Publication

Theory of chemically driven pattern formation in phase-separating liquids and solids
Hongbo Zhao, Martin Z. Bazant arxiv

• Reaction competes with diffusion and suppress phase separation.
• A phase diagram of pattern formation in chemically reactive phase separating systems, including liquid-liquid phase separation and phase separation in solids where chemo-mechanical interaction plays an important role in controlling the morphology due to distortion of crystal lattices with the coexistence of different phases.

16. Condensate-driven interfacial forces reposition DNA loci and measure chromatin viscoelasticity
Amy R. Strom, Yoonji Kim, Hongbo Zhao, Natalia Orlovsky, Yi-Che Chang, Andrej Košmrlj, Cornelis Storm, Clifford P. Brangwynne, Cell (2024) Link Princeton press release

• A novel model coupling phase field model with viscoelasticity to elucidate the dynamics of DNA recoiling and pulling by condensates via optogenetic control.
• Physically move genetic loci and probe chromatin viscoelasticity using capillary forces.

15. Beyond Constant Current: Origin of Pulse-Induced Activation in Phase-Transforming Battery Electrodes
Haitao D. Deng, Norman Jin, Peter M. Attia, Kipil Lim, Stephen Dongmin Kang, Nidhi Kapate, Hongbo Zhao, Yiyang Li, Martin Z. Bazant, William C. Chueh, ACS Nano 18, 3, 2210–2218 (2024) Link

• A pulse charge (increased Li insertion rate) suppresses phase separation in particles and facilitates the reaction, as captured by many-particle phase field simulations.

14. A cross-scale framework for evaluating flexibility values of battery and fuel cell electric vehicles
Ruixue Liu, Guannan He, Xizhe Wang, Dharik Mallapragada, Hongbo Zhao, Yang Shao-Horn, Benben Jiang, Nature Communications 15, 280 (2024) Link

13. Chemotactic motility-induced phase separation
Hongbo Zhao, Andrej Košmrlj, Sujit Datta, Physical Review Letters. 131, 118301 (2023) (Editor’s Suggestion) Link

• Discovery of a new mode of pattern formation in active matter that arises from the competition between chemotaxis and motility-induced phase separation (MIPS).
• Chemotaxis may suppress MIPS and may give rise to patterns including lattice, stripes, traveling wave, traveling crystal, and spirals.

12. Learning heterogeneous reaction kinetics from X-ray movies pixel-by-pixel
Hongbo Zhao, Haitao Deng, Alexander Cohen, Jongwoo Lim, Yiyang Li, Dimitrios Fraggedakis, Benben Jiang, Brian D. Storey, William C. Chueh, Richard D. Braatz, Martin Z. Bazant, Nature 621, 289–294 (2023) Link MIT spotlight, Stanford press release

• The first inversion of experimental videos of reactive LiFePO₄ nanoparticles to extract free energy, reaction kinetics, and surface heterogeneity via PDE-constrained optimization and Bayesian inference. The results are validated through physical models and alternative measurements of carbon coating thickness.
• Video: comparison of experiments (left) and learned model (right).

11. Dynamic surface phases controlling asymmetry of high-rate lithiation and delithiation in phase-separating electrodes
Bonho Koo, Jinkyu Chung, Juwon Kim, Dimitrios Fraggedakis, Sungjae Seo, Chihyun Nam, Danwon Lee, Jeongwoo Han, Sugeun Jo, Hongbo Zhao, Neel Nadkarni, Jian Wang, Namdong Kim, Markus Weigand, Martin Z. Bazant, Jongwoo Lim, Energy & Environmental Science 16, 3302-3313 (2023) Link

• Watch the asymmetric dynamics of Li insertion and extraction from the side facets of LiFePO₄ particles.

10. Correlative image learning of chemo-mechanics in phase-transforming solids
Haitao D. Deng, Hongbo Zhao, Norman Jin, Lauren Hughes, Benjamin H. Savitzky, Colin Ophus, Dimitrios Fraggedakis, András Borbély, Young-Sang Yu, Eder G. Lomeli, Rui Yan, Jueyi Liu, David A Shapiro, Wei Cai, Martin Z. Bazant, Andrew M. Minor, William C. Chueh, Nature Materials 21, 547-554 (2022) Link Stanford press release

• Solving the inverse problem of the crystal lattice mismatch (misfit strain) as a function of Li concentration based on images of Li concentration (real space imaging) and strain field (reciprocal space imaging).

9. Fast charging design for Lithium-ion batteries via Bayesian optimization
Benben Jiang, Marc D. Berliner, Kun Lai, Patrick A. Asinger, Hongbo Zhao, Patrick K. Herring, Martin Z. Bazant, Richard D. Braatz, Applied Energy 307, 118244 (2022) Link

8. Nonlinear Identifiability Analysis of the Porous Electrode Theory Model of Lithium-Ion Batteries
Marc D. Berliner, Hongbo Zhao, Supratim Das, Michael Forsuelo, Benben Jiang, William H. Chueh, Martin Z. Bazant, Richard D. Braatz, Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 168, 090546 (2021) Link

7. Image Inversion and Uncertainty Quantification for Constitutive Laws of Pattern Formation
Hongbo Zhao, Richard D. Braatz, Martin Z. Bazant, Journal of Computational Physics 436, 110279 (2021) Link

• A framework of learning constitutive laws of reaction kinetics, phase separation, and diffusion in pattern forming systems based on partial-different-equation (PDE) constrained optimization and Bayesian inference.
• Uncertainty quantification of the inferred constitutive laws depending on the image quality, resolution, time window, field of view, experimental conditions, etc.

6. Guiding the design of heterogeneous electrode microstructures for Li-ion batteries: microscopic imaging, predictive modeling, and machine learning
Hongyi Xu, Juner Zhu, Donal P. Finegan, Hongbo Zhao, Xuekun Lu, Wei Li,
Nathaniel Hoffman, Antonio Bertei, Paul Shearing, Martin Z. Bazant, Advanced Energy Materials 11, 2003908 (2021) Link

5. Correlated Ion Transport and the Gel Phase in Room Temperature Ionic Liquids
Michael McEldrew, Zachary A.H. Goodwin, Hongbo Zhao, Martin Z. Bazant, Alexei A. Kornyshev, The Journal of Physical Chemistry B 125, 2677-2689 (2021) Link

4. Fictitious Phase Separation in Li Layered Oxides Driven by Electro-Autocatalysis
(*: equally contributing) Jungjin Park*, Hongbo Zhao*, Stephen Dongmin Kang*, Kipil Lim, Chia-Chin Chen, Young-Sang Yu, Richard D. Braatz, David A. Shapiro, Jihyun Hong, Michael F. Toney, Martin Z. Bazant, and William C. Chueh Nature Materials, 20, 991–999 (2021) Link SLAC press release

• Uncovered the role of autocatalytic reactions in the phase separation of lithium layered oxides into coexisting populations of reacted and unreacted particles through a combination of microscopic imaging, X-ray diffraction, Bayesian model selection, and PDE-constrained inversion of reaction kinetics.

3. Learning the physics of pattern formation from images
Hongbo Zhao, Brian D. Storey, Richard D. Braatz, Martin Z. Bazant Physical review letters 124, 060201 (2020) (Editor’s Suggestion) Link

• Learning constitutive laws including free energy, diffusivity, and direct correlation function from images of phase separation and pattern formation based on partial-differential-equation (PDE) constrained optimization.
• Example equations include Cahn-Hilliard equation and phase field crystal model.

2. Population dynamics of driven autocatalytic reactive mixtures
Hongbo Zhao, Martin Z. Bazant Physical Review E 100, 012144 (2019) Link

• Autocatalytic reactions can enhance phase separation in systems that stays mixed in thermodynamic equilibrium while autoinhibitory reactions can suppress phase separation.
• Fokker-Planck equation elucidates the nonlinear dynamics of a population of reaction-limited particles.

1. Linear Stability Analysis of Transient Electrodeposition in Charged Porous Media: Suppression of Dendritic Growth by Surface Conduction
Edwin Khoo, Hongbo Zhao, Martin Z. Bazant Journal of The Electrochemical Society 166, A2280(2019) Link

• Linear stability analysis of interface as it grows due to electrodeposition.