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Dr. Yixiang WANG

PhD – Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, HKUST (2025)

MSc – Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, HKUST (2019)
BEng - Safety Engineering, Dalian University of Technology (2017)

Email:

keyixiang@ust.hk

Bio

Dr. Yixiang Wang is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He received his bachelor's degree from Dalian University of Technology in 2017 and his master's and doctoral degrees from HKUST in 2019 and 2025, respectively. He previously worked as a research associate in Mechanical Engineering at The University of Hong Kong. His research combines molecular dynamics simulations, computational fluid dynamics, machine learning and experimental studies to investigate ice formation, ion transport and separation processes for water desalination and resource recovery. His publications include studies of freeze desalination, heterogeneous ice nucleation and lithium-selective membranes in Advanced Science, Physical Review Research, Desalination and The Journal of Physical Chemistry B. He has contributed to GRF-funded research and the XPRIZE Water Scarcity competition, and has mentored master's students.

Research Interests

  • Freeze desalination and control of ion rejection during seawater freezing​

  • Ice nucleation and growth at nanoscale interfaces

  • Molecular dynamics simulations of ion transport and selective separation

  • Membrane-based lithium extraction and resource recovery

  • Machine learning and computational fluid dynamics for transport processes

Selected Publications

  1. Wei, X., Sun, J., Boey, M. W., Li, X., Kim, M., Kim, J., Chen, H., Sit, P. H.-L., Wang, Y., Li, Z., Low, Z.-X., Lam, J. C.-H., An, A. K. Ion Superhighways in a Hierarchical Polymer-Ceramic Membrane Enable Rapid and Selective Lithium Extraction. Advanced Science. 2026, e76649.

  2. Shi, D., Wang, Y., Sun, Y., Li, Z. Enhancing drinking water yield in shear-assisted freeze desalination. Desalination. 2026, 629: 120162.

  3. Wang, Y., Shi, D., Huang, B., Li, Z. Effects of Mechanical Vibration on the Ice Growth Rate. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B. 2026, 130(11): 3187-3192.

  4. Shi, D., Zhou, L., Wang, Y., Zhou, Y., Li, Z. Factors determining ion rejection and one-step freeze desalination. Physical Review Research. 2025, 7(3): 033196.

  5. Wang, Y., Huang, B., Li, Z. Electric Field-Enhanced Ion Rejection Rate in Freeze Desalination. ChemPhysChem. 2024, 25(21): e202400397.

  6. Wang, Y., Mo, J., Luo, S., Zhang, Y., Huang, B., Li, Z. Effects of convex surface roughness on heterogeneous ice nucleation. AIP Advances. 2024, 14(5): 055214.

  7. Wang, Y., Shi, D., Liu, G., Huang, B., Li, Z. Shear-Enhanced Ion Rejection during Seawater Freezing. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B. 2023, 127(48): 10404-10410.

  8. Liu, B., Zhou, L., Wang, Y., Zhuo, S., Zhou, Y., Yang, J., Li, Z. Diffusion of LiCl electrolytes in 3D-nanoporous graphene structures. Journal of Applied Physics. 2023, 134(14): 144701.

Reseach Projects

  1. XPRIZE Water Scarcity competition: Team leadership and integration of molecular dynamics simulations, machine learning and experimental platform development.

  2. RGC General Research Fund: Improving ion rejection through anisotropic water crystallization in NaCl solutions under electric fields for freeze desalination. Led molecular dynamics simulations and contributed to related experimental work.

  3. RGC General Research Fund: Investigation of ion rejection in the freezing of NaCl solutions towards seawater desalination through water crystallization. Led molecular dynamics simulations and contributed to related experimental work.

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