Shu Yang

Researchers made a variety of shapes, including flowers (center) and corals. By changing the ratio of long- to short- rod-like mesogens in the droplet, the researchers could control what shapes the droplets changed into when the temperature was decreased. A new study in Nature details the “weird” finding by showing how droplets containing short chain liquid … Read more

In the heavily regulated building sector, innovative materials face a major disadvantage: building codes. For this reason, and because climate change can’t wait, Shu Yang is using approved materials in new ways to bring her self-cooling building skins to market. Yang is motivated by having an impact. Originally focused on studying nanomaterials, she recalls attending … Read more

A new study demonstrates a strong, reversible adhesive that uses the same mechanisms of adhesion as snails. When wet, the material conforms to the grooves on a surface and when dry, the material hardens and fastens itself securely to the surface. “When it’s conformal and rigid, it’s like super glue. You can’t pull it off. … Read more

Congrats to Emily Spencer and Gray DeSimone who won the 1st place in the Penn Engineering wide senior design competition for creating kirigami envelopes for self-cooling buildings! We are so proud of you!

In 2014, Shu Yang, of the Materials Science and Engineering, joined School of Arts and Sciences’ biophysicist Alison Sweeney on an unusual quest. Backed by a NSF INSPIRE grant for bold, interdisciplinary research, the duo aimed to unlock the solar-powered secrets of the giant clam. Read more. Continue reading at The Atlantic. and related reading at Mimicking Giant Clams to Enhance the Production … Read more

Jiffy pop, an aluminum foil pan full of popcorn kernels and oil, is a staple of camping trips. Because of the way the pan is designed, when placed above an open campfire the kernels expand the aluminum top as they heat and pop, ultimately resulting in a bag of popcorn. The aluminum is lined with … Read more

When it comes to cell phones, there are fewer things more frustrating than a short battery life. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University reported a novel and scalable approach to prepare electrodes from atomic thin 2D nanosheets in the vertical orientation via self-assembly (see publication in Nature). The method marries soft matter assembly and functional hard nanomaterials … Read more

Alison Sweeney of the University of Pennsylvania has been studying giant clams. She refer to the clams as “solar transformers” because they are capable of absorbing bright sunlight at a very high rate and scattering it over a large surface area. When the light is distributed evenly among the thick layer of algae living inside the clam, … Read more

When it comes to taking up room without adding too much weight, the bubble can’t be beat. Because they are mostly air, they’re ultra-lightweight and can expand to fill any given space. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) found a way to exploit these properties of … Read more

A collaboration between biologists and materials scientists at the University of Pennsylvania is yielding new insights into the wings of the “skipper butterfly” in the Costa Rican rainforest. What they learn could lead to technological advancements in systems ranging from power-efficient computer displays to sensors to energy efficient buildings, windows and vehicles. Read more