Abstract
Understanding physical and chemical properties of confined water at nanoscale has implications for diverse practical phenomena at the intersection between chemistry, biological sciences, and chemical engineering, such as boundary lubrication in nanofluidic devices, frost heaving in soil, synthesis of antifreeze proteins for ice-growth inhibition, and rapid cooling of biological suspensions under high pressure. In this talk the speaker will report several research findings from his research group over the past few years on intriguing behavior of water, ice, and gas hydrate in highly confined environment or on nanostructured surfaces, for example, (1) new phases of low-dimensional ice and gas hydrate, and helical (DNA-like) ice; and (2) superhydrophobic phenomena at the nanoscale, e.g. nanoscale Lotus effect. Gas hydrates are solid-state materials typically consisting of a host ice frame with nanoscale cages that serve to trap small guest molecules such as methane. Methane hydrate is one of the most significant energy sources; and gas hydrate formation is also a critical issue in deep-water gas/oil pipelines. Molecular simulations of low-dimensional gas hydrate formation may bring new insights into bulk gas hydrate formation. In the beginning of the talk, the speaker will also briefly introduce two other main research activities in his research group, including structural evolution of gold clusters and computer-aided design of nanomaterials.
About the speaker
Prof Xiao Cheng Zeng received his PhD in Condensed Matter and Chemical Physics from the Ohio State University in 1989. He pursued his postdoctoral research at the University of Chicago from 1989 to 1992 and at the University of California at Los Angeles from 1992 to 1993. He joined the University of Nebraska – Lincoln in 1993, and is currently the Ameritas Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry.
Prof Zeng’s research interests include computation chemistry, materials chemistry and nanoscience. The most significant scientific discoveries from his research group include the two-dimensional bilayer hexagonal ice, two-dimensional ice clathrate, multi-walled helical ice, one-dimensional ferroelectric ice, single-walled ice nanotubes, hollow cages of gold, and single-walled silicon nanotubes. These findings were featured in the New York Times, Omaha World Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, Royal Society of Chemistry, American Scientist Magazine, etc. He has published 312 scientific papers with an h-index of 44 and over 7000 citations in refereed journals, including Nature and Nature Communications, Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Physical Review Letters, Nano Letters, ACS Nano, and Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
Prof Zeng received numerous awards including the American Chemical Society Midwest Award and the Sigma Xi Outstanding Young Scientist Award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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