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Liang Feng
Assistant Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Eng
The climate crisis is reshaping how we harvest, store, and consume energy globally. The Feng Group at Duke is dedicated to addressing grand challenges in energy, climate, health, and environmental sustainability by working at the intersection of materials, photo- and electrochemical, and polymer science and engineering. Our goal is to create innovative materials for capturing essential elements like carbon dioxide from air and sea, and to develop sustainable strategies for using these elements. Using renewable energy, we aim to create efficient methods to turn these molecules into valuable products. We will develop clean cooling techniques that aid in a fair transition to a net-zero carbon future, providing access to efficient, climate-friendly heat management. Additionally, we study bio-inspired materials and bio-interfaces, concentrating on their impact on cell health and the effects of greenhouse gases on biological systems.
Dr. Feng earned his Ph.D. in 2020 from Texas A&M University, where he investigated hierarchical architectures of porous materials with applications in carbon capture, gas separation, and catalysis. As a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University (2020-2023), he worked with Sir Fraser Stoddart (2016 Nobel Laureate) to explore non-equilibrium materials and their energy applications. Liang made a groundbreaking discovery of the first fundamentally new adsorption mechanism since the 1930s, revolutionizing the approach to methane and hydrogen storage, carbon capture, and water remediation in non-equilibrium systems.
Appointments and Affiliations
- Assistant Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Eng
Contact Information
- Email Address: liang.feng@duke.edu
- Websites:
Education
- Ph.D. Texas A&M University, 2020
- B.S. Wuhan University (China), 2016
Research Interests
Climate | Energy | Biomedicine & Health | Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics | Carbon Capture | Adsorption & Separation | Molecular Machines | Supramolecular & Porous Materials | Polymer Science & Engineering
Awards, Honors, and Distinctions
- Scialog Fellow in Negative Emissions Science. Research Corporation for Science Advancement | Sloan Foundation. 2023
- 12 Under 12 Young Alumni Spotlight. Association of Former Students, Texas A&M University. 2022
- Forbes 30 Under 30. Forbes. 2022
- Innovators Under 35 of China. MIT Technology Review. 2022
- Award for Excellence in Publications by a Young Member. International Adsorption Society. 2022
- MRS Postdoctoral Award. Materials Research Society. 2022
- Distinguished Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Research. Association of Former Students, Texas A&M University. 2020
- Graduate Student Award . Materials Research Society. 2020
- Distinguished Student Award in Nanotechnology. Foresight Institute. 2020
In the News
- Meet the New Faculty Strengthening Duke’s Work on Climate Change (Nov 16, 2023 | Duke Stories)
- Engineering Solutions to Cutting Greenhouse Gases (Oct 26, 2023 | Pratt School of Engineering)
- Liang Feng: Creating Porous Materials for Enhanced Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Sustainable Energy Solutions (Jul 21, 2023)
- Liang Feng Will Be Joining Duke University as a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor (May 16, 2023)
- When push comes to shove (Feb 1, 2022)
- Liang Feng named to the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 list (Dec 16, 2021)
- First fundamentally new form of adsorption for more than 90 years driven by molecular machines (Oct 25, 2021)
- Mechanisorption mimics biomolecular machinery (Oct 21, 2021)
Representative Publications
- Wang, K-Y; Yang, Z; Zhang, J; Banerjee, S; Joseph, EA; Hsu, Y-C; Yuan, S; Feng, L; Zhou, H-C, Creating hierarchical pores in metal-organic frameworks via postsynthetic reactions., Nature Protocols, vol 18 no. 2 (2023), pp. 604-625 [10.1038/s41596-022-00759-7] [abs].
- Feng, L; Astumian, RD; Stoddart, JF, Controlling dynamics in extended molecular frameworks., Nature Reviews Chemistry, vol 6 no. 10 (2022), pp. 705-725 [10.1038/s41570-022-00412-7] [abs].
- Feng, L; Qiu, Y; Guo, Q-H; Chen, Z; Seale, JSW; He, K; Wu, H; Feng, Y; Farha, OK; Astumian, RD; Stoddart, JF, Active mechanisorption driven by pumping cassettes., Science (New York, N.Y.), vol 374 no. 6572 (2021), pp. 1215-1221 [10.1126/science.abk1391] [abs].