Our research focuses on deciphering powerful and efficient evaporation-induced mechanical deformation in biological systems and replicating these mechanisms outside the biological context for evaporation-powered locomotion, green chemistry, and electricity generation.

• Haozhen Wang*, Zhi-Lun Liu*, Jianpei Lao, Sheng Zhang, Rinat Abzalimov, Tong Wang, and Xi Chen. High energy and power density peptidoglycan muscles through super-viscous nanoconfined water. Advanced Science 9, 2104697 (2022).
• Roxana Piotrowska, Travis Hesketh, Haozhen Wang, Alan R. G. Martin, Deborah Bowering, Chunqiu Zhang, Chunhua T. Hu, Scott A. McPhee, Tong Wang, Yaewon Park, Pulkit Singla, Thomas McGlone, Alastair Florence, Tell Tuttle, Rein V. Ulijn, and Xi Chen. Mechanistic insights of evaporation-induced actuation in supramolecular crystals. Nature Materials 20, 403-409 (2021). 
• Yaewon Park & Xi Chen. Water-responsive materials for sustainable energy applications. Journal of Materials Chemistry A 8, 15227-15244 (2020).   
• Xi Chen, Davis Goodnight, Zhenghan Gao, Ahmet-Hamdi Cavusoglu , Nina Sabharwal, Michael Delay, Adam Driks, and Ozgur Sahin. Scaling up nanoscale water-driven energy conversion into evaporation-driven engines and generators, Nature Communications 6, 7346 (2015).
• Xi Chen, L Mahadevan, Adam Driks, and Ozgur Sahin. Bacillus spores as building blocks for stimuli-responsive materials and nanogenerators. Nature Nanotechnology 9, 137-141 (2014).