Postdoc
Dr. Xiaoxi Guo
Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow
Project title: Surface wettability on heterogeneous advanced oxidation catalysis for PFAS degradation
Summary: Dr. Guo is interested in design of high-performance catalysts by manipulating their wettability for water purification.
PhD Students
Summary: The antibiofouling properties of the material surface have important applications in a variety of areas, such as in hulls, in aquaculture industries , in water pipes and underwater equipment. However, the traditional anti-fouling surface is usually combined with toxic substances or its manufacturing process is complicated and expensive, which cannot meet the current antibiofouling demand. Advances in nanotechnology and polymer science, and the development of novel surface designs ‘bioinspired’ by nature, are expected to have a significant impact on the development of a new generation of environmentally friendly marine coatings.
Yaojia Long
Email: y.long@qmul.ac.uk
Project title: Superhydrophobic nature-inspired solar-light-driven oil absorber
Summary: The general aim of the proposal can be divided in 2 specific objectives: 1) Selecting and fabricating a porous, environment-friendly, self-floating, and nature-inspired absorber with outstanding photothermal performance; 2) Hydrophobic and lipophilic treatment on the surface of the absorber to acquire a highly efficient oil absorption capacity.
Linchao Sun
Email: linchao.sun@qmul.ac.uk
Project title: The study and application of biomimetic actuators
Summary: An abundant variety of natural creatures have an innate ability to sense, report and respond to external stimuli. Inspired by the intelligent behaviors, biomimetic actuators directly generating a mechanical response transformed from other forms of energy has demonstrated the attractive promise in artificial intelligence. The objective of the project is to explore the synthetic strategy of actuating materials and the application field of actuator and investigate the actuation mechanism.
Summary: Bio-inspired hydrogel materials for the applications of wearable electronic device and water remediation.
Summary: This project aims to design new sealing strategies such as transparent, robust and water repellent coatings to prevent lead leakage of solar cells. This project is in collaboration with Dr. Isaac Abrahams and Dr. Zhe Li.
Summary: This project will exploit advanced AI techniques to inspire design and optimisation of functional materials.
Rafael Domingos Pinto
Email: r.domingospinto@qmul.ac.uk
Project title: Design of micro actuating devices based on bio-inspired nano cracks
Summary: This project will exploit state-of-the-art micro manufactruing technologies to develop actuating devices in microscale.
Master students
Ayesha Idrees
Email: a.idrees@se22.qmul.ac.uk
Project title: Wettability of multi-functional composites
Summary: This project aims to develop durable multi-functional composites and study their wettability by tuning the combinations of fillers, polymer matrix and hydrophobic agents.
Alumni
Resham Aziz, Master student (2020)
Suad Abukar Ali, Master student (2019), the College Prize winner
Yao Lu 