My philosophy of research is to have a fun and to be useful.

My main experience and expertise covers the growth of single crystals, theoretical and computer modelling of morphology of crystals, nucleation and growth kinetics, modelling of solid-fluid and fluid-fluid interfaces and design of crystallisation controlling additives, the mechanism of the formation and dissolution of lyotropic liquid crystals.

Published > 50 papers, mainly in Nature, Phys. Rev. Lett., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Phys. Rev., J. Chem. Phys. etc., and published or is going to publish 3 international patents. The major contributions are summarised as follows:

1. Discovered and identified for the first time the "rough-flat-rough" transition which occurs in the neighbourhood of the critical point of the roughening transition of paraffin crystals. Associated with this finding a first order roughening transition of paraffin crystals was identified. The work has been published in Nature. At the same time, Discovered for the first time the solvent-dependent critical behaviour of the first-order roughening transition for n-paraffin crystals. The behaviour was ascribed to coupling between surface melting and Kosterlitz-Thouless roughening. Theoretical models were developed to describe these unusual findings.
2. Developed kinetic models to predict precisely the genuine morphology of crystals, and the effect of the mother phase (including additives, solvents etc.) on growth habits. Current approaches to the prediction and control of the morphology of crystals consider only the interactions between the crystal surface and single molecules. The kinetics of crystal growth and the influence of the fluid phase are not explicitly taken into account. This leads to inaccurate predictions. Within the framework of our models, the correlation between the relative growth rate of a crystal surface and habit controlling factors have been established, by taking into account of the effects of the crystal structure and the fluid phase. This allowed us, for the first time, to predict the genuine growth morphology of crystals and the effect of the fluid phase and growth conditions on the growth habit of crystals. This work has been published in Nature.
3. Developed an inhomogeneous cell model which can describe properly the most important features of solid-fluid interfaces. In this model, a so-called surface scaling factor is introduced to establish a quantitative relation between the interfacial structure, the interfacial properties and the kinetic barrier. In association with this, a so-called interfacial analysis has been developed to calculate the surface activity of growth units.
4. Developed new theories on the kinetics of crystal growth and the trapping of foreign particles, impurities, etc. on the growth of crystals. From this study, the effect of foreign particles on the growth kinetics has been established quantitatively.
5. Developed new models for the description and control of 3D nucleation, and established a quantitative relationship describing the effect of impurities and foreign particles on nucleation kinetics. The results show that heterogeneous nucleation plays a key role in most cases and that foreign particles with different size and surface properties will govern 3D nucleation in different regimes. Genuine homogeneous nucleation occurs in some extreme cases, which are difficult to achieve under gravity.
6. Rational design of crystallisation controlling additives via theoretical and computer modelling. Based on the understanding, effective additives have been designed very successfully for control of the crystallisation of some important ionic and organic crystals. This work has led to a number of very important international patents to be filed in the areas of foods and home and personal care.
7. Developed a new approach to predict the non-ideal mixing behavior occurring in mixed surfactant systems, and to predict mixed CMC and interfacial tension from the corresponding properties and molecular structures of the single components. Along the similar approach, a molecular model has been developed to predict the phase inversion point and the corresponding bulk and interfacial properties of mixed surfactant systems. The established models allow us for the first time tackle these long standing issues from both fundamental and application point of view.
8. Developed new models to describe the formation and dissolution kinetics of allotropic liquid crystals and the effect of solid particles on the formation and dissolution behavior. The work for the first time provides physical insight into the growth, dissolution and stability of lyotropic liquid crystals. Therefore, the further analysis on the growth and dissolution from a molecular level becomes possible. The results have also extremely important implications for food processing and biological membrane structure and stability, and life related process.