ChEMS Seminar: Nanotechnology for Energy, Environment and Textiles

Abstract: Nanotechnology has provided a novel technology platform that can address critical energy and environmental problems and enable new opportunities. In the past decade, my group has conducted research on innovative ideas to address problems related to energy conversion, storage and saving, and environment (air, water and soil) cleaning, to create new opportunities in wearable applications. Here I will show exciting examples, including: 1) high-energy battery materials, including Si and Li metal anodes and S cathodes; 2) electrochemical tuning of catalysts; 3) Water disinfection using conducting nanofilters and uranium extraction for seawater; 4) Nanofiber air filters for efficient PM2.5 removal and low-air resistance; 5) Cooling and heating textiles for personal thermal management. Nanotechnology represents the most important foundational technology platform to impact nearly all areas of applications.

Bio: Yi Cui is a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University. He received B.S. in chemistry in 1998 at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and a Ph.D in 2002 at Harvard University. After that, he was a Miller Postdoctoral Fellow at University of California, Berkeley. In 2005 Cui became an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford, and in 2010 was promoted with tenure. His current research is on nanomaterials for energy storage, photovotalics, topological insulators, biology and environment. Cui has founded three companies to commercialize technologies from his group: Amprius Inc., 4C Air Inc. and EEnovate Technology Inc. He is a fellow of the Materials Research Society and of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He is an associate editor of Nano Letters, a co-director of the Bay Area Photovoltaics Consortium and a co-director of the Battery 500 Consortium. He is a highly proliferate materials scientist and has published approximately 390 research papers. In 2014, Cui was ranked No.1 in materials science by Thomson Reuters as “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds.” His awards include: Blavatnik National Laureate (2017), MRS Kavli Distinguished Lectureship in Nanoscience (2015), the Sloan Research Fellowship (2010), KAUST Investigator Award (2008), ONR Young Investigator Award (2008), and the Technology Review World Top Young Innovator Award (2004).

Host: Xiaoqing Pan