CBE Seminar (Zoom): Cephalopod-inspired Nanostructured Material for Thermoregulation

Abstract: Building thermal management (heating and cooling) accounts for 13% of energy consumption in the United States. Energy consumption can be significantly improved by employing novel clothing materials for personal thermal comfort instead of controlling the temperature of an entire building. Inspired by the space blanket and the dynamic skin of cephalopods, we have developed a composite material composed of infrared-reflecting micro- and nanostructures and an infrared-transparent elastomer. The composite material can modulate its reflectance and transmittance by > 40 %, regulate a heat flux of ~ 36 W/m2, and adjust the setpoint temperature over a window of ~ 8 ℃. Due to such functionality and associated figures of merit, this material may aid in the reduction of building energy consumption while improving personal comfort.

Bio: Erica Leung is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the UC Irvine where she is studying cephalopod-derived and cephalopod-inspired materials for camouflage and thermoregulation. She received her bachelor's degree in chemical engineering at the California Institute of Technology in 2014 and her master's degree in chemical and biochemical engineering at UCI in 2016.