Water behavior at polymer interfaces plays a fundamental role in molecular transport, energy conversion, and separation processes. Unlike bulk water, interfacial water is strongly influenced by local chemical environments, polymer conformations, and ionic interactions. Understanding and manipulating these interactions offers new opportunities for designing functional polymer materials for sustainable water treatment. In this talk, I will present our recent efforts to engineer water behavior through the molecular design and controlled assembly of polyelectrolytes. We focus on three interconnected aspects: (1) regulating interfacial water states and hydrogen-bonding networks to facilitate water evaporation; (2) manipulating competitive hydration and ion–polymer interactions to achieve selective water transport in highly saline environments; and (3) constructing hierarchical polymer interfaces to enable directional water transport and sustained evaporation. Through the integration of molecular-level investigations, polymer assembly, and device engineering, we demonstrate how charged polymer interfaces can be tailored to enhance solar-driven evaporation and enable simultaneous water recovery and salt crystallization from concentrated brines. Finally, I will introduce our recent exploration of artificial intelligence-assisted materials design, aiming to establish quantitative relationships between molecular structure, interfacial water behavior, and macroscopic evaporation performance. These studies highlight the potential of combining polymer physics, interfacial chemistry, and data-driven approaches to develop next-generation materials for sustainable water and energy applications.

 

Bio: Dr. Xiayun Huang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Macromolecular Science at Fudan University and a Principal Investigator at the State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers. Her research focuses on polyelectrolyte assemblies and charged polymer interfaces, with particular interests in polymer topology, molecular and ionic transport, and interfacial water regulation. Her group develops functional polymer materials for solar-driven water treatment, molecular separation, and sensing, while recently exploring AI-assisted materials design. She has published 50⁺ peer-reviewed papers in journals including JACS, JACS Au, Adv. Funct. Matter., Macromolecules, ACS Macro Letters. She also recognized as Shanghai Pujiang Talent, Emerging Investigator of Journal of Material Chemistry A and Polymer Chemistry, and Polymer Raising Star. She serves on the Editorial Board of Scientific Reports and the Early Career Editorial Boards of Nano-Micro Letters, Chem & Bio Engineering, and Supramolecular Materials.