Nanotechnology has the potential to transform how we capture, store and use energy, but only if these pieces work together. In this lecture, Bingqing Wei, George W. Laird Professor of Mechanical Engineering, will explore how nanoscale materials and devices can be integrated into a unified platform for sustainable, carbon-neutral energy systems.

Bingqing Wei

George W. Laird Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Developing an integrated nanotechnology platform that enables sustainable energy systems

The global imperative to achieve carbon-neutral energy systems demands fundamental advances in how we convert, store, and utilize energy. These challenges are deeply interconnected: energy harvested from renewable sources such as solar must be efficiently stored, and the devices that consume it must operate with minimal power consumption and high efficiency. On the other hand, over the past four decades, nanotechnology has emerged as one of the most transformative technological fields, contributing profoundly to both fundamental science and a wide range of applications, including energy technologies. Bingqing Wei’s  research program has sought to address critical energy challenges by designing and integrating nanotechnology-enabled materials and devices that span the entire energy lifecycle. By developing novel material architectures, exploring nanoscale transport phenomena, and integrating these components into functional prototype devices, his long-term goal is to establish a nanotechnology-centered, unified platform for sustainable energy technologies. Selected examples from this work will be highlighted in this lecture.

BIOGRAPHY

Bingqing Wei is the George W. Laird Professor of Mechanical Engineering and serves as Director of the Center for Fuel Cells and Batteries at the University of Delaware. Before joining UD in 2007, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Center for Computation and Technology at Louisiana State University 2003-2007. He was a research scientist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Rensselaer Nanotechnology Center 2000-2003. From 1993 to 2001, he was a faculty member at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Wei's research portfolio spans a diverse range of topics, with a particular focus on nanomaterials and nanotechnology (carbon nanotubes and graphene), renewable energy (solar cells and photo-induced hydrogen), and advanced electrochemical energy systems (supercapacitors and batteries). He was awarded the Highly Cited Researchers award from Clarivate, selected to be a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and appointed to be the inaugural Field-Chief-Editor of Frontiers in Nanotechnology.