Prof. Michael McAlpine
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pinceton University
January 29, 2013 | 12:00 to 01:00 | 540 Cory Hall, DOP Center Conference Room
Host: Ali Javey
The development of a method for interfacing high performance devices with flexible, stretchable, and biocompatible materials could yield breakthroughs in implantable or wearable systems. Yet, most high quality materials are hard or rigid in nature, and the crystallization of these materials generally requires high temperatures for maximally efficient performance. These properties render the corresponding devices incompatible with temperature-sensitive soft materials such as plastic, rubber, and tissue. Nanotechnology provides a route for overcoming these dichotomies, by altering the mechanics of materials while simultaneously improving their performance. In this talk, I will focus on two vital areas for interfacing high performance devices with soft materials: 1) chemical and biological sensors for detecting disease indicators and external threats, and 2) electromechanical sensing and energy harvesting. Our approach in both cases involves the following key steps: first, materials selection, to identify a high performance material suitable for the application in mind; second, nanomaterials synthesis or fabrication; third, fundamental studies of the effect of scaling on nanomaterial properties; fourth, interfacing these materials with soft substrates; and finally, integration into high performance devices. The enhanced performance of nanomaterial assemblies coupled with biocompatible substrates may enable exciting avenues in fundamental research and novel applications.
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