House (2009), Young Investigator Awards from the ONR (2008) and DARPA (2008), Terman Fellowship from Stanford (2007), and Bernard Lewis Fellowship from the Combustion Institute (2004).

For additional information: http://www.stanford.edu/group/zheng

• 11:30 am – Registration & light lunch (pizza & drinks)
• Noon – Presentation & Questions/Answers
• 1:00 pm – Adjourn