Hangjian Ling’s Research Website

Super-hydrophobic surface (SHS), which traps micro/nano-scale gas bubbles on solid walls, has been reported to greatly reduce bacterial adhesion and biofouling. However, it is unclear whether and how the trapped gas bubbles reduce the bacterial adhesion. In this work, we examined the role of the trapped gas on the bacterial adhesion by measuring the spatial distributions of attached bacteria on SHS using scanning electron microscopy. Full article is available here.

This work is funded by UMass Dartmouth’s Marine and Undersea Technology (MUST) Research Program funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) under Grant No. N00014-20-1-2170. The Office of Technology Commercialization & Ventures (OTCV) Technology Development Fund from University of Massachusetts’s President’s Office.

Shabnam and Daniel’s paper entitled: “Impact of sandpaper grit size on drag reduction and plastron stability of super-hydrophobic surface in turbulent flows“ was published in Physics of Fluids. This work was supported by NSF and ONR.

 

James Bonnell and Shane Mercuri are undergraduate students at Mechanical Engineering. They will perform undergraduate research work in Ling’s Lab. Welcome!

Dr. Ling received the NSF CAREER award with an amount of $505,075. The project title is: “CAREER: Diffusive and Convective Gas Dissolution over Super-Hydrophobic Surfaces”. In this project, Dr. Ling aims to understand the gas dissolution process over Super-Hydrophobic Surfaces through innovative experiments and develop new strategies to extend the longevity of gas. This project has an education plan including five activities: undergraduate student-lead original research, summer workshop for high-school students, table-top experiments for K-12 students, class trip to a local autonomous underwater vehicle manufacturer, and technology showcase to marine industry in the Southeastern New England area.

The paper was entitled “Impact of the Undersaturation Level on the Longevity of Superhydrophobic Surfaces in Stationary Liquids”. This work was supported by NSF and ONR, and UMassD Seed Funding program.

 

 

Ankit Gupta is a new graduate student, and Colin J Nicoll is a new undergraduate student. Welcome.

Restoring and maintaining the gas layer (plastron) on underwater superhydrophobic surface (SHS) is critical for the real-world application of SHS, such as reducing friction drag in high-Reynolds number turbulent flows. In this work, we experimentally investigated the capability of a technology based on porous material and gas injection to restore the plastron on an underwater SHS from a fully wetted state.

We tracked 3D motion of bacteria and found how they accumulated to the wall. Check out more information here.

Md Elius worked in Ling’s lab from Sep 2021 to Aug 2023. His Master thesis work was to understand the bacterial and super-hydrophobic surface interaction. He will join UC Berkeley as a graduate student. Congratulations!