Yang Research Group

Advanced Materials & Renewable Energy at University of Central Florida

Flexible, Smart Electronics and Photonics

Other Research Projects

Programmable Nanomanufacturing of Functional Materials

A general solution to the energy and environmental crisis is to develop sustainable energy systems that can produce and store energy inexpensively and efficiently. To this end, we are dedicated to studying the nano electrochemistry at materials interfaces, interfacial electron transportation in electrochemical systems, and light-materials interaction for solar energy harvesting.

We are also interested in using advanced materials and smart nanostructures for other applications, for example, ferroelectrics, electron field emission, sensor and photoluminescence. We are working to understand the nanoscale size effect on electric and optic properties of self-organized porous films.

​​We develop programmable nanomanufacturing techniques to precisely control the chemical composition and morphology of various nanostructured functional materials, including 2D materials, perovskite, and heterogeneous nanostructures.

Renewable Energy and Environmental Science

We are working on flexible and wearable thin-film electrodes for electronic and photonic devices. We develop self-standing, flexible, and robust inorganic films without supporting carbonaceous materials for flexible Li-ion batteries and supercapacitors. We are also interested in using porous thin-films for resistive memory and electrochromic smart window.

Research

The Yang group's research interests include surface and interface engineering of functional materials at the nano/atomic scale and their applications in renewable energy devices, environmental science, and flexible electronics. Our research focuses on understanding the electrochemical processes of high-surface-activity materials for clean energy & environmental sustainability. We particularly investigate electrochemistry and photoelectrochemistry at the nanoscale solid-gas-liquid interfaces for renewable energy generation and storage, solar energy harvesting, and device-level applications in many cutting-edge fields.