Research topics
The research of the Wang group is focused on bioinspired manufacturing and mechanics of unprecedented materials and structures that can potentially address grand engineering challenges in civil and environmental engineering. We are proposing novel strategies to address two grand engineering challenges:
(1) How to restore and improve urban infrastructure. We propose to harness living chemistry to design novel structures that can enable self-healing and self-strengthening in response to destructive environmental stressors (such as cyclic loads, greenhouse gases, water, and light). We also propose to harness living microorganisms to design Engineered Living Materials to serve as the next-generation infrastructure that can self-replicate, self-grow, self-heal, and self-strengthen.
(2) How to address challenges of plastic waste and microplastics. We propose to harness novel chemistry to design new plastics with full biodegradability and recyclability. We propose new mechanisms to drastically reduce microplastics in the air and ocean.
In terms of disciplines and scientific tools, we are focusing on two core areas:
(1) Mechanics of Materials and Structures: (a) Engineered Living Materials: bacteria-material hybrid and plant-material hybrid; (b) Smart Materials: stimuli-responsive materials, self-healing materials, and polymer mechanochemistry; (c) Architected Materials: acoustic metamaterials and mechanical metamaterials.
(2) Additive Manufacturing: new manufacturable materials and bioinspired manufacturing methods.
Project examples
(5) Manufacturing and mechanics of artificial trees with self-healing and self-strengthening:
Experiment: Photosynthesis Assisted Remodeling of Three-Dimensional Printed Structures, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118, 3, 2021.
Theory: Mechanics of Photosynthesis Assisted Polymer Strengthening, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 151,104382, 2021.
(4) Manufacturing and mechanics of extrinsic-healing ceramics:
Experiment: Bone-Inspired Healing of 3D-Printed Porous Ceramics, Materials Horizons, 7, 2130-2140, 2020.
Theory: Mechanics of Bacteria-Assisted Extrinsic Healing, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 139, 103938, 2020.
(3) Manufacturing and mechanics of self-healing thermoplastics:
Experiment: Healable, Memorizable, and Transformable Lattice Structures Made of Stiff Polymers, NPG Asia Materials, 12, 26, 2020.
Theory: Mechanics of Self-Healing Thermoplastic Elastomers, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 137, 103831, 2020.
(2) Manufacturing and mechanics of self-healing elastomers:
Experiment: Additive Manufacturing of Self-Healing Elastomers, NPG Asia Materials, 11, 7, 2019.
Theory: Mechanics of self-healing polymer networks crosslinked by dynamic bonds, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 121, 409-431, 2018.
(1) Polymer mechanochemistry:
Experiment: Cephalopod-inspired Design of Electro-mechano-chemically Responsive Elastomers for On-demand Fluorescent Patterning, Nature Communications, 5, 4899 (2014).
Theory: Mechanics of Mechanochemically Responsive Elastomers, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 82, 320–344 (2015).
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