Research Summary:

Our research covers a wide range of materials, including polymeric materials, ceramics and glasses, and composites. One of our main goals is to design materials with unique structure (down to nano- and molecular-scale) for specific applications, including structural, functional, biomedical, environmental, and energy related applications.

More information about current projects can be found at our group webpage: http://wp.luyi-sun.uconn.edu

Honors and Awards

2016    Fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE)

2015    The Director’s Award for Faculty Excellence, Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut

2012    Presidential Award for Leadership Excellence, Chinese American Chemical Society-Southwest Chapter

2012    Best Paper Award, Engineering Properties and Structure Division, Annual Technical Conference – Society of Plastics Engineers

2012    The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) P3–People, Prosperity, and the Planet Award

2012    The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Norman Hackerman Advanced Research Program Award for Early Career Investigators

2011    Presidential Award for Excellence in Scholarly/Creative Activities, Texas State University-San Marcos

2010    Cottrell College Science Award, Research Corporation for Science Advancement

Google Scholar Citations Link

Selected Publications:

1. Wang, Z.; Yu, J.; Zhang, X.; Li, N.; Liu, B.; Li, Y.; Wang, Y.; Wang, W.; Li, Y.; Zhang, L.; Dissanayake, S.; Suib, S. L.; Sun, L. Large-Scale and Controllable Synthesis of Graphene Quantum Dots from Rice Husk Biomass: A Comprehensive Utilization Strategy. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2016, 8, 1434-1439. (Highlighted in Nanowerk, a leading nanotechnology portal)
2. Zeng, S.; Zhang, D.; Huang, W.; Wang, Z.; Freire1, S. G.; Yu, X.; Smith, A. T.; Huang, E. Y.; Nguon, H.; Sun, L. Bio-inspired Sensitive and Reversible Mechanochromisms via Strain-dependent Cracks and Folds. Nature Communications 2016, 7:11802; doi: 10.1038/ncomms11802.
3. Yu, J.; Martin, B. R.; Clearfield, A.; Luo, Z.; Sun, L. One-Step Direct Synthesis of Layered Double Hydroxide Single Layer Nanosheets. Nanoscale, 2015, 7, 9448-9451. (Designated by Nanoscale as a “Hot Paper”)
4. Wang, Z.; Zeng, H.; Sun, L. Graphene quantum dots: versatile photoluminescence for energy, biomedical, and environmental applications. Journal of Materials Chemistry C. 2015, 3, 1157-1165. (Invited review article)
5. Wang, M.; Wang, C.; Hao, X.; Liu, J.; Li, X.; Xu, C.; Lopez, A.; Sun, L.; Song, M.; Yang, H.; Li, X. Hexagon Wreaths: Self-Assembly of Discrete Supramolecular Fractal Architectures Using Multitopic Terpyridine Ligands. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2014, 136, 6664-6671.