Presenter

Dr. Yanliang Zhang
Department of Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering
University of Notre Dame

Abstract

Nano engineering and additive manufacturing methods have led to many scientific and technology breakthroughs for energy and sensor related applications. First, this talk will present fundamental study of thermal and thermoelectric transport properties in nanostructured materials fabricated using scalable nonmanufacturing methods, which have led to significant increases in thermoelectric figure of merit ZT. Second, this talk will discuss novel additive manufacturing and interface engineering methods to fabricate efficient and flexible thermoelectric devices using colloidal nanocrystals, which resulted in unprecedented high power density and ultralow cost. Third, this talk will discuss design, modeling and manufacturing of high-performance nanostructured thermoelectric generator systems for waste heat recovery applications. Finally, this talk will present a novel scanning thermal probe method to map thermal and thermoelectric properties of nanostructured materials with high spatial resolution. The above research breakthroughs are on track to create a sustainable and commercially viable technology for automotive, industrial, electronics, and personal energy harvesting and thermal management applications.

Biography

Yanliang Zhang is an assistant professor and the Director of Advanced Manufacturing and Energy lab in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at University of Notre Dame. He received the Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2011. He is a recipient of the prestigious U.S. National Science Foundation Career Award, an IBM Fellowship awardee, and multiple best paper awards at international conferences. Prestigious funding awards from U.S. Department of Energy and National Science Foundation have sponsored Dr. Zhang’s research, and he has directed several major multi-institutional research projects. Dr. Zhang’s research work has been published on top scientific journals of high impact, including Nature Materials, Science Advances, Advanced Materials, Nano Letters, Scientific Reports, Energy Conversion and Management, Applied Physics Letters, etc.