A $2,000 scholarship has been awarded to Yu-Sheng Li, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Penn State University, working under the direction of Dr. Seong H. Kim.
A fifth-year doctoral candidate, Li has become a very accomplished researcher, primarily focused on elucidating reaction mechanism underlying tribochemistry through physical experiments complemented by MD-ReaxFF simulations in collaboration with peers.
Li’s research has resulted in two lead-author publications in Tribology Letters and another in RSC Mechanochemistry. The Tribology Letters papers are of particular significance, as the first (and the one in RSC Mechanochemistry) investigates the concept of tribochemical “activation volume,” which is yet to be fully defined, and the second challenges the widely accepted interpretation that the D&G bands in Raman spectra indicate the in situ formation of DLC and amorphous carbon films within tribological contacts. Additionally, he has co-authored a paper in Faraday Discussions and Scientific Reports (with STLE member Ashlie Martini’s group at the University of California, Merced) where he provided significant experimental contributions to support the findings from MD-ReaxFF simulations.
Li’s recent studies have investigated the effect of electrical currents on friction and wear performance under vapor phase lubrication as well as the tribochemistry at electrified interfaces—an area of growing significance for industrial and electric vehicle applications.