Name: Xiaowu Hu Title: Professor

Email: huxiaowu@ncu.edu.cn

Supervisor Type: Master's/Ph.D. Supervisor

Main Courses: Principles of Material Forming, Micro/Nano Joining Processes and Technologies, Case Studies in Energy and Power Engineering

Research Directions

Our team has long been engaged in the development and cutting-edge exploration of phase change materials (PCMs), practical research on battery thermal management, PCM energy-storage applications in stationary scenarios, PCM energy-storage applications in distributed scenarios, and research on electronic devices/chip packaging interconnects and their thermal management. Specifically, this includes:

1. Mechanistic investigations of novel phase change materials (stimuli-responsive regulation driven by light, electric, magnetic, and acoustic fields); development and structural design of low-temperature phase change materials with low melting points and high latent heat; polymorph control and stability mechanisms of solid–solid phase change materials.

2. Protection mechanisms and engineering applications of composite phase change thermal energy storage materials for mitigating battery thermal runaway; composite fabrication processes and performance optimization of phase change materials integrated with building envelopes (walls/roofs); coordinated control technologies for building passive energy saving and intelligent temperature regulation systems based on phase change energy storage; thermal protection technologies using high-temperature phase change materials for aerospace equipment; packaging-structure design of phase change materials for cold-chain logistics and strategies to extend thermal insulation duration.

3. Micro-/nano-scale interconnection and packaging technologies for electronic devices and chips; development of joining solders and evaluation of their performance; phase change material–based thermal management technologies for packaged devices.

Education Background

Sep. 2004 – Jul. 2010, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Materials Processing Engineering (integrated master’s-to-doctoral program), Ph.D

Work Experience

Dec. 2018 – Present, School of Advanced Manufacturing, Nanchang University, Professor

Aug. 2015 – Aug. 2016, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University (USA), Visiting Scholar

Dec. 2013 – Nov. 2018, School of Advanced Manufacturing, Nanchang University, Associate Professor

Jul. 2010 – Nov. 2013, School of Advanced Manufacturing, Nanchang University, Lecturer

Academic Appointments

Young Editorial Board Member for journals including The Chinese Journal of Nonferrous Metals (Chinese and English editions), Transactions of the China Welding Institution, and Nonferrous Metals Science and Engineering.

Personal Honors

Young Jinggang Scholar of Jiangxi Province;

Young Academic and Technical Leader in Major Disciplines of Jiangxi Province;

Recipient of the Natural Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of Jiangxi Province;

Outstanding Supervisor for Jiangxi Provincial Excellent Master’s Theses;

Elsevier Solar Energy Journal Best Paper Award 2025.

Major Achievements

Has served as principal investigator for more than ten projects, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Key Projects of the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province, and has published more than 140 academic papers as first author (or corresponding author), including more than 130 papers indexed by SCI (10 ESI Highly Cited Papers and 3 ESI Hot Papers), with more than 6,000 citations by others; in addition, has been granted six national invention patents and has received one Second Prize of the Jiangxi Provincial Natural Science Award as the first contributor and one Second Prize of the same award as the third contributor.

Five Representative Publications:

(1) Jue Wang, Wenxing Luo, Minming Zou, Wenjing Chen, Guangyu Zhu, Sifan Tan, Xiongxin Jiang, Qinglin Li, Xiaowu Hu*. Ultra-flexible, Adaptable and Multifunctional Polymer-Based Composite Phase Change Materials for Full-Stage Battery Thermal Management[J]. Composites Part B: Engineering, 2026, 313: 113416.

(2) Yifan Huang, Linhao Sun, Wenxing Luo, Guangyu Zhu, Yan Ma, Wenjing Chen, Xiaowu Hu*. Ultra-stable phase change coatings constructed from dynamic boron ester crosslinked polymers and lipophilic MWCNTs[J]. Chemical Engineering Journal, 2025, 508: 161033.

(3) Yifan Huang, Wenxing Luo, Wenjing Chen*, Xiaowu Hu*, Guangyu Zhu, Yan Ma, Xiongxin Jiang, Qinglin Li. Self-healing, adaptive and shape memory polymer-based thermal interface phase change materials via boron ester cross-linking[J]. Chemical Engineering Journal, 2024, 496: 153789.

(4) Guangyu Zhu, Minming Zou, Wenxing Luo, Yifan Huang, Wenjing Chen*, Xiaowu Hu*, Xiongxin Jiang, Qinglin Li. A polyurethane solid–solid phase change material for flexible use in thermal management[J]. Chemical Engineering Journal, 2024, 488: 150930.

(5) Yan Ma, Minming Zou, Wenjing Chen, Wenxing Luo, Xiaowu Hu*, Shikun Xiao, Lixiang Luo, Xiongxin Jiang, Qinglin Li. A structured phase change material integrated by MXene/AgNWs modified dual-network and polyethylene glycol for energy storage and thermal management[J]. Applied Energy, 2023, 349: 121658.