Faculty

Yingxi Elaine Zhu, Assistant Professor

Education
B.S. Polymer Sci. and Chem. Eng., Tsinghua University, China (1997)
Ph.D. Materials Sci. and Eng., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2001)

Professional Experience
Senior Research Scientist, R&D, General Motors (2002-2003)
Postdoc Fellow, Physics and DEAS, Harvard University (2003-2004)
Assistant Professor, University of Notre Dame (2004-present)

Research Interests

The overall objective of Professor Zhu’s research is to understand, control and exploit the interfacial behaviors of soft materials, including colloids, polymer/biomacromolecules and etc., by using a set of novel experimental tools. The research primarily focuses on packing configuration, phase transition and slow dynamics of complex fluids confined at surface with an emphasis on materials processing, biomedical engineering, and medical applications.

The main theme of the research program is to understand the structure and dynamics of confined molecules that are immediately at a surface. With the emerging fields of the fabrication of micro to nano-scaled devices to synthesis, design and release of a variety of advanced functional materials, the study of interfacial materials becomes more and more important. The properties of the involved molecules can be quite different from the bulk, owing to executed mechanical forces from local environments, reactivity of a matter at surface and the confinement effect, therefore, a fundamental study of such soft matter is in great demand. To enable the study of nanodynamics of complex fluids at an interface, Prof. Zhu’s research group will combine a custom-built force measuring apparatus with techniques in microscopy, ultra-sensitive fluorescence spectroscopy, high-speed imaging as well as image analysis, and surface patterning. With the development of novel experimental approaches, unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution will be achieved for the investigation of a variety of complex interfaces.

We will also utilize our knowledge of interfacial properties of soft materials at surface to design microfluidic devices for new materials synthesis and efficient bio-analysis. Of particular interest is the application of new techniques, such as drop-in-drop and encapsulation for the synthesis of lipid or polymer vesicles, colloidsomes, and living cell capsules. Micro- and nano-fluidics channels will also be used to study a variety of interesting topics in fluid dynamics and biophysics.

Publications
Awards
Courses
Images

Publications

Y. Zhu and S. Granick. Superlubricity: A Paradox about Confined Fluids Resolved. Phys. Rev. Lett., 93:96101, 2004.

S. Granick, Y. Zhu and H. Lee. Slippery Questions of Flow When Complex Fluids Moves past Solids. Nature Materials, 2:221-227, 2003.

X. Zhang, Y. Zhu and S. Granick. Hydrophobicity at a Janus Interface. Science, 295:663-666, 2002.

Y. Zhu and S. Granick. Limits of the Hydrodynamic No-Slip Liquid Flow Boundary Condition. Phys. Rev. Lett., 88:106102, 2002.

Prasad S. Sarangapani and Yingxi Zhu. Impeded Structural Relaxation of a Hard-Sphere Colloidal Suspension under Confinement. Phys. Rev. E, :(in press), 2007.

Siddharth Maheshwari, Lu Zhang, Yingxi Zhu, Hsueh-Chia Chang. Coupling between Precipitation and Contact-line Dynamics: Multi-Ring Stains and Sick-Slip Motion. Phys. Rev. Lett., :(in press), 2007.

Awards

No awards have been added yet.

Courses

CBE 30356 - Transport Phenomena II - Integral and differential transport equations are applied to the solution of heat and mass transfer problems of interest to chemical engineers. more >
CBE 40465 - Intermolecular Forces - A study of some of the major concepts of electrochemistry and materials science that provides the student with a foundation for understanding, at a conceptual level, some of the important corrosion... more >
CBE 60565 - Intermolecular Forces - A study of some of the major concepts of electrochemistry and materials science that provides the student with a foundation for understanding, at a conceptual level, some of the important corrosion... more >