The Pennsylvania State University, University Park Pennsylvania, USA

Abstract:

To develop technologies to meet ever growing need of the modern society poses constant challenges as well as enormous opportunities to the engineering society? Quite often, to fully address these challenges require multidisciplinary approaches, from atoms to systems, and out of the box thinking? In this talk, I will present two examples of research in my group in which, out of the box thinking in material design approaches have lead to marked improvements or even materials breakthroughs, including (？) a totally new approach of dielectric nanocomposites for electric energy storage with greatly enhanced breakdown strength, which is very low cost and easy to fabrication, but with the properties far beyond these using the conventional nanocomposite approach which rely on high volume loading of high dielectric constant nanofillers. (？？) a giant electrocaloric effect over a broad temperature range in a class of ferroelectric polymers, which has shown promise for highly efficient and zero greenhouse gas emission solid state cooling devices to replace the century old vapor compression cooling(such as present air conditioners and refrigerators). In addition to the EC materials breakthroughs, this talk will also present recent advances in the prototype EC devices, which can be flexible, wearable, and chip-scale with high efficiency.

Brief bio:

Qiming Zhang (Q. M. Zhang) is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering at Penn State University, USA. Since1991, he has been a faculty at Penn State. In addition, he has held tenured professor positions at University of  California at Los Angles and University of Pittsburgh. He has conducted advanced researches covering polymers and nanocomposites for energy storage and high voltage applications, electrocaloric effect and solid state cooling devices, actuators, sensors, transducers, energy harvesting, polymer thin film devices and MEMS, and electro-optic and photonic devices. He has more than 450 publications, including 5 papers in Science and Nature, and 20 patents in these areas. He has invented a class of electroactive polymers, possessing giant electroactuation and the highest dielectric constant among all the known polymers, suitable for energy storage (Science 280, 2101(1998)). The polymers has been commercialized by Arkema. Zhang founded a technology company, StrategicPolymer Science, Inc.(now Novasentis), which has successfully commercialized the electroactive polymer actuator products for wearable, haptics, and IOT applications. He also made breakthrough and discovered giant electrocaloric effect in a class of polymers(Science 2008). Solid state electrocaloric cooling offers high efficiency, compact size, and zero-greenhouse gas emission, leading to wearable and personal coolers, and flat panel air conditioners. He is a fellow of IEEE and APS.

Publications:

1. Q. M. Zhang, T. Zhang. The refrigerant is also the pump. Science,357, 1094 (2017).
2. L. Yang, X.S Qian, Q.M. Zhang, et al, Nano Energy, 22, 461 (2016).
3. G. Z. Zhang, Q. Li, Q. M. Zhang. Q. Wang. Advanced Materials, 27, 1450(2015).
4. Bret Neese, Baojin Chu, Shengguo Lu, Yong Wang, E. Furman, and Q. M. Zhang, Science, 321, 821 (2008).
5. Baojin Chu, Xin Zhou, Kailiang Ren, Bret Neese, Minren Lin, Qing Wang, F. Bauer, and Q. M. Zhang, Science, 313, 334 (2006).
6. Q. M. Zhang, Vivek Bharti, and X. Zhao. Science, 280, 2101 (1998).

报告邀请人：胡凤霞 研究员，电话：9233