Seminar

ABSTRACT:  Plastic foams, as engineering materials, are widely used in variety of industrial sectors and represent an extraordinary class of materials. Foaming in polymers involves delicate scientific mechanisms and unique morphology transformations. This work explores the influence of rheological properties on polymer foam development in non-pressurized systems.

ABSTRACT:  Arguably, electric and hybrid electric vehicles are the new frontiers for lithium batteries. As a new market it is distinctly different from mass produced microelectronics, not only in the energy per battery unit but also in the power performance requirements. Especially the required charging rates during deceleration and emergency charging, as well as, the discharge rates during startup from standstill are exciting challenges.

IPR Seminar -Speaker Professor X. Feng Facilitated transport composite...

ABSTRACT:  Engineered bacteria have the potential to overcome the limitations that cause common cancer therapies to fail. Synthetic biology is playing a critical role in the creation of these therapies. We have shown that bacteria, specifically Salmonella, have three main qualities that enable them to overcome the limitations of chemotherapy. Bacteria 1) preferentially target tumors, 2) penetrate tissue, and 3) can kill non-mitotic cells.

ABSTRACT: Crystallization is important for pharmaceuticals, amino acids, and proteins. The first part of this seminar will discuss the crystallization of small-molecule organic chemicals such as pharmaceuticals and amino acids. The crystal size distribution (CSD) can affect the efficacy of drug products (such as the amount of drug reaching the lungs from a nasal spray) as well as the efficiency of downstream processes such as filtration and milling.

ABSTRACT:  Lithium sulfur (Li-S) batteries have attracted increasing attention because of their high theoretical capacity, natural abundance, low cost and environmental friendliness. Assuming Li₂S as the end product, the maximum specific capacity and energy from Li-S batteries are 1675 Ah kg⁻¹ and 2650 Wh kg⁻¹, respectively, significantly higher than those of state-of-the-art lithium ion batteries.

ABSTRACT:  Diminishing resources are creating a global paradigm change towards more efficient, sustainable and cleaner use of energy. The conversion of chemical energy in heterogeneous catalysis is at the centre of this rapidly growing field of energy science. Since our understanding of the elementary processes constituting the reaction steps is still in its infancy, macro-scale concepts are likely to be challenged by emerging insights on the atomic scale.

ABSTRACT:  Converting sunlight into chemical energy via solar thermal reforming of natural gas is an attractive route to increase the energy content of methane, consequently reducing both natural gas consumption and greenhouse gases emission. The upgraded ²solar² fuel can be used for direct power generation in gas turbines or as a feedstock for chemical industry.

ABSTRACT:  Vascular cells adapt and respond to biomechanical forces.  The focal nature of most cardiovascular diseases has been linked to a dysfunctional response of endothelial cells and blood components to local hemodynamic forces.  My lab studies the role of hemodynamic forces in the initiation, progression and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.  In this talk I will present work we have done using three dimensional cell culture models to simulate the vascular hemodynamic environment in order to answer questions on how endothelial cells (ECs) and blood components respo

ABSTRACT:  This presentation describes my recent work  in developing small scale fluid devices, microfluidics, for energy applications and CO₂ sequestration. Microfluidics has emerged over the last two decades with applications in biomedical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and life sciences research.