Frontiers in Chemical Engineering

Title: Understanding (and controlling) electrified interfaces for energy and health

Abstract:

Charged interfaces between liquids and solids govern some of the most essential processes in nature and technology, from charge transport in batteries to electrical signaling in living systems. At these interfaces, function emerges, but so does dysfunction. Degradation, instability, and failure often originate at the same molecular-scale boundaries that enable performance. Understanding both function and dysfunction is therefore central to learning how to ultimately control these interfaces. In this talk, I will present our group's efforts to understand electrified interfaces by developing new tools to capture their structure and dynamics at the nanoscale, including transient and nonequilibrium states that have long remained hidden. I will then discuss emerging directions to control these interfaces, shifting from passive observation to rational design and manipulation. While electrochemical energy storage provides a primary context, our broader vision is to establish a generalizable suite of approaches for interrogating and engineering electrified interfaces across energy, biology, and beyond.

Bio:

Yuzhang Li is an Associate Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UCLA. He received his bachelor's in Chemical Engineering from UC Berkeley and his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University. The long-term goal of the Li group is to invent new tools and materials that address important challenges in sustainability and health. For example, we are leading efforts to leverage the powerful cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) tool to address grand challenges in sustainability. These efforts have led to significant breakthroughs in our understanding of batteries (Science 358, 506, 2017; Science 375, 66, 2022) and electrocatalysts (Nature Energy 8, 138, 2023), which represent important clean energy technologies necessary for securing energy resilience and security. New insights then inform parallel efforts in materials innovations (Nature 620, 86, 2023; Nature Energy 10, 502, 2025) that will enable transformative technologies. Yuzhang's research has been recognized with several awards, including the Packard Fellowship, Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, Forbes 30 Under 30, and young investigator awards from the NSF, DOE, NIH, DOD, ACS, and ECS.