Ethan Meitz

Liquids are an essential component of energy storage and generation technologies due to their ability to transport mass, heat, and momentum efficiently. The multi-functional thermal properties of liquids like R134a, water, and thermo-oils make them ideal choices for energy infrastructure applications. However, as climate change necessitates more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient infrastructure, many of these liquids will need to be replaced with sustainable alternatives. Due to the combinatorially large search space of new molecules, a computational approach is required to supplement and inform experiments. Molecular simulation tools are increasingly accurate and effective tools for predicting material properties; however, many liquid properties like heat capacity and thermal conductivity lack the nanoscale description required to calculate them from a molecular simulation. Liquids pose a unique challenge because their molecules are not bound to a lattice site (like in a solid) and do not weakly interact (like in a gas). My research aims to create physically-grounded and predictive models for liquid thermophysical properties to accelerate the design and validation of multi-functional liquids.