Ezzeldien Yousef

PhD researcher in Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto, in the Microcellular Plastics Manufacturing Laboratory. I work on polymer electrolytes, energy storage and aerogel fibres, and I build the software that turns laboratory data into results.

Making energy materials survive the conditions they are actually used in

My research sits between chemistry and engineering: designing materials, measuring what they do, and explaining why. Most of it has been about electrolytes, the part of an energy-storage device that usually fails first when it gets too cold, too hot or too dry.

In my MSc work I tuned ion mobility and molecular confinement in gel electrolytes, and showed supercapacitors that keep cycling far below freezing. My PhD at the Microcellular Plastics Manufacturing Laboratory moves this into polymer processing: lightweight aerogel fibres for thermal insulation, including clothing and wearable applications.

Publications

Halide-free protonic gel electrolytes for ultra-long-life, extreme-temperature energy storage. E. Yousef, A. A. Ismail, G. E. Khedr, N. K. Allam. Journal of Materials Chemistry A.
Engineering reline/carboxymethyl cellulose eutectogel electrolytes through nanoscale water confinement and coordination-driven ion percolation. A. A. Akar, M. A. Moselhy, G. E. Khedr, E. Yousef, N. K. Allam. Chemical Engineering Journal.
Hierarchical aerogel-confined deep eutectic electrolytes for complete water immobilization and high-performance, freeze-tolerant supercapacitors. M. A. Moselhy, G. E. Khedr, E. Yousef, A. A. Akar, N. K. Allam. Journal of Materials Chemistry A.
LiBr@PQ-7 electrolyte for voltage-stable, freeze-tolerant supercapacitors. E. Yousef, G. E. Khedr, A. A. Akar, N. K. Allam. Chemical Engineering Journal.
Cation-driven hydrogen bond dynamics in energy storage hydrogel electrolytes: unravelling ion–water–carbon interactions. E. Yousef*, A. A. Akar*, A. A. M. Ismail, G. E. Khedr, N. K. Allam. Journal of Materials Chemistry A.
Tuning C–C coupling and selectivity in the CO₂ electrochemical reduction reaction via pyramidal dilute Sn–Cu alloy. A. A. Ashour, A. M. Abdelmohsen, G. E. Khedr, K. E. Salem, I. M. Badawy, E. Yousef, A. M. Agour, D. Higgins, N. K. Allam. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
Recycled cellulose acetate/cerium vanadate nanoparticle composite membranes with tuned ultraviolet and blue light shielding capabilities. E. Yousef, M. M. Taha, M. K. M. Ali, N. K. Allam. ACS Applied Polymer Materials.
Optimized poly(methyl methacrylate)/mixed-phase silver vanadate nanocomposites with tuned optical properties and hydrophobicity. E. Yousef, M. K. M. Ali, N. K. Allam. Journal of Applied Polymer Science.
Tuning the optical properties and hydrophobicity of BiVO₄/PVC/PVP composites as potential candidates for optoelectronic applications. E. Yousef, M. K. M. Ali, N. K. Allam. Optical Materials.
Electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds of polylactic acid loaded with ginger/MoO₃/CuO/graphene oxide: biocompatibility and antibacterial activity. E. Yousef, M. Salah, H. A. Yousef, M. Ibrahim, M. S. Mostafa, H. M. Abd Elkabeer, M. Khalaf, A.-H. M. Rasmey, I. Morad. Polymer Bulletin.
Removal of inorganic pollutants and recovery of nutrients from wastewater using electrocoagulation: a review. M. Ammar, E. Yousef, S. Ashraf, J. Baltrusaitis. Separations.
A comprehensive review of the developments in electrocoagulation for removal of contaminants from wastewater. M. Ammar, E. Yousef, M. A. Mahmoud, S. Ashraf, J. Baltrusaitis. Separations.

Software

AeroLab Studio

An analysis workbench for aerogel-fibre research. It implements every equation and measurement from three papers on thermoplastic-polyurethane aerogels, applied by hand or automatically, and exports straight into OriginLab and Excel.

Supercap Suite

The tool I wanted during my MSc. It turns raw electrochemical files into device performance: capacitance, energy and power density, rate behaviour and impedance, with the equations visible rather than hidden in a spreadsheet.

FTIR & XRD Toolkit

Spectra and diffraction patterns processed, identified and explained. It detects peaks, matches them against a reference database of material bands, and calculates the numbers that usually get done by hand.

Brookfield DV1 Logger

A viscometer that could only show readings on its own screen now records them. The logger talks to a Brookfield DV1 over serial, captures a run automatically, and fits the rheology while the measurement is still going.

Experience

Research Assistant, Microcellular Plastics Manufacturing Laboratory, University of Toronto (Sep 2026 – present). Doctoral research on polymeric aerogels reinforced with nanofibres for clothing and thermal-insulation applications, under Prof. Chul B. Park.
Research Assistant, Energy Materials Laboratory, The American University in Cairo (May 2023 – Aug 2026). Synthesis and characterization of polymeric membranes, semiconductors and quasi-solid-state electrolytes. Built and tested supercapacitor devices, ran full electrochemical characterization, and set up a UV reactor for UV-shielding work. Most of my publication record comes from this period.
Undergraduate Research Assistant, Suez University (2021 – May 2023). Nanofibrous scaffolds for wound healing under STDF grant 45441. The laboratory had no electrospinning system, so I built a working setup from available parts and tuned it until it produced stable fibres. Also applied electrocoagulation to contaminant removal from wastewater.

Education

PhD, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto (2026 – 2030)
MSc Nanotechnology, GPA 4.0 / 4.0, The American University in Cairo (2023 – 2026)
BSc, Physics (Engineering Physics), Suez University. Very Good with Honors, ranked third in the class (2018 – 2022)

Contact

I am interested in collaborations on energy materials and polymer processing, and I take on freelance work in electrochemical data analysis, characterization data interpretation, publication figures and scientific writing. If you have data and are not sure what it is telling you, send it over.