Researcher

Dr Wei Wang

My Expertise

Fire Safety Engineering; Flame Retardant Materials; Antistatic Materials; Bio-inspired Fire Resistant Coatings; Lithium Battery Safety; Fire simulation and modelling; Molecule dynamics of functional polymer composites.

Keywords

Fields of Research (FoR)

Fire safety engineering, Composite and hybrid materials, Functional materials, Polymers and plastics, Nanofabrication, growth and self assembly, Inorganic materials (incl. nanomaterials)

Biography

Dr Wei Wang is a lecturer and an ARC DECRA Fellow at School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW). He has been working in the fire safety engineering for over ten years, obtaining his PhDs (fire safety materials and engineering) from the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and the University of Science & Technology of China (USTC) in 2019. In the same year, he joined the ARC Fire Training Centre,...view more

Dr Wei Wang is a lecturer and an ARC DECRA Fellow at School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW). He has been working in the fire safety engineering for over ten years, obtaining his PhDs (fire safety materials and engineering) from the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and the University of Science & Technology of China (USTC) in 2019. In the same year, he joined the ARC Fire Training Centre, UNSW and continued researching bio-inspired flame retardants, fire-resistant polymer composites and fire safety of new energy battery materials. In addition to fundamental research, Dr Wang has also been actively engaging with associated local industries  on fire resistant polymer foams and with governmental institutions such as Fire Rescue NSW on the fire safety study of new energy vehicles.

In the field of fire safety materials, Dr Wang has published over 80 peer reviewed articles, 2 book chapter, 2 conference papers, and 2 authorised patents and has achieved an H-index of 35 with over 3000 citations. In 2021 and 2022, he was recognised by Stanford University as in the Top 2% of Highly Cited Scientists. In 2022, he received an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA 2023) for his project “Multifunctional Biomass Coatings for Electrostatic Induced Fire Hazards”.


My Grants

  • 2023: Wei Wang, Guan Heng Yeoh, UNSW MME School Infrastructure Scheme. $50,000 AUD

  • 2023: Wei Wang. University of New South Wales-Faculty Matching Funds (Totalling $90.000 k AUD), Grant number: RG230135.

  • 2022: Wei Wang. the ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA 2023). Titled “Multifunctional Biomass Coatings for Electrostatic Induced Fire Hazards”. (Totalling $436.554k), Funder reference number: DE230100180

  • 2021: Anthony Chun Yin Yuen, Guan Heng Yeoh, Shaun Chan, Wei Wang, Eric Wai Ming Lee, Nadia Chek Lun Chow, UNSW International Seed Grant 2021. Titled “Artificial Neural Network Modelling Integrated with Molecular Dynamics Data for Detailed Description of CFD Pyrolytic Process”. (Totalling $5k)


My Qualifications

  • Sept 2014 to Oct 2019 | Doctor of Engineering, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, the City University of Hong Kong
  • Aug 2013 to Jul 2019 | Doctor of Fire Safety Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, the University of Science & Technology of China

My Awards

  • 2023 | The World Top 2% Highly Cited Scientists, Stanford University

  • 2023 | ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, ARC DECRA Fellow, Australian Research Council

  • 2022 | The World Top 2% Highly Cited Scientists, Stanford University

  • 2019 | Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Nomination Award of USTC, USTC

  • 2017 | the Pollyanna Chu Excellent Doctoral Scholarship, Chinese Academy of Sciences

  • 2017 | Second-Class Academic Scholarship, USTC

  • 2016 | the China National Scholarship for Doctoral Student, Ministry of Education

  • 2016 | First-Class Academic Scholarship, USTC

  • 2016 | Peter Ho Conference Scholarship, CityU

  • 2015 | ‘Dushu Lake’ Scholarship in USTC CityU Joint Advanced Research Centre


My Research Activities

Dr Wang’s research focuses on the following four areas:

1) Antistatic, flame-retardant and eco-friendly biomass coatings; 2) Bioinspired assembly: to design and fabricate hierarchical structures and interfacing materials inspired by nature for advanced performance, simulation of materials; 3) Safety of lithium batteries: to develop advanced separators and electrolytes for safe lithium batteries and to evaluate the fire risk of commercial batteries, Fire modelling and simulations, Molecule dynamics; 4) Nanocomposites: to prepare high-performance polymer/nanofillers composites, membranes and fibres (including bio-based natural materials) with advanced functions.

  • Phosphorus based flame retardants

  • Biomass-based fire-resistant coatings

  • Fabricate ceramic materials to construct layer-by-layer flame retardancy coatings and composites

  • Molecule dynamics of functional polymer materials

  • Green and durable flame retardants for application of fire-resistance out wall building materials

  • Antistatic and flame retardancy coatings and application on polymer foams, membranes, and aerogels

  • Flame retardant materials to obtain advanced batteries with high safety and performance

  • Numerical study of thermal management system and battery fire safety

  • Fabricate carbon-based inorganic materials as nanofillers to enhance mechanical performance and flame retardancy

  • Employ natural biomass to prepare advanced layer-by-layer coatings for improving flame retardancy and anti-static performance of polyolefin foams

  • Advanced flame retardant, conductive and eco-friendly coatings and further application in polymer foams and composites, building materials, manufacturing materials and electronics

  • Use UV-vis technology to thesis high transparency and flame retardancy coatings for polymer foams with various application scenarios

 

My Editorial Activities

  • Guest Editor, Editorial Board, Energy Materials (Real-time Impact factor: 11), Special Issue: Advancements in Safety Materials for Next-Generation Energy Technologies

  • Guest Editor, Polymers (IF: 5.0), Special Issue: Flame-Retardant Polymeric Mater: Synthesis Application

  • Topic Editor, Molecules (Impact Factor: 4.6), Special Issue: Natural Polymers for Fire Safety

  • Topic Editor, Polymers (IF: 5.0), Special Issue: Advanced Polymers for High-Performance Batteries

 


My Research Supervision


Supervision keywords


Areas of supervision

Topics of Research:

This project aims to develop an antistatic and fire-resistant spray biomass coating by self-assembling flame-retardant biomass polyurea and electrically conductive nanomaterials, to address the electrostatic and flammability issues associated with the polymeric matrices. To develop this advanced biomass coatings, four specific objectives will be addressed in this proposal:

  •    -Design, synthesise and characterise biomass flame-retardant particles and conductive nanomaterials.

  •    -Prepare antistatic and fire-resistant biomass waterborne coatings by self-assembling flame-retardant polyurea and conductive inorganic nanosheets, followed by application on polymer substrates.

  •    -Evaluate the antistatic property, mechanical performance, and fire-resistance of the biomass coatings and the treated polymer substrates, including the antistatic and flame retardancy mechanisms.

  •    -Understand and establish the component-structure-properties correlations of the conductive and fire-resistant biomass coatings for the polymer substrates.

Minimal requirements:

  • Majored in Materials Science, Chemical Science, Mechanical Engineering, and other related fields.

  • Interested in research areas: polymer composites, flame retardants, inorganic materials, organic synthesis, conductive polymers/inorganics, and multifunctional bio-inspired coatings.

  • Course marks: required.

  • IELTS: required.

Other expectations:

  • Has hands-on experience and skills about molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, computational  fluid  dynamics  (CFD)  model; battery safety materials; C4D; Maya; COMSOL Multiphysics;  

  • Strong oral and written communication skills.


Currently supervising

PhD students: 

Yuan Xien Lee (Jan 2024 - present, Joint Supervision)

Yu Lei (Feb 2024 - present, Primary Supervision)

 

Master students:

Liqiao Deng (Primary Supervision)

Yihao Jiang (Primary Supervision)


My Teaching

  • Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) course “Fighting Fires with Science”

  • Undergraduate Thesis

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Location

401E, Ainsworth Building(J17) Level 4, Kensington Campus