​​Our work on BiVO4 photocatalysis was picked as inside cover for the October issue of Advanced Materials Interface.​​​​

MRS Spring Meeting 2018: Symposium​ EN11—Nanomaterials for the Water and Energy Nexus​

A Voyage of Discovery​

Professor Wang will join hands with Jian Chang and Professor Lianbin Zhang in writing the book. ​​​​​​​​​​​

In this work, a general procedure was developed to measure light-to-heat conversion efficiency of MXene with a droplet light heating system. The results showed that MXene had an oustanding internal light-to-heat conversion efficiency (~100%) and showed higher light absorption capability than CNTs. This work thus demonstrates that MXene is a promising photothermal material.​​​​

Advanced Sustainable Systems, initiated in 2017, publish articles covering a wide variety of topics from different disciplines that share the focus on the advancement of sustainable living. This will include broad themes such as water & environment, food sustainability, cradle-to-cradle processing, and energy & materials.​​​​​

'Rational Design of Next-generation Nanomaterials and Nanodevices for Water Applications' book is intended for undergraduates, graduates, scientists and professionals in the fields of environmental science, material science, chemistry, and chemistry engineering. It provides coherent and good material for teaching, research, and professional reference. I hope that this book will provide an inspiration for readers who are interested in rational design of nanotechnology and who are passionate at further exploring nanomaterials to make contributions to the solutions to our grand environmental challenges.​​​

Dr. Lianbin Zhang, who started as a founding postdoc in our group in 2010 and later was promoted to Research Scientist, has accepted a full professorship offer at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) (华中科技大学), one of the top universities in China. He will officially start his independent research as PI at HUST in the mid-October 2016. Over the past five years in the group, Lianbin has been a very important player and pivotal person. His contribution to the group has been tremendous: his presence at the birth-pain period of the group in 2010 made the process much less painful and his hard work and creativity has made our research on surface wettability and smart materials/devices a great success. We offer our heartfelt congralations on this exciting opportunity for him to start his independent research as PI and wish him a great success in his future scientific endeavors.

The Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is one of China’s primary national research institutions for renewable energy and green materials, focusing mainly on research and development of the resources, technologies, products and processes for bio-based energy and materials. The institute is devoted to providing systematic and sustainable solutions to the nation’s bioenergy needs by integrating science, technology, and engineering in the fields of industrial biology, green chemical technology, and process engineering. QIBEBT focuses on bio-based materials, applied energy technology, and marine low-carbon technology. The main headquarters of the institute is located in Qingdao’s Laoshan District. The institute also has two demonstration areas in the cities of Pingdu and Changyi, respectively. In addition, QIBEBT has established the Qingdao CSQE Company and the Qingdao Innovation and Incubation Center for Industry Technology of CAS to promote technology transfer.

Saving precious water with nanoscale ingenuity​ (Nanowerk News) Managing scarce water resources is problematic for many Middle East countries, and forecasts predict a more straitened situation ahead. Desalination plants are one way to manage water shortages, as more than two-thirds of the world’s desalination capacity is in this region, but processing seawater has enormous energy and environmental costs. Other approaches need to be developed to achieve sustainable growth.Over the past seven years, Peng Wang and colleagues from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division, Saudi Arabia, have been looking for answers to these grand challenges by turning to very small science. The team specializes in producing materials and surfaces that purify, distill and catch water molecules with remarkable efficiency thanks to nanoscale techniques, many inspired by ingenious biological tricks. .... ​​

The development of smart materials for environmental applications is a highly innovative and promising new approach to meet the increasing demands from society on water resources and pollution remediation. Smart materials with surfaces that can reversibly respond to stimuli from internal and external environments by changing their properties show great promise as solutions for global environmental issues. Many of these functional materials are inspired by biological systems, that use sophisticated material interfaces to display high levels of adaptability to their environment. Leading researchers present the latest information on the current and potential applications of omniphobic slippery coatings, responsive particle stabilized emulsions and self-healing surfaces among other functional materials. The book contains a section dedicated to water treatment and harvesting, describing and explaining strategies such as use of copolymer membranes and surfaces with patterned wettability. It provides a valuable source of information for environmental, materials, polymer and nano-scientists interested in environmental applications of functional material surfaces.​​​​​

We are deeply honored that SIX of our recent publications are among the Highly Cited Papers by Essential Science Indicator (ESI) from Thomson Reuters.

Le's artwork "the Colorful Life behind Black and White" won the First Prize in the Third Annual Saudi Arabia Art Competition in January 2016.

Our research on biomimetically patterned surfaces was selected as Cutting edge chemistry in 2015 by Chemistry World!​​​ ​​​

Photothermal project highlighted on Materials Views!​​

The Book titled “Rational Design of Next-generation Nanomaterials and Nanodevices for Water Applications’, published by International Water Association (IWA) Publishing (editor: Peng Wang), is forthcoming in 2016.

Congratulations to Jinbo for his appointment as a Full Professor at Shanghai University in China!

The review article on Rational Design of Nanomaterials for Water Treatment published on Nanoscale! ​​​

As of December 14, 2015, our paper on smart material for oil-water separation ranked the first in citations (from Web of Science) among all original research articles ever published by NPG Asia Materials.​​​​​ ​It ranked the 5th inclusive all type of publications by NPG Asia Materials​.

Our paper "Hydrophobic Light-to-Heat Conversion Membranes with Self-Healing Ability for Interfacial Solar Heating" was accepted in Advanced Materials.​​​