#FaradayPathways Huizhi Wang, Imperial College London

Dr Huizhi Wang has had an exciting and multidisciplinary career, from her PhD at the University of Hong Kong to her current role as Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London. She shares with us how following her curiosity has led her from thermal engineering into electrochemical devices, and her views on the importance of having the freedom for exploration in research.

Huizhi’s interest in science first emerged when she was at school.

“When I was very young, I was passionate about science.”

For both her undergraduate and master’s degrees, Huizhi studied thermal engineering – a skills set valuable to battery research.

“I have always been extremely curious about the things happening around me. It was the fundamental principals in thermal engineering that I learnt during my undergraduate and masters that laid the foundations for my future research in batteries. For example, many of the models of batteries and fuel cells that I work on are built upon a set of conservation equations, which originate from thermal engineering.”

Her interest in batteries emerged during her PhD in mechanical engineering at the University of Hong Kong.

“At the start of my PhD, I was assigned a topic to convert the chemical energy in metals like aluminium into a more useful form. Electrochemical methods are the more efficient way of doing this, so I started working on aluminium air batteries, and then moved on to aluminium ion batteries.”

Huizhi’s PhD advisor, Professor Dennis Y.C. Leung, at the University of Hong Kong, was a source of inspiration and guidance throughout her career.

“He is supportive even now. If I have any problems or questions, I can always chat with him. During my PhD he gave me lots of freedom in my research for exploration, which I think is critical in developing independent research skills.”

Between 2012 and 2014, Huizhi stayed at the University of Hong Kong for her first post-doctoral position, where she researched the transport phenomenon in low temperature fuel cells.

“One of the products of fuel cells is water, which creates additional water management issues. I thought my interdisciplinary expertise at the interface of thermal engineering and electrochemistry would be a perfect fit to solve that problem.”

Huizhi’s broad interests led her to start a side project during her post-doc, which investigated the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide.

“I was distracted by my curiosity so at a later stage of my post doc I decided to extend my approach to other electrochemical applications. I switched my research to look at the reverse of the fuel cell process – carbon dioxide electrolysers, allowing carbon dioxide to be converted into more useful products like syngas and formic acid. By leveraging thermofluidic principles, we managed to develop new electrochemical reactors with improved performance for this process. Interestingly, it was this side project that played a critical role for me to get my first academic position in the UK.”

In 2014, Huizhi moved across the world, to start her new role as Assistant Professor at Herriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, in the Centre for Innovation in Carbon Capture Storage (CICCS), which has now been rebranded to Research Centre for Carbon Solutions (RCCS).

“The RCCS had a new interest in converting carbon dioxide into more useful forms, like I had investigated in my side project, which is an important reason why I was lucky enough to be offered the academic position there.”

In 2018, Huizhi started working at Imperial College London, as Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. In 2021, she was promoted to Senior Lecturer. She has an impressive academic record of over 100 journal publications. What are some of her highlights of her career so far?

“I am very proud of all my work; it is hard to choose just one or two projects! My recent research has been the most systematic and complete work that I have done since joining Imperial. This project created a model of lithium-ion batteries with silicon / graphite anodes. Silicon exhibits very distinct behaviour from graphite, so creating an accurate model of how that alloy behaves in a battery on cycling is very important in designing a new generation of batteries.”

She is also the lead researcher on a Faraday Institution seed project, alongside Professor Gregory Offer, which aims to model the effects of gas generation during battery thermal runaway.

“If successful, this model will allow us to predict the thermal runaway initiation and propagation in a more accurate way. Those modelling tools have the potential to reduce costs and accelerate the battery design process.”

What opportunities has Huizhi gained from being part of the Faraday Institution?

“The seed project has definitely sown the seed for a new research area in my group. It has been a starting point for my group to investigate modelling battery safety, and now we have managed to establish a team of three researchers in this area, and there will be two more researchers to join us later this year.

“I was also involved with a LiSTAR project with the FI, which focused on lithium-sulfur batteries has a modelling component. I benefitted hugely from working on such a collaborative project, with people from diverse disciplines looking at different aspects of a single problem. This has helped me develop a more holistic view when looking at research questions.”

In the future, Huizhi hopes to keep working at the interface of thermofluid science and electrochemistry and developing more accurate and efficient battery models.

What advice would she give to early career researchers who are just starting out in this field?

“It is very important to set a goal that you’re willing to commit to. Ask yourself what you are interested in, what you are good at and what you need to improve on to achieve that goal. Make sure you include a work-life balance in your plan. Allocating time to non-work-related activities will benefit your wellbeing as well as your productivity at work.

“Also make sure to seek advice. Ask senior academics if you get confused at any moment, don’t be shy!”

Has Huizhi had to overcome any obstacles during her career?

“Not really! I can’t think of any major challenges because I have been so lucky to have been surrounded by so many kind people. These include Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer, at Herriot Watt University, and Professors Nigel Brandon and Gregory Offer at Imperial College London, who have all given me extremely useful advice and support when needed.”

 

This #FaradayPathways story was written by Nancy Stitt, Science Communications Intern, July 2023.