12/07/2020: Congratulations to Lenan Zhang for winning the best poster award at MRS 2020 Fall meeting
Congratulations to Lenan Zhang for winning the best poster award at
MRS 2020 Fall meeting!
Read more about his work on measuring thermal expansion coefficient
of 2D materials using micro-Raman spectroscopy here.
12/02/2020: Nucleation Site Distribution Probed by Phase-Enhanced Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy
Congratulations
to Lenan Zhang, Ryuichi Iwata, Lin Zhao, Shuai Gong, Zhengmao Lu,
Zhenyuan Xu, Yang Zhong, Jinlong Zhu, Samuel Cruz, Kyle Wilke, and
Professor Ping Cheng at Shanghai Jiao Tong University for their
recent work of Nucleation Site Distribution Probed by
Phase-Enhanced Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy featured
on MIT News! In this work, we report direct experimental
observation of nucleation site distribution in droplet condensation
using phase-enhanced environmental scanning electron microscopy.
Using statistical theory, we demonstrate that the population and
spatial distribution of nucleation sites are governed by the
Poisson and Rayleigh distribution, respectively. We further show
the broad applicability of these insights into nucleation site
distribution to hydrogen-evolving reactions and chemical vapor
deposition. Our platform, combining precise characterization and
theory, advances the fundamental understanding of nucleation
phenomena and guides designs from materials to devices. Read more
on MIT
News, and read the paper
here.
11/18/2020: A Passive High-Temperature High-Pressure Solar Steam Generator for Medical Sterilization
Congratulations to Lin Zhao, Bikram Bhatia, Lenan Zhang, Elise
Strobach, Arny Leroy, Sungwoo Yang as well as their collaborators
for their recent work on A Passive High-Temperature High-Pressure
Solar Steam Generator for Medical Sterilization, which was featured
on MIT News and Nature Research Highlights! In this work, we
demonstrated a passive solar thermal device mostly built from
low-cost off-the-shelf components capable of delivering saturated
and pressurized steam to drive sterilization cycles even under hazy
and partly cloudy weather. Enabled by an optimized
ultra-transparent silica aerogel, the device utilizes an efficient
thermal concentration strategy to locally increase the heat flux
and temperature obviating the need for active optical
concentrators. With almost 2× higher energy efficiency (47%) than
those previously reported at 100°C, the device demonstrated
successful sterilization in a field test performed in Mumbai,
India. In addition to enabling passive sterilization, this work
promises the development of solar thermal energy systems for
saturated steam generation in energy conversion, storage, and
transport applications.
Read more on MIT
News, Nature,
The Economist, and
Physics World, and read the paper
here.
10/14/2020: Dual-Stage Atmospheric Water Harvesting Device for Scalable Solar-Driven Water Production
Congratulations to Alina LaPotin, Yang Zhong, Lenan Zhang, Lin
Zhao, Arny Leroy, Hyunho Kim, Sameer R. Rao for their recent work
on Dual-Stage Atmospheric Water Harvesting Device featured on MIT
News! This work demonstrated a dual-stage AWH device using
commercial zeolite (AQSOA Z01) where the two stages increased the
productivity, and the latent heat of condensation was recycled from
the top stage to assist in desorption of the bottom stage. This
work highlights opportunities for higher capacity and more
efficient water production and opens new pathways toward scalable,
lower-cost solar-thermal AWH systems.
Read more on MIT
News and read the paper
here.
10/9/2020: Congratulations to Youngsup Song, Carlos Díaz, Ryuichi Iwata, and Chad Wilson for their award-winning performance at the 2020 Mechanical Engineering Research Exhibition (MERE)
Congratulations to
Youngsup Song, Carlos Díaz, Ryuichi Iwata, and Chad Wilson for
their award-winning performance at the 2020 Mechanical
Engineering Research Exhibition (MERE).
First Place Presenters - Youngsup Song
Best First-Time Presenters - Carlos Diaz
Runners-up - Ryuichi Iwata
Honorable Mentions - Chad Wilson
08/08/2020: Nanoporous membrane device for ultra high heat flux thermal management
Congratulations to Daniel Hanks, Zhengmao Lu, Jay Sircar, Dion S.
Antao, Kevin Bagnall, Banafsheh Barabadi and Dr. Todd R. Salamon at
Bell Labs for their paper entitled “Nanoporous membrane device for
ultra high heat flux thermal management” being selected as an
outstanding paper of Microsystems & Nanoengineering, a journal
published by Springer Nature!
Read the paper here.
02/07/2020: Ultrahigh-efficiency desalination via a thermally-localized multistage solar still
Congratulations to Zhenyuan Xu, Lenan Zhang, Lin Zhao, Bikram
Bhatia, Kyle Wilke, Youngsup Song and their collaborators in China
for their recent work on ultrahigh-efficiency solar-powered water
desalination which was featured on MIT News. This work demonstrated
a record-high solar-to-vapor conversion efficiency of 385% with a
production rate of 5.78 L m-2 h-1 using a low-cost and free-of-salt
accumulation multistage architecture. This work elucidates the
fundamental limit of the solar-to-vapor conversion process and
provides useful design guideline for existing passive solar thermal
desalination technologies.
Read more on
MIT News and read the paper
here.
02/04/2020: Congratulations to DRL Alumni Joining Academia
Congratulations to DRL alumni joining academia! Find out more about
our recent alumni:
Solomon Adera, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor (Website)
Shuai Gong, Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Shanghai Jiao
Tong University, Shanghai, China (Website)
01/29/2020: Congratulations to Geoff Vaartstra for winning the best poster award at MARC 2020
Congratulations to Geoff Vaartstra for winning the best poster
award at the 2020 Microsystems Annual
Research Conference (MARC)!
12/11/2019: Congratulations to Elise Strobach for successfully defending her PhD
Congratulations to Elise Strobach for successfully defending her
PhD on Optically Transparent, Thermally Insulating and
Soundproofing (OTTIS) Aerogel for High-Efficiency Window
Applications.
During her PhD, Elise developed a high-clarity silica aerogel
optimized for use in building windows that is able to achieve
visible transmittance over 98 % and thermal conductivity lower than
13 mW/mK. This performance was achieved by careful tailoring of the
interconnected particle network driven by optical modeling to
reduce effective scattering size within the material below 10 nm
diameter. Elise also characterized the optical, thermal and
acoustic properties of the materials, demonstrating that sealing
high-clarity aerogel into the gaps of existing double-pane window
designs, we can achieve a center-of-glazing U-factor of 0.20
BTU/h/ft2/F, which is 35-50% more insulating than current building
codes across North America. early thermal results and a
production-scale techno-economic analysis indicate the aerogel has
the ability to achieve cost-effective thermal performance that is
competitive with traditional double- and triple-pane windows.
Successful development and commercialization of this high-clarity
aerogel has the potential to save billions of dollars in annual
building energy losses while satisfying the diverse and complex
needs of our buildings.
Learn more about
Elise's work and AeroShield.
12/06/2019: Congratulations to Elise Strobach and Kyle Wilke for their nomination to Forbes 30 Under 30 in Energy for 2020
Congratulations to Elise Strobach and Kyle Wilke who were named
Forbes 30 Under 30 in Energy for 2020. Together, they co-founded
AeroShield, which manufactures a super-insulating, porous glass for
energy efficient windows.
Learn more about AeroShield and Forbes
nominations.
10/30/2019: Polyethylene aerogel enables all-day subambient radiative cooling
Congratulations to Arny Leroy, Bikram Bhatia, Colin Kelsall, Lin
Zhao, Lenan Zhang as well as their collaborators in Chile for their
recent work on radiative cooling using polyethylene aerogel which
was featured on MIT News. This novel ultra low thermal conductivity
material reflects sunlight while being infrared transparent, a
combination of thermal and optical properties that have not been
demonstrated until now. By putting polyethylene aerogel on top of
existing radiative cooling emitters, parasitic solar absorption and
heat gains from the ambient air can be minimized and better cooling
can be achieved.This work will improve the performance of existing
radiative coolers and enable new applications such as passive
refrigeration and air conditioning.
Read more on
MIT News
Read the paper here
8/29/2019: Congratulations to DRL Alumni to Join Academia and Industry this Year!
Congratulations to DRL alumni to join academia and industry this
year! Find out more about our recent alumni:
Jeremy Cho, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of
Nevada, Las Vegas ( Website)
Bikram Bhatia, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of
Louisville, Louisville (
Website)
Daniel Preston, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rice
University, Houston ( Website)
Yangying Zhu, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of
California, Santa Barbara ( Website)
Lin Zhao, 3M, Minneapolis, Minnesota ( Website)
8/29/2019: Congratulations to David Bierman for winning the DOE Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) Ten at Ten Awards
Congratulations
to David Bierman for winning the DOE Energy Frontier Research
Centers (EFRC) Ten at Ten Awards. To mark the ten-year anniversary
of the EFRC program, the DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences
selected ten researchers that best exemplify the extraordinary
impact that the EFRCs have had on scientific ideas, technologies
and people.
Read moreand find out
more about the awardees.
7/24/2019: Congratulations to Lin Zhao for successfully defending his PhD
Congratulations to Lin
Zhao for successfully defending his PhD on transparent silica
aerogels for solar thermal energy applications. During his PhD, Lin
established and validated a modeling framework to understand
light
transport in aerogelsamples. This model enabled him to
synthesize and optimize the recipe of silica aerogels to achieve
low-scattering
and high solar transmittancesamples (up to 95% transmittance).
Lin also experimentally demonstrated the use of the optimized
silica aerogels in solar-thermal collectors, achieving stagnation
temperatures beyond 265 °C with unconcentrated sunlightand
saturated steam above 120 °C without any vacuum or selective
surface. The improvements enabled by the low-scattering aerogels
promote a new pathway of solar energy utilization for domestic,
industrial, and power generation applications.
7/1/2019: Transparent silica aerogel enables heating beyong 200 °C with unconcentrated sunlight
Congratulations to Lin
Zhao and his collaborators for their recent work on solar receivers
using optically transparent and thermally insulative silica
areogels. In their work, they demonstrated heating of a blackbody
absorber up to 265 °C under unconcentrated sunlight using their
optimized aerogels. This study will promote cost-effective
solar-thermal energy at intermediate temperatures.
Read more about their workand on
MIT
News.
6/10/2019: Experiments reveal the physics of evaporation
Congratulations to Dr. Zhengmao Lu and his collaborator
Prof. Ikuya Kinefuchi for their recent work featured on MIT
News. In this work, the authors demonstrate that changes in
pressure, more so than temperature, strongly influence how quickly
liquids turn to gas in the evaporation process. Their results
provide new design guidelines for achieving efficient evaporation
in application such as water purification, steam generation, and
thermal management.
Read more about the paper in Nature
Communications.
6/6/2019: Congratulations to our recent graduate Kyle Wilke!
Congratulations to
our recent graduate!
5/24/2019: Congratulations to Kyle Wilke for successfully defending his PhD
Congratulations to
Kyle Wilke for successfully defending his PhD on Tailoring Wetting
Behavior at Extremes. In his thesis, Kyle addresses some of the
most challenging areas in wetting modification, designing and
demonstrating 1. robust hydrophobic coatings for heat transfer
enhancement, 2. reentrant microstructures that shift the wetting
paradigm, enabling previously unrealized or extremely challenging
wetting behavior, and 3. omniphobic reentrant surfaces with
superior stability.
Read more about Kyle's research
4/24/2019: Lenan Zhang’s work on jumping-droplet size distribution theory selected as an Editor’s pick of Applied Physics Letters
Congratulations
to Lenan Zhang for his work on size distribution theory during the
jumping-droplet condensation process. Using a new theoretical model
which considers the unique interaction mechanisms between
jumping-droplets, Lenan showed the droplet size distribution is
analogous to the well-known Fermi-Dirac distribution due to the
underlying exclusive property of the droplet removal.
Read more about his workin
Applied Physics Letters
4/5/2019: Congratulations to AeroShield and Elise Strobach for winning the 2019 MIT Clean Energy Prize
Congratulations
to AeroShield and Elise Strobach for winning the 2019 MIT Clean
Energy Prize! AeroShield manufactures a super-insulating nano-glass
material developed at the DRL for use in energy efficient windows.
AeroShield windows are up to 40% more insulating that traditional
double-pane windows, enabling energy savings and improved thermal
comfort in buildings at a fraction of the cost of existing
approaches.
Read more about the event.
4/2/2019: Congratulations to Hyunho Kim for his nomination to Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2019
Congratulations to
Hyunho Kim for his nomination to Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2019 for
his work on atmospheric water harvesting.
Read more about the
articleand his work.
2/2/2019: Water harvesting work featured on NPR's Changing The World One Invention At A Time series
The DRL's recent work on water harvesting using metal-organic
framework adsorbants has been featured on NPR's special series
Changing The World One Invention At A Time. Check out the awesome
video they made below as well as the entire series on NPR - Changing The World One Invention At A
Time.
11/28/2018: Bikram Bhatia's work on passive directional radiative cooling featured in MIT News
Congratulations to Bikram Bhatia for his work on passive
directional radiative cooling. Using a directional approach to
passive radiative cooling that exploits the angular confinement of
solar irradiation in the sky, Bikram demonstrated sub-ambient
cooling during the day regardless of the emitter properties in the
solar spectrum. This work could enable low-cost radiative cooling
systems and have applications in portable refrigeration and thermal
management of concentrated photovoltaics.
Read more in
MIT Newsand in Nature
Communications.
11/1/2018: Kyle Wilke's work on condensation-resistant omniphobic surfaces featured in MIT News
Congratulations to
Kyle Wilke for his work on condensation-resistant omniphobic
surfaces. Using isolated reentrant cavities to prevent nucleation
and spreading of droplets, Kyle was able to create an omniphobic
surface that can repel liquids even during condensation.
Read more about his work in ACS
Nanoand in
MIT News.
6/22/2018: Congratulations to Evelyn N. Wang for being named head of the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering!
Congratulations to
Evelyn N. Wang, the Gail E. Kendall (1978) Professor and director
of MIT’s Device Research Laboratory, for being named head of the
Department of Mechanical Engineering, effective July 1, 2018. We
all look forward to the leadership, the input and the great things
Evelyn will bring to the department.
Read more about Evelyn's accomplishments, awards and work in
MIT Newsand on her MIT profile
page.
06/07/2018: Congratulations to our recent graduates Dr. Hyunho Kim, Dr. Zhengmao Lu and Dr. David Bierman!
Congratulations to
all our recent graduates!
4/6/2018: Congratulations to Zhengmao Lu for successfully defending his PhD
Congratulations
to Zhengmao Lu for successfully defending his PhD on Evaporation
from Nanopores: Probing Interfacial Transport. The improved
fundamental understanding of evaporation reported in Zhengmao's
work indicates the significant promise of utilizing an ultrathin
nanoporous design to achieve high heat fluxes for evaporation in
thermal management, desalination, steam generation, and
beyond.
Read
moreabout Zhengmao's research.
03/22/2018: Demonstration in Arizona (USA) of arid climate and sub-zero dew points water harvesting using metal-organic framework
Congratulations to Hyunho, Sameer, Lin, Sungwoo and their
collaborators for publishing their most recent work on water
harvesting in Nature
Communications! In this work, they demonstrate air-cooled
sorbent-based atmospheric water harvesting using metal-organic
framework (MOF) in expceptionally arid climate and sub-zero dew
points (Tempe, Arizona, USA). They predict that using their device,
0.25 L of water per kg of MOF for a single daily cycle.
Read more on
MIT News.
1/5/2018: Heena Mutha’s work on carbon nanotube electrodes highlighted in MIT Energy Initiative Energy Futures and MIT News
Congratulations to
Heena Mutha for her work on carbon nanotube electrodes highlighted
in MIT Energy
Initiative Energy Futures and
MIT News.
12/17/2017: Evelyn N. Wang selected as a 2017 Foreign Policy’s Global Rethinker
Congratulations to
Evelyn N. Wang for being selected as a 2017 Foreign Policy's Global
Rethinker for her recent work on water harvesting.
Read more.
12/17/2017: DRL wins Bose Award to develop Thermal Wires to Transport Heat Across Kilometers
Congratulations
to the DRL for winning the 2017 Bose Award, a reward for bold and
unconventional research visions. With the help of this reward, the
DRL will design thermal wires that can efficiently transport heat
across long distances.
Read more.
12/17/2017: Congratulations to David Bierman who was selected as a 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30
Congratulations
to David Bierman who was selected as a 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30.
Read more about the
articleand about Marigold
Power.
11/08/2017: Congratulations to Hyunho Kim for successfully defending his PhD
Congratulations to
Hyunho Kim for successfully defending his PhD on the Development of
Adsorption-based Atmospheric Water Harvesting and Thermal Energy
Storage Technologies.
10/3/2017: Congratulations to Dan Preston for winning the best poster award at 2017 ICNMM
Congratulations to
Dan Preston for
winning the best poster award at the ASME 2017 International
Conference on Nanochannels, Microchannels and
Minichannels.
10/3/2017: Congratulations to Elise, Bikram and Arny for their stellar performance at the 2017 Mechanical Engineering Research Exhibition (MERE)
Congratulations to
Elise, Bikram and Arny for their stellar performance at the
2017 Mechanical Engineering Research
Exhibition (MERE). Read more about the event:
MIT News
Most Excitement - Elise Strobach- "Optically Transparent,
Thermally Insulating and Soundproofing (OTTIS) Aerogel for
High-Efficiency Window Applications”
Honorable Mention - Bikram Bhatia"Passive directional
daytime radiative cooling"
Highest Impact - Arny Leroy– “High performance incandescent
lighting”
08/08/2017: Water harvesting from air selected as 1 of top 10 emerging technologies in 2017 by Scientific American and World Economic Forum
Congratulations to
Hyunho, Sungwoo, Sameer, Shankar and Ari! Their work on water
harvesting from air with metal-organic frameworks was selected as
one of the top 10 emerging technologies in 2017 by Scientific
American and World Economic Forum.
Read more about their
work.
07/25/2017: Congratulations to David and Veronika for winning the DOE Office of Science Student and Postdoc Team Science Competition!
Congratulations to Dr. David Biermanand
Dr.
Veronika Stelmakhfor winning the DOE Office of Science Student
and Postdoc Team Science Competition. This competition was part of
the 2017 EFRCPrincipal
Investigators’ Meeting in Washington, D.C.
07/03/2017: Listen to the new awesome song "Stop the Phonons"!
Listen to
Stop
the Phonons, an excellent original song by Elise Strobach,
Daniel Preston, Jean Sack, Joseph Sandt, David Bierman and Evelyn
Wang about stopping phonons in thermoelectric generators!
The song was written and recorded as part of the Intersection of
Sound and Science Podcast Contest from the Department of Energy's
Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES).
Please votefor it in the Deptarment of Energy
people's choice podcast contest.
Congratulations to all the creators!
06/09/2017: Congratulations to our recent graduates Dr. Heena Mutha, Dr. Yangying Zhu, Dr. Daniel Preston, Dr. Kevin Bagnall and Dr. Jeremy Cho!
Congratulations to
all our recent graduates!
06/02/2017: Congratulations to David Bierman for successfully defending his PhD
Congratulations to
David Bierman for successfully defending his PhD on Full Spectrum
Utilization for High-Efficiency Solar Energy Conversion.
05/11/2017: Congratulations to Dan Preston for successfully defending his PhD
Congratulations to
Dan Preston for successfully defending his PhD on Enhanced
Condensation Heat Transfer for Water and Low Surface Tension
Fluids. Read more about Dan and his research on his website.
05/10/2017: Congratulations to Heena Mutha on successfully defending her PhD
Congratulations to Heena Mutha on successfully defending her PhD on the Characterization and Performance of Vertically-Aligned Carbon Nanotubes in Capacitive Deionization Systems.
05/08/2017: Congratulations to Kevin Bagnall on successfully defending his PhD
Congratulations to Kevin Bagnall on successfully defending his PhD on Multiphysics Characterization of GaN HEMTs via Micro-Raman Spectroscopy. Read more about Kevin and his research on his website.
05/05/2017: Congratulations to Yangying Zhu on successfully defending her PhD
Congratulations to Yangying Zhu on successfully defending her PhD on Micro and Nanostructures for Two-phase Fluid and Thermal Transport. Read more about Yangying and her research on her website.
4/13/2017: Work on Water harvesting from air with metal-organic frameworks published in Science
Congratulations to Hyunho, Sungwoo, Sameer, Shankarand Ari for their new publication in Science: "Water harvesting from air with metal-organic frameworks powered by natural sunlight".
The paper reports the design and demonstration of a device based on porous metal-organic framework-801 [Zr 6O 4(OH) 4(fumarate) 6] that captures water from the atmosphere at ambient conditions using low-grade heat from natural sunlight below one sun (1 kW per square meter). This device is capable of harvesting 2.8 liters of water per kilogram of MOF daily at relative humidity levels as low as 20%, and requires no additional input of energy.
Read more on Science's Latest News, MIT Technology Review, Chemistry World, The Washington Post
3/2/2017: STPV work selected as 1 of 10 breakthrough technologies in 2017 by Technology Review
Congratulations to
David Bierman and Andrej Lenert!
MIT Technology Review has selected their solar
thermophotovoltaic (STPV) work as 1 of 10 breakthrough technologies
in 2017. This technology has the potential to be roughly twice as
efficient as conventional photovoltaics while also providing
electricity when the sun is out by combining it to thermal storage.
Read more at: MIT Newsand
Solar
Thermophotovoltaic
02/13/2017: Heeena's work on characterizing nanostructures featured on nanotechweb
Nanotech.org featured
Heena's work on characterizing nanostructures non-destructively
using impedance spectroscopy. This work has been published in
Nanotechnology.
01/05/2017: STPV named one of the Biggest Clean Energy Advances in 2016
Congratulations to David Bierman and Andrej Lenert!
MIT Technology Review has named STPV one of the "Biggest
Clean Energy Advances in 2016". Earlier in 2016, a demonstration of
enhanced STPV device performance through the suppression of 80% of
unconvertible photons by pairing a one-dimensional photonic crystal
selective emitter with a tandem plasma-interference optical filter
was published in Nature Energy. A
solar-to-electrical conversion rate of 6.8%, exceeding the
performance of the photovoltaic cell alone was measured. Read more
at: MIT
Newsand Solar
Thermophotovoltaic
01/05/2017: Work on electrowetting-on-dielectric MEMS stage published in APL
A MEMS
vertical translation, or focusing, stage that uses
electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) as the actuating mechanism was
developed. EWOD has the potential to eliminate solid-solid contact
by actuating through deformation of liquid droplets placed between
the stage and base to achieve stage displacement. Our EWOD stage is
capable of linear spatial manipulation with resolution of 10 μm
over a maximum range of 130 μm and angular deflection of
approximately ±1°, comparable to piezoelectric actuators. We also
developed a model that suggests a higher intrinsic contact angle on
the EWOD surface can further improve the translational range, which
was validated experimentally by comparing different surface
coatings. The capability to operate the stage without solid-solid
contact offers potential improvements for applications in
micro-optics, actuators, and other MEMS devices. The work was
featured on
The Engineeras well as on
MIT News. Read
more
12/22/2016: Congratulations for the new publication on "A thermophysical battery for storage-based climate control"
Congratulations for
the new publication "A thermophysical battery for storage-based
climate control" published in Applied Energy. The concept of a
thermophysical battery is demonstrated, which operates by storing
thermal energy and subsequently releasing it to provide heating and
cooling on demand. Taking advantage of the adsorption-desorption
and evaporation-condensation mechanisms, the thermophysical battery
can be a high-power density and rechargeable energy storage system.
We investigated the thermophysical battery in detail to identify
critical parameters governing its overall performance. A detailed
computational analysis was used to predict its cyclic performance
when exposed to different operating conditions and thermodynamic
cycles. In addition, an experimental test bed was constructed using
a contemporary adsorptive material, NaX-zeolite, to demonstrate
this concept and deliver average heating and cooling powers of
900 W and 650 W, respectively.
Read more
12/21/2016: Happy Holidays And Happy New Year!
The DRL wishes you a happy holiday and a happy New Year!
12/12/2016: The DRL wins MIT Green Labs Innovation Award
With the seed fundingreceived in April from MIT Green Labs, the DRL implemented a lab-wide wireless power monitoring network to log energy consumption in real time. Led by Dan Prestonof the DRL in collaboration with Ariel Andersfrom CSAIL, this effort has identified areas where energy can be saved in the lab and resulted in a Platinum certification by My Green Lab organization, the highest level of certification available. The DRL will use the 5k Innovation Award to found the MIT Lab Energy Assessment Center, through which any lab on campus will be able to request an energy assessment report provided by a team of students with a mobile energy logging network based on the pilot system in the DRL.
12/06/2016: Congratulations to Jeremy, Dan and Yangying for a new paper published in Nature Reviews Materials
Their work presents an overview of the surface, thermal and
material science to illustrate how new materials and designs can
improve boiling and condensation. Read the paper here!
12/01/2016: Congratulations to Jeremy Cho on successfully defending his PhD
Congratulations to Jeremy
Cho on successfully defending his PhD on Physicochemical Mechanics
of Surfactant Enhanced Boiling Heat Transfer.
07/14/2016: Congratulations to Solomon Adera for winning the Best Poster Award at the ASME/ICNMM 2016 conference
Congratulations to Solomon Adera for winning the Best Poster Award at the ASME/ICNMM 2016 conference for his presentation entitled " Experimental characterization and modeling of capillary-pumped thin-film evaporation from micropillar wicks". The HT/FE/ICNMM conference was held in Washington DC (July 10-14, 2016).
06/12/2016: Device Research Lab attends International Workshop on New Understanding in Nanoscale/Microscale Phase Change
Past and present
members of the DRL convened at this workshop in Trondheim, Norway
to discuss their most recent work with the phase change heat
transfer community in a forum organized by Professor Satish
Kandlikar and hosted by Professors Maria Fernandino and Carlos
Dorao at NTNU. Pictured from left: Shalabh Maroo, Ryan Enright,
Nenad Miljkovic,
TJ Zhang, and Daniel
Preston.
06/03/2016: Congratulations to Yangying and Solomon for winning Outstanding and Best Poster Awards at ITHERM 2016 Conference
Congratulations to Yangying Zhu for winning Outstanding Poster
Award for her presentation on “Model Optimization of Dry-out
Heat Flux from Micropillar Wick Structures”and to Solomon Adera
for winning the Best Poster Award for his presentation on
“Hotspot Thermal Management via Thin-Film Evaporation”.
Yangying and Solomon presented their work during the ITHERM 2016Conference in Las Vegas,
USA that took place from May 31 - June 3 2016
05/29/2016: Congratulations to Solomon Adera on successfully defending his PhD
Congratulations to
Solomon Adera on successfully defending his PhD on Thin-film
evaporation from well-defined silicon micropillar wicks for
high-heat-flux thermal management.
05/24/2016: David’s work on solar thermophotovoltaic devices featured in MIT News
Demonstration of
enhanced STPV device performance through the suppression of 80% of
unconvertible photons by pairing a one-dimensional photonic crystal
selective emitter with a tandem plasma-interference optical filter.
A solar-to-electrical conversion rate of 6.8%, exceeding the
performance of the photovoltaic cell alone was measured.
MIT News
article link
Article
link
05/06/2016: Congratulations to Daniel Hanks on successfully defending his PhD
Congratulations to
Daniel Hanks on successfully defending his PhD on Evaporation from
Nanoporous Membranes for High Heat Flux Thermal Management.
Evaporation
from Nanoporous Membranes
4/22/16: Congratulations to the DRL for winning MIT Green Labs Seed Funding
After undergoing waste
and energy audits and pitching ideas to promote environmentally
conscious research practices, the Device Research Laboratory won
1,000 dollars in seed funds to make the lab greener by reducing
energy and water consumption, reducing chemical waste, and
recycling materials!
MIT Greenlabs Website
MIT News Article
1/15/2016: Andrej featured in Forbes 30 under 30
Congratulations to Andrej for being featured in Forbes 30
under 30 list!
MIT News
article
The Michigan Daily article
Forbes list
10/27/15: Jeremy's work on controllable boiling featured on MIT News
Boiling
controlled both spatially and temporally via surfactants and
electric fields. Heat transfer can be adjusted tenfold.
Article link
Paper link
Video of
boiling set to Ode to Joy
8/10/15: Dan's Science as Art Entry Featured in MRS Bulletin
Dan's
submission to MRS Science as Art was chosen for the MRS Bulletin's
"Look Again" section. See the image
here.
5/29/15: Dan and Nenad's work on graphene condenser coatings featured in MIT news
Graphene condenser coatings are shown to enhance
condensation heat transfer by 4 times while exhibiting robust
performance. Read the article
here.
3/10/15: Nenad, Dan and Ryan's work on harvesting energy from jumping droplets featured in Frontiers in Energy Research
Devices utilizing superhydrophobic
surfaces and water in the air could power small, remote devices.
Read the article
here.
10/13/14: Yangying, Dion and Rong's work featured on the front cover of Advanced Materials
Read the paper
here and news article
here.
10/06/14: DRL researchers have developed a new way of creating surfaces on which droplets of any desired shape can spontaneously form.
The work is described in the
journal Nature Communications by associate professor of mechanical
engineering Evelyn Wang, former postdocs Rishi Raj and Ryan
Enright, and graduate student Solomon Adera. Read the paper
here and news article here.
8/27/14: Farewell to Dr. Andrej Lenert and Dr. Thomas Humplik
Andrej has taken a postdoctoral
position at University of Michigan. Tom has taken a postdoctoral
position at Sandia National Labs in New Mexico.
8/6/14: Congratulations to Yangying, Dion, and Rong for a new published in Advanced Materials.
Their work on creating
magnetically tunable microstructures to manipulate fluids and light
is featured on the MIT homepage. Read the paper
here and news article
here.
7/16/14: Congratulations to Nenad, Dan, Ryan for a new paper published in APL
Their work on getting power from
jumping droplets during condensation was featured on the MIT
homepage. Read the paper
here and news article
here.
5/30/14: Congratulations to Dan Hanks and ICEcool team for a best paper award and Kevin Bagnall and co-authors for a best poster award at ITherm 2014
5/22/14: Congratulations to Andrej and Tom on successfully defending their PhDs
5/17/14: Upcoming: GRC on Micro and Nanoscale Phase Change Heat Transfer on Structured Surfaces
Micro and Nanoscale Phase Change Heat Transfer Role of Surface Structures
-- http://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?id=16878
--January 11-16, 2015 Hotel Galvez Galveston, TX
--Chair: Yoav Peles
--Vice Chair: Evelyn N. Wang
2/7/14: DRL Winter Lab Outing
1/27/14: Andrej and David's work featured on U.S. DOE Science Homepage
Andrej and David's
work on solar thermovoltaics was featured on the homepage of U.S.
DOE Science ( link).
1/20/14: Congratulations to Andrej, David, and co-authors for a publication in Nature Nanotechnology
The work
shows the potential of harnessing the sun in the form of heat to
generate electricity that can be both dispatchable and efficient
via solar thermophotovoltaics ( link). The work is also highlighted in MIT Newsand featured on the MIT
homepage.
11/21/13: Congratulations to Nenad, Dan, and Ryan for a publication in ACS Nano
This work shows that
electric fields can help further enhance jumping droplet heat
transfer and offer new avenues for improving the performance of
self-cleaning and anti-icing surfaces as well as thermal diodes (
link). The work is also highlighted in MIT News.
11/21/13: Charged Jumping Droplets highlighted in APS
Nenad, Dan, Alex, and Ryan's
work on charged jumping droplets was selected as one of the most
outstanding entries in the APS imageand videogalleries based on artistic content, originality,
and their ability to convey information.
11/5/13: Jumping Charged Droplets featured in NY Times
Research on electrically
charged jumping droplets was featured in the New York Times.
11/4/13: DRL work highlighted in Materials Processing Center and MITnews
MPC ( link) and MITnews ( link) highlight research at DRL on ways to
control changes in phase of gases and liquids to reduce power
consumption in heating and cooling systems.
10/2/13: Jumping Charged Droplets featured on MIT news
Link to
MIT news
Also featured as a Research Highlight in Nature.
9/30/13: Congratulations to Solomon, Rishi, and Ryan for a publication in Nature Communications
This work shows that
droplets can be non-wetting on superhydrophilic microstructured
surfaces when the surfaces are slightly heated above the saturation
temperature. This finding has implications for various thermal
management applications as well as drag reduction strategies.
Link.
9/27/13: Congratulations to Nenad, Dan, and Ryan for a publication in Nature Communications
This work shows
that jumping droplets on superhydrophobic nanostructured surfaces
can accumulate charge that can be potentially harnessed for
enhanced heat transfer, energy harvesting, among others.
Link.
9/18/13: Congratulations to soon-to-be Prof. Nenad Miljkovic!
Congratulations to Nenad who will be starting as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in Fall 2014.
9/3/13: Advanced Thermal Battery featured in Automotive Engineering
The Advanced Thermal
Battery, a thermal energy storage device for climate control of
electric cars, was featured in Automotive Engineering
International.
8/29/13: DRL Summer Outing
8/1/13: Rishi Raj joining IIT Patna
Congratulations Prof. Rishi Raj who is starting as an Assistant Professor at IIT Patna!
8/1/13: Nenad's Publication in JHT Photogallery
Congratulations
Nenad and co-authors for their two heat transfer photogallery pages
in the August 2013 issue of Journal of Heat Transfer
Link to ASME JHT
Link to ASME JHT
7/10/13: DRL members to give 16 talks at 75th Anniversary Heat Transfer Conference in Minneapolis Minnesota July 15-19.
More details appear in Publications.
6/24/13: Congratulations to PhD Graduates Arthur Kariya, Rong Xiao, Hank Chu, and Nenad Miljkovic!
6/13/13: Congratulations to Rong and co-authors for a publication in Scientific Reports
This work introduces the new of mode of "immersion" condensation,
which promises 100% heat transfer enhancements compared to dropwise
condensation.
Link
Feature on MIT News
6/4/13: Rishi's work on wettability of graphene highlighted in MRS
Rishi's work relating the substrate effect on the wettability of graphene was highlighted on the 2013 Spring MRS Meeting. Link. View full poster here.
5/16/13: Nenad's condensation work featured on cover of MRS bulletin
Nenad's
condensation on superhydrophobic surfaces is
featured on the cover of MRS bulletin. The review paper can be
found
here.
4/29/13: Congratulations to Nenad for successfully defending his thesis
Congratulations to Nenad for successfully defending his thesis on the development and characterization of micro/nanostructured surfaces for enhanced condensation.
4/22/13: DRL work on thermal battery for electric vehicles featured on Technology Review
4/18/13: Congratulations to Hank and co-authors for their recently published paper in Applied Physics Letters
This work demonstrates the role of hierarchical structures for critical heat flux enhancement in pool boiling. Link
3/27/13: Congratulations to Rong and Shalabh for their recently published paper in Applied Physics Letters
This work demonstrates the use of negative pressures in nanoporous membranes for high flux thin film based thermal management. Link
3/6/13: Congratulations to Rishi and Shalabh for their recently accepted paper in Nano Letters
The work provides important insights to understanding the wettability of graphene, which promises applications in surface coatings, heat transfer, and microfluidics technologies. Link
2/15/13: Congratulations to DRL's 4 Papers Selected for Transducers 2013
Congratulations to Yangying, Rong, Hank, and Youngsuk for leading papers selected to be presented at Transducers 2013 in Barcelona, Spain.
2/15/13: DRL awarded DARPA ICECOOL Fundamentals funding
The DRL has been awarded DARPA ICECOOL Fundamentals funding to lead the development of a microfluidic-based ultra high heat flux thermal management solution. Link
1/4/13: Nenad and co-authors’ work on jumping droplets on MIT webpage today
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/research-update-jumping-droplets-help-heat-transfer-0104.html
1/2/13: Congrats to Hank for successfully defending his PhD thesis
Congrats to Hank for successfully defending his PhD thesis on Micro and Nanostructured Surfaces for Enhanced Phase Change Heat Transfer.
12/1/12: Congratulations to Andrej and Youngsuk for the Review Chapter in Annual Review of Heat Transfer
Congratulations to Andrej and Youngsuk for the Heat Transfer Fluids Review Chapter in the Solar Thermal Challenges Volume, Annual Review of Heat Transfer, 2012. link
11/30/12: Congrats to Rong for successfully defending his PhD thesis
Congrats to Rong for successfully defending his PhD thesis on wetting and phase-change phenomena on micro/nanostructures for enhanced heat transfer.
11/28/12: Congratulations to Nenad and co-authors for a publication in Nano Letters
Congratulations to Nenad and co-authors for their work on Jumping-Droplet-Enhanced Condensation on Scalable Superhydrophobic Nanostructured Surfaces. link
11/13/12: Evelyn Wang receives ASME Bergles-Rohsenow Young Investigator Award in Heat Transfer
Evelyn Wang Receives ASME Bergles-Rohsenow Young Investigator Award in Heat Transfer for the fabrication of patterned micro/nano structure surfaces that provide fundamental and mechanistic insights on micro/nanoscale heat transfer and fluid flow processes on nanostructures, and that have important applications in the cooling of microelectronic chips, solar thermal energy conversion and water desalination techniques. link
10/30/12: Congratulations to Rishi and co-authors for a publication in Langmuir
Congratulations to Rishi and co-authors on A Unified Model for Contact Angle Hysteresis on Heterogeneous and Superhydrophobic Surfaces link
10/29/12: Congratulations to Andrej and Youngsuk for a publication in International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer
Congratulations to Andrej and Youngsuk for their work on Focusing of Phase Change Microparticles for Local Heat Transfer Enhancement in Laminar Flows link
10/1/12: Congratulations to Teresa and the PHUMP team for a publication in IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging, and Manufacturing Technology
Congratulations to Teresa and the PHUMP team for their work on Design of an Integrated Loop Heat Pipe Air-Cooled Heat Exchanger for High Performance Electronics link
8/20/12: Congratulations to Dr. Arthur Kariya for completing his PhD
10/10/12: Congratulations to Ryan, Nenad, and co-authors for a recent publication in Langmuir
Congratulations to Ryan, Nenad, and co-authors for their recent publication on Condensation on Superhydrophobic Surfaces: The Role of Local Energy Barriers and Structure Length Scale. link
8/16/12: Nenad and Ryan's work selected into JHT 2012 Heat Transfer Photogallery
Congratulations to Nenad and Ryan on their work on Liquid Freezing Dynamics on Hydrophobic and Superhydrophobic Surfaces selected for the 2012 Journal of Heat Transfer Photogallery
7/6/12: Congratulations to Matt, Ryan, and co-authors for their publication in APL
Congratulations to Matt, Ryan, and co-authors for their recent publication in APL on water repellency during droplet impact on superhydrophobic hierarchical structures. http://apl.aip.org/resource/1/applab/v100/i26/p263701_s1
6/26/12: Congratulations to Hank and Ryan for their work featured on the MIT homepage June 26th, 2012
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/better-heat-transfer-0626.html
6/11/12: Congratulations to Hank and Ryan for their paper published in APL
Congratulations to Hank and Ryan for their publication in APL on structured surfaces for enhanced pool boiling heat transfer http://link.aip.org/link/?APL/100/241603
4/18/12: Kevin receives NDSEG fellowship
Congratulations to Kevin Bagnall for receiving the prestigious 2012 NDSEG graduate fellowship.
3/27/12: Evelyn Wang receives ONR Young Investigator Award
Evelyn is the recipient of a 2012 Office of Naval Research Young
Investigator Award. Research with this award focuses on the
development of advanced thin film evaporation and condensation
surfaces for thermal management devices.
http://www.onr.navy.mil/
http://www.onr.navy.mil/Science-Technology/Directorates/office-research-discovery-invention/Sponsored-Research/YIP/2012-young-investigator-recipients.aspx
2/23/12: Nenad's work on today's MIT homepage
3/7/12: Congratulations to Nenad and Ryan for being awarded Best Paper at Micro/Nanoscale Heat & Mass Transfer (MNHMT) Conference 2012
2/23/12: Nenad's work on today's MIT homepage
2/6/12: Congratulations to Nenad and Ryan for a publication in ACS Nano
Congratulations to Nenad and Ryan for their paper on Effect of
Droplet Morphology on Growth Dynamics and Heat Transfer during
Condensation on Superhydrophobic Nanostructured Surfaces.
Link
12/5/11: DRL receives ARPA-E funds to lead development of an advanced thermal battery for electric vehicles
MIT will develop advanced adsorption-based hot and cold batteries
for effective climate control of electric vehicles (EVs). These
batteries will have high cooling and heating storage and fast
charging times. The hot and cold battery completely eliminates the
need for a vapor compression cycle. It can handle peak heating and
cooling loads and attain continuous operation beyond the initial
charged capacity. If successful, the technology can also be broadly
applicable to residential and commercial buildings, where there are
substantial needs to deliver energy in the form of heating and
cooling while displacing electricity consumption during peak demand
times.
Link
11/27/11: Congratulations to Andrej and Anand for a publication in International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer
Congratulations to Anand and Andrej for their published paper on
Analytical Model for the Design of Volumetric Solar Flow
Receivers.
Link
10/29/11: Congratulations to Andrej for a publication in Solar Energy
Congratulations to Andrej for his published paper on the
optimization of nanofluid volumetric receivers for solar thermal
energy conversion.
Link
10/21/11: Nenad Miljkovic's work on today's spotlight!
9/24/11: Congratulations to Nenad for a publication in Solar Energy
Congratulations to Nenad for his published paper on the modeling
and optimization of hybrid solar thermoelectric systems with
thermosyphons
Link
9/2/11: Our UROP Nicholas Dou highlighted on MIT Energy Initiative website
MIT Energy Initiative home
page
Article
page
7/25/11: Shalabh Maroo accepts faculty position at Syracuse University
Congratulations to soon-to-be Prof. Shalabh Maroo for his faculty position in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Syracuse University starting Fall 2011.
7/25/11: Rong Xiao's paper just accepted to Langmuir
Congratulations to Rong Xiao for his paper "Microscale Liquid Dynamics and the Effect on Macroscale Propagation in Pillar Arrays"just accepted to Langmuir!
7/22/11: Water Desalination Review Paper Published
Congratulations to Tom and the rest of the desalination team on the review paper "Nanostructured materials for water desalination" published in Nanotechnology.
6/3/11: SM graduates
Congratulations to Jeremy Cho and Nenad Miljkovic for completing their SM degrees.
4/5/11: Andrej Lenert selected as a Martin Family Society Fellow for Sustainability
Congratulations to Andrej Lenert for being selected as a member of the 2011-2012 Martin Family Society of Fellows for Sustainability
3/16/11: Rong Xiao's late news paper accepted to Transducers 2011
Congratulations to Rong for his late news paper acceptance to Transducers 2011 in Beijing!
2/25/11: Nenad Miljkovic's work selected for ASME Journal of Heat Transfer Photogallery
Congratulations to Nenad and team for their work to be published in the ASME Journal of Heat Transfer Photogallery!
10/27/10: Evelyn Wang receives AFOSR Young Investigator Award
Evelyn is the recipient of a 2011 Air Force Office of Scientific
Research Young Investigator Award. Research with this award will
focus on advanced nanostructures for two-phase fluid and thermal
transport.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/young-investigator-wang.html
http://www.wpafb.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123228146
10/4/10: Water Desalination Report Highlights DRL Work on Zeolites
http://waterdesalreport.com/articles/27987
10/1/10: DRL receives high speed confocal imaging system with DURIP Award
DRL receives confocal imaging system to perform ultra-fast
three-dimensional transport studies in thermal management
applications under the defense university research instrumentation
program.
http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=13410
9/1/10: Rong and Ryan's paper published in Langmuir
Congratulations to Rong and Ryan on the recent publication in
Langmuir on Prediction and Optimization of Liquid Propagation in
Micropillar Arrays. Nice job!
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/la102645u
7/14/10: DRL receives MIT Energy Initiative seed grant for energy research
http://web.mit.edu/mitei/news/spotlights/seed-grants-5-10.html
6/3/10: Spectrum Highlights DRL Work on Water Desalination
http://spectrum.mit.edu/issue/2010-summer/drinking-seawater/
June 2010: M.S. graduates
Congratulations to Andrej Lenert, Catherine Koveal, and Batya Fellman for completing their M.S. degrees
June 2010: Matt McCarthy receives best paper at ITherm 2010
Congratulations to Matt McCarthy and co-authors for the Best Paper Award at ITherm 2010.
May 2010: Matt McCarthy accepts faculty position at Drexel
Congratulations to soon-to-be Prof. Matt McCarthy for his faculty position in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Drexel University starting Fall 2010.
April 2010: Hank Chu receives Taiwan Education Scholarship
Congratulations to Hank Chu for the Taiwan Education from the Ministry of Education, Republic of China.
3/28/10: Hank Chu's paper published in Nature Materials
Hank Chu and Rong Xiao's work on uni-directional liquid spreading
on asymmetric nanostructures was recently published in Nature
Materials.
Letter abstract
MIT
news article
2/14/10: Hank Chu and Matt McCarthy have oral presentations at Hilton Head 2010
Both Hank Chu and Matt McCarthy received news that they have an oral presentation each at Hilton Head 2010.
9/10/09: Rong Xiao receives Martin Family Society of Fellowship for Sustainability
Congratulations to Rong Xiao for becoming a 2009 Martin Family Society of Fellow for Sustainability
4/10/09: Batya Fellman receives NSF
Batya Fellman is a recipient of the 2009 National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship.
4/8/09: Rong Xiao's paper accepted
Rong Xiao's recent work on multilayer liquid spreading on superhydrophilic surfaces was accepted for publication in Applied Physics Letters.
4/1/09: Matt McCarthy's work highlighted by ASME
Matt McCarthy's prior work on miniature ball bearing with Prof. Reza Ghodssi is highlighted in the April issue of Mechanical Engineering magazine. http://memagazine.asme.org/Articles/2009/April/Rolling.cfm
Also, Matt's work on nanostructured nickel electrodes for
microbattery applications is selected to be part of the Highlights
of 2008 for Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering.
http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/-page=extra.highlights2008/0960-1317
2/26/09: Andrej Lenert featured by Energy Initiative
Andrej Lenert (2008 MIT Energy Fellow) is on the MIT Energy Initiative Spotlight.
