About us

Our group uses tools from engineering mechanics, statistical physics, and computational chemistry to investigate the molecular mechanisms governing the remarkable and complex behavior of nanostructured materials.

​

We are interested in understanding the roles of disorder, heterogeneity, and hierarchical organization on the mechanical and transport properties, as well as aging behavior, of nanoporous materials for energy and infrastructure applications.

Our ultimate aim is to address persistent engineering challenges ranging from access to clean water to sustainable infrastructure through the design of new material architectures that harness nanoscale phenomena.

Selected Publications

Projects

Mechano-chemical coupling in nanoporous networks

Nanoporous engineering materials ranging from battery electrodes to concrete are subjected during service to a variety of stress-inducing reactions. The mechanical forces generated by these chemical reactions occurring at nanointerfaces change the structure and interconnectivity of the nanoporous network, which in turn affect the pathways, kinetics, and rates of the reactions taking place. This feedback between chemistry and mechanics leads to complex non-linear evolution whose understanding is critical to improving the performance of these materials.

Our research focuses on elucidating how the network architecture and the properties of the constituent materials can be tailored to control mechano-chemical coupling, and therefore the emerging response of the nanoporous material. Our ultimate aim is to enable transformative breakthroughs in the development of zero-expansion electrodes for ultra-long-lived batteries, or concrete resistant to deleterious expansive reactions.

Aging of disordered nanoporous structural materials

Understanding the multiscale mechanisms of aging in concrete is critical for developing sustainable and resilient infrastructure with improved life expectancy. The degradation of its mechanical properties and loss of performance over time results, at a fundamental level, from aqueous chemical reactions that lead to variations in nanointerfacial hydration and changes in the surface chemistry and morphology of the nanopores. These nanoscale aging mechanisms are in turn regulated by the flow characteristics and mechanical behavior of mesoscale regions of the evolving nanoporous network.

Our research focuses on characterizing the main pathways and kinetics of deleterious nanointerfacial reactions under realistic non-equilibrium service conditions. Then, incorporating that microscopic information in reduced-order models that allow studying the microstructural evolution and chemical kinetics of realistic morphologies at length and time scales relevant to infrastructure systems.

Team

LUIS ALBERTO RUIZ PESTANA

Assistant Professor (starting 2019)
Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering
University of Miami

Open positions

Get in touch

Contact us regarding our published work, course offerings, open positions or any other inquiries.

McArthur Engineering Building
1251 Memorial Dr., University of Miami,
Coral Gables, Florida 33146

(321) 945 5225