Academic Staff

BEng (Tongji); PhD (HKUST)

Aera of Specialization

• Polymer nanocomposites containing graphene and other low-dimensional nanofillers
• Rational design and synthesis of nanocomposites in the form of 1D fibers, 2D films, 3D aerogels
• Thermal management composites with anisotropic thermal conductivities
• Functional composites for solar-thermal heating and cooling applications
• Composite sensors for multidirectional and multimodal sensing

Short Description

Dr. Shen received his PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2015. Before joining HKPolyU, he was a Research Assistant Professor at HKUST. Dr. Shen was also an Alexander von Humboldt research fellow at the Institute for Composite Materials (IVW GmbH) in Kaiserslautern, Germany, from 2017 to 2018. Dr. Shen was the recipients of numerous awards, including Hong Kong PhD Fellowship (2011-2015), Humboldt Research Fellowship (2017-2018), Best Oral Presentation Award (ACCM-9, 2014), Tsai Award (ICCM-20, 2015), and Editor's Top Reviewer Award (Composites Part A, 2020).

Research Projects

“Multiscale engineering of three- dimensional graphene/polymer composites for highly-efficient solar thermal energy applications”, Jul 2020 - Dec 2023, General Research Fund (16200720)

“Boron nitride nanosheets/polymer composite aerogels with super thermal insulation and high solar reflectance for energy-efficient building applications”, Feb 2020 - Jul 2021, Innovation and Technology Fund (ITS/012/19)

“BN/graphene hybrid polymer composites for thermal management and high-temperature dielectric applications”, Jul 2017 – Dec 2020, General Research Fund (16205517)

Teaching Activities

AAE3002 Aircraft Structures and Materials

AAE4105 Engineering Composites

AAE4002 Capstone Project

AAE5202 Advanced Aircraft Structures and Materials

AAE6101 Advanced Aerospace Structures and Materials

Opening Positions

We have following openings in Spring/Fall 2024. Interested candidates please send your CV with a list of publication to Dr Shen.

1. Ph.D. in functional composites (starting from January/May/September 2024)
2. Postdoc fellow in advanced manufacturing of nanocomposites (Starting as soon as possible)

Selected Publications

Full list of publications: https://scholar.google.com.hk/citations?user=jcewpCIAAAAJ&hl=en

Selected review papers

1. Jie Yang, Xi Shen*, Wei Yang*, Jang-Kyo Kim*. Templating strategies for 3D-structured thermally conductive composites: Recent advances and thermal energy applications. Progress in Materials Science, 2023, 133, 101054. DOI: 10.1016/j.pmatsci.2022.101054
2. Xi Shen, Qingbin Zheng, Jang-Kyo Kim. Rational design of two-dimensional nanofillers for polymer nanocomposites toward multifunctional applications. Progress in Materials Science, 2021, 115, 100708. DOI: 10.1016/j.pmatsci.2020.100708.
3. Qingbin Zheng, Jeng-hun Lee, Xi Shen, Xiaodong Chen, Jang-Kyo Kim*. Graphene-based wearable piezoresistive physical sensors. Mater. Today, 2020, 36, 158-179. DOI: 10.1016/j.mattod.2019.12.004.

    

   Solar-thermal heating and cooling

4. Kit-Ying Chan, Xi Shen*, Jie Yang, Keng-Te Lin, Harun Venkatesan, Eunyoung Kim, Heng Zhang, Jeng-Hun Lee, Jinhong Yu, Jinglei Yang, Jang-Kyo Kim*. Scalable Anisotropic Cooling Aerogels by Additive Freeze-Casting. Nature Communications, 2022, 13, 5553. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33234-8.
5. Jie Yang, Kit-Ying Chan, Harun Venkatesan, Eunyoung Kim, Miracle Hope Adegun, Jeng-Hun Lee, Xi Shen*, Jang‐Kyo Kim*. Superinsulating BNNS/PVA Composite Aerogels with High Solar Reflectance for Energy-Efficient Buildings. Nano-Micro Letters, 2022, 14, 54. DOI: 10.1007/s40820-022-00797-6.
6. Hongming Zhang, Xi Shen*, Eunyoung Kim, Mingyue Wang, Jeng-Hun Lee, Haomin Chen, Guangcheng Zhang, Jang-Kyo Kim*. Integrated water and thermal managements in bioinspired hierarchical MXene aerogels for highly efficient solar-powered water evaporation. Advanced Functional Materials, 2022, 32, 2111794. DOI:10.1002/adfm.202111794.

    

   Thermal management composites

7. Fengmei Guo, Xi Shen*, Jiaming Zhou, Dan Liu, Qingbin Zheng, Jinglei Yang, Baohua Jia, Alan KT Lau, Jang‐Kyo Kim*. Highly Thermally Conductive Dielectric Nanocomposites with Synergistic Alignments of Graphene and Boron Nitride Nanosheets. Advanced Functional Materials, 2020, 30, 1910826. DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201910826.
8. Xi Shen, Zhenyu Wang, Ying Wu, Xu Liu, Yan-Bing He, Qingbin Zheng, Quan-Hong Yang, Feiyu Kang and Jang-Kyo Kim. A Three-Dimensional Multilayer Graphene Web for Polymer Nanocomposites with Exceptional Transport Properties and Fracture Resistance. Materials Horizons, 2018, 5, 275-284.
9. Xi Shen, Zhenyu Wang, Ying Wu, Xu Liu, Yan-Bing He and Jang-Kyo Kim. Multilayer Graphene Enables Higher Efficiency in Improving Thermal Conductivities of Graphene/Epoxy Composites, Nano Letters, 2016, 16, 3585-3593.

    

   Nanocomposite sensors

10. Heng Zhang, Haomin Chen, Jeng-Hun Lee, Eunyoung Kim, Kit-Ying Chan, Harun Venkatesan, Xi Shen*, Jinglei Yang*, Jang-Kyo Kim*, Mechanochromic optical/electrical skin for ultrasensitive dual-signal sensing. ACS Nano, 2023, 17(6), 5921–5934. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.3c00015
11. Heng Zhang, Haomin Chen, Jeng-Hun Lee, Eunyoung Kim, Kit-Ying Chan, Harun Venkatesan, Miracle Hope Adegun, Okikiola Ganiu Agbabiaka, Xi Shen*, Qingbin Zheng, Jinglei Yang*, and Jang-Kyo Kim*. Bioinspired chromotropic ionic skin with in-plane strain/temperature/pressure multimodal sensing and ultrahigh stimuli discriminability. Advanced Functional Materials, 2022, 32, 2208362. DOI:10.1002/adfm.202208362.
12. Jeng-Hun Lee, Eunyoung Kim, Heng Zhang, Haomin Chen, Harun Venkatesan, Kit-Ying Chan, Jie Yang, Xi Shen*, Jinglei Yang, Seokwoo Jeon, Jang-Kyo Kim*. Rational Design of All Resistive Multifunctional Sensors with Stimulus Discriminability. Advanced Functional Materials, 2022, 32, 2107570. DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202107570.