During the 7th World Congress of Tribology ( WTC 2022), held in Lyon from July 10 to 15, 2022, our colleague Yujiao ZHOU won the first prize of the “my thesis in 3 minutes” contest!

Yujiao is a PhD candidate doing a thesis in two laboratories of University of Lyon, the LMI (UCBL) and the LAMCOS (INSA Lyon) in the framework of the EmPhoMetri project financed by the Labex MAnutech-Sise, and in collaboration with the ILM (UCBL).

Congratulations Yujiao!

During her presentation “A brilliant mechanical contact: surface as probe”, Yujiao talked about the importance of understanding friction in everyday life and the need to be able to measure locally, inside the contact, critical parameters such as temperature and pressure.

In her project, she therefore seeks to implement photoluminesent temperature and pressure nanosensors. She uses lanthanide-based nanoparticles. The ratio of the emission intensities of thermally coupled levels is sensitive to temperature. Yujiao produces sol-gel glasses containing these probes, which are then used as 1st body in frictional tests. This technique might allow a better understanding of friction mechanisms through rapid, high-resolution, in situ temperature measurement.