NanoTherm Research Group

AI-guided thin-film evaporation and hierarchical thermal structures

Selected recent articles on evaporation, phase change, and AI-enabled thermal design:

• 2026 PINN-guided porous hierarchical structure for extreme thin-film evaporation
• 2025 Physics-informed neural network based topology optimization for thin-film evaporation in hierarchical structures
• 2024 Physics-informed neural network for thin-film evaporation in hierarchical structures
• 2021 Predictive AI platform on thin-film evaporation in hierarchical structures
• 2021 Evaporation in nano/molecular materials
• 2020 Temperature discontinuity at an evaporating water interface
• 2019 Ultra-high evaporative heat fluxes in nano-confined geometries
• 2018 Evaporation mass flux: a predictive model and experiments
• 2017 Surfaces for high heat dissipation with no Leidenfrost limit

Wetting, nano-bumps, and liquid transport

Articles related to wetting, interfacial transport, and engineered liquid pathways:

• 2025 Accelerated wetting induced by nano-bumps
• 2020 Surface tension nanogates for controlled ion transport
• 2020 On interfacial viscosity in nanochannels
• 2020 Advanced functional surfaces through controlled damage and instabilities

Ice nucleation, adhesion, and ice-shedding materials

Articles on freezing, ice adhesion, and durable icephobic surfaces:

• 2024 Mechanisms of heterogeneous nanoscopic ice nucleation
• 2023 Predictive model of ice adhesion on non-elastomeric materials
• 2022 Fracture-controlled surfaces as extremely durable ice-shedding materials
• 2021 Freezing of few nanometers water droplets
• 2019 Icephobic surfaces: definition and figures of merit
• 2019 Stress-localized durable icephobic surfaces

Hydrogen storage and nano/molecular confinement

Articles on confined fluids, hydrogen solubility, and hydrate-based hydrogen storage:

• 2024 Hydrogen solubility in confined water
• 2023 High-capacity hydrogen storage through molecularly restructured and confined hydrogen hydrates
• 2021 The potential of hydrogen hydrate as a future hydrogen storage medium
• 2020 Transport phenomena in nano/molecular confinements
• 2019 An in-situ method on kinetics of gas hydrates

Antibacterial, antibiofouling, and functional surface coatings

Articles on durable antibacterial, antibiofouling, and functional coatings:

• 2023 Antibacterial flexible triboelectric nanogenerator via capillary force lithography
• 2022 Built to last: plant-based eco-friendly durable antibacterial coatings
• 2021 Scalable inter-diffused zwitterionic polyurethanes for durable antibacterial coatings
• 2020 Hydrophilic polymer-based anti-biofouling coatings: preparation, mechanism, and durability
• 2020 Networked zwitterionic durable antibacterial surfaces
• 2019 Stress-localized durable anti-biofouling surfaces

Solar energy, thermal interfaces, and functional materials

Articles on solar thermal energy, heat localization, and related thermal materials:

• 2020 Solar heat localization: concept and emerging applications
• 2019 Full-spectrum solar thermal energy harvesting and storage by a molecular and phase-change hybrid material
• 2019 Capture and conversion of carbon dioxide by solar heat localization
• 2019 Flexible GaAs solar cells on roll-to-roll processed epitaxial Ge films on metal foils
• 2019 Nanostructured polymer films with metal-like thermal conductivity
• 2017 Aerogel-based solar thermal receivers
• 2017 Flexible anti-clogging graphite film for scalable solar desalination by heat localization

Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams visit

NanoTherm hosted local high-school students from the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams program and introduced them to research in the group.

Girls STEM outreach event

NanoTherm hosted students and families from Houston schools for a STEM education and research outreach event.

Science Fair of Houston and student research

NanoTherm represented mechanical engineering at the Science Engineering Fair of Houston. Jay Hobstetter won first place at the Texas State Science Fair for solar steam generation inspired by group research.