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Directory profile for Dr. Zhou Yu

Picture of Dr. Zhou Yu
Contact
  • 3017 South Engineering Research Center
  • Phone (205) 348-0413
  • Email
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Dr. Zhou Yu

Assistant Professor

Contact

  • 3017 South Engineering Research Center
  • phone (205) 348-0413
  • Email

Education

  • Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2018
  • M.S., Engineering Thermophysics, Shandong University, 2015
  • B.S., Thermal Energy and Power Engineering, Shandong University, 2012

Dr. Zhou (Joe) Yu joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering as an Assistant Professor in August 2024. He received both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Shandong University in China, followed by a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech. He subsequently took postdoctoral training at Argonne and Los Alamos National Laboratories.

His research focuses on:

  1. 1. Multiscale simulations, including density functional theory calculations, molecular dynamics simulations, continuum modeling, and machine learning techniques on advanced functional materials
  2. 2. Structure-property-performance relationships in novel battery electrolytes, including liquid electrolytes and polymer electrolytes
  3. 3. Electrochemistry, fluid mechanics, interfacial and transport phenomena involved in energy storage and conversion process

For more details about Dr. Yu’s research interests, publications, and opportunities within his group, please visit the group website (https://zyu.people.ua.edu/).

Affiliated Areas
Mechanical Engineering

Selected Publications

  • Yu, Z.; Batista, E. R.; Yang, P.; Perez, D.; Acceleration of Solvation Free Energy Calculation via Thermodynamics Integration Coupled with Gaussian Process Regression and Improved Gelman-Rubin Convergence Diagnostics, Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation 2024, 20, 2570−2581.
  • Yu, Z.; Shi, Z.; Bheemireddy, S. R.; Kamphause, E.; An, B.; Uddin, M. A.; Li, Z.; Yang, Z.; Xu, K.; Li, T.; Moore, J. S.; Zhang, L.; Cheng, L.; Simulation Guided Molecular Design of Hydrofluoroether Solvent for High Energy Batteries, Journal of Materials Chemistry A 2024, 12, 6294-6301.
  • Yu, Z.; Balsara, N. P.; Borodin, O.; Gewirth, A. A.; Hahn, N. T.; Maginn, E. J.; Persson, K.; Srinivasan, V.; Toney, M. F.; Xu, K.; Zavadil, K.; Curtiss, L. A.; Cheng, L., Beyond Local Solvation Structure: Nanometric Aggregates in Battery Electrolytes and their Effect on Electrolyte Properties. ACS Energy Letters 2022, 7, 461-470.
  • Yu, Z.; Curtiss, L. A.; Winans, R. E.; Zhang, Y.; Li, T.; Cheng, L., Asymmetric Composition of Ionic Aggregates and the Origin of High Correlated Transference Number in Water-in-Salt Electrolytes. The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 2020, 11, 1276-1281.
  • Yu, Z.; Fang, C.; Huang, J.; Sumpter, B. G.; Qiao, R., Solvate Ionic Liquids at Electrified Interfaces. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2018, 10, 32151-32161.

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