Featured Faculty Research

Dr. Fengyuan Lu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He received his PhD in Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2012, where he remained on as a Research Associate until 2014. Dr. Lu arrived at Louisiana State University in 2014 and formed the Nuclear Energy Materials group, which is an interdisciplinary area between materials science, nuclear engineering, Earth, and environmental sciences. His group focuses on three main research areas, including Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy (PALS), Ceramics for Nuclear Energy, and Radiation Effects in Nuclear Energy Materials. The behaviors of materials in nuclear environments depend strongly on the "interplay between the chemical composition, grain size, structural disordering, energy loss mechanism, and temperature.”  To investigate these material properties Dr. Lu utilizes such characterization techniques as Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy (SEM & TEM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Raman Spectroscopy, and Focused Ion Beam (FIB) sample preparation for in-situ lift out.

During his first year at LSU, Dr. Lu submitted a Louisiana Board of Regent grant proposal for a Gatan Precision Ion Polishing system (PIPS II). His successful instrument grant provides an advanced technique for post-FIB milling cleanup, removing any artifacts and Ga+ implantation layer that improves the sample quality for high- resolution TEM investigations of atomic structures. 

 

• F. Y. Lu, Y. Q. Shen, Z. L. Dong, G. K. Wang, F. X. Zhang, R. C. Ewing, and J. Lian, “Ion Beam Irradiation-Induced Amorphization of Nano-Sized KxLnyTa2O7-v Tantalate Pyrochlore”, Front. Energy Res. 2, 48 (2014).
• F. Y. Lu, T. K. Yao, J. L. Xu, J. X. Wang, S. Scott, Z. L. Dong, R. C. Ewing, and J. Lian, “Facile Low Temperature Solid State Synthesis of Iodoapatite by High-Energy Ball Milling”, RSC Adv. 4, 38718 (2014).
• X. Sun, C. G. Zhou, M. Xie, H. T. Sun, T. Hu, F. Y. Lu, S. M. Scott, S. M. George, and J. Lian, “Synthesis of ZnO Quantum Dot/Graphene Nanocomposites by Atomic Layer Deposition with High Lithium Storage Capacity”, J. Mater. Chem. A 2, 7319 (2014).
• T. K. Yao, F. Y. Lu, H. T. Sun, J. W. Wang, R. C. Ewing, and J. Lian, “Bulk Iodoapatite Ceramic Densified by Spark Plasma Sintering with Exceptional Thermal Stability”, J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 4, 38718 (2014).
• G. Q. Xin, H. T. Sun, S. M. Scott, T. K. Yao, F. Y. Lu, D. L. Shao, T. Hu, G. K. Wang, G. Ran, and J. Lian, “Advanced Phase Change Composite by Thermally Annealed Defect Free Graphene for Thermal Energy Storage”, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 6, 15262 (2014).
• L. Y. Ren, T. J. Simmons, F. Y. Lu, O. Rahmi, and S. P. Kotha, “Template Free and Large-Scale Fabrication of Silica Nanotubes with Centrifugal Jet Spinning”, Chem. Eng. J.254, 39 (2014).
• H. T. Sun, X. Sun, T. Hu, M. P. Yu, F. Y. Lu, and J. Lian, “Graphene-Wrapped Mesoporous Cobalt Oxide Hollow Spheres Anode for High-Rate and Long-Life Lithium Ion Batteries”, J. Phys. Chem. C 118, 2263 (2014).