Mechanics and Applications of Frugal Manufactured Materials and Functional Surfaces

This research work pioneers the feasibility of integrating the novel concept of frugal manufacturing into surface engineering techniques to assist the transformation of our manufacturing activities to a more sustainable level. The project utilizes inexpensive and easily accessible materials such as candle soot and copper sheets to fabricate functional surfaces and materials with extreme wettability and antimicrobial characteristics. With the underlying mechanisms behind them being fully investigated and understood, they subsequently exhibited excellent performances in deriving novel solutions to important applications such as fog water harvesting, surface sanitization, bioaerosol detection, wastewater remediation, and digital microfluidics.