Abstract: Additive manufacturing and nanomanufacturing methods have led to many scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs for energy conversion and sensor-related applications. This talk will present our research results on several closely related topics. First, I will present a fundamental study of thermal and thermoelectric transport properties in nanostructured materials fabricated by using scalable nanomanufacturing methods, which have led to significant increases inthe  thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT. Second, this talk will discuss novel additive manufacturing methods to fabricate thermoelectric devices and sensors for energy harvesting and in-pile instrumentation for nuclear energy applications. Third, I will present our research on high-throughput materials discovery via combinatorial materials science and a novel scanning probe microscopy for property mappin, and its applications to develop irradiation-resistant materials for nuclear energy applications.

Bio: Yanliang Zhang is an assistant professor and the principal investigator in the Advanced Manufacturing and Energy lab in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at University of Notre Dame. He received a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2011.