Speaker: Jonathan Rivnay, Northwestern University

Time: 20:00-21:30 pm, March 3, 2023, GMT+8

Venue:

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Abstract:

Organic mixed ionic/electronic conductors (OMIECs) have gained considerable interest in bioelectronics, power electronics, and neuromorphic computing. These polymer-based semiconductors can form soft composites and exhibit a combination of ionic transport, electronic transport, and high volumetric charge storage capacity. Such properties enable improved interfacing with biological systems, enhancing signal transduction and on-site signal processing needed for diagnostics and closed-loop bioelectronic systems. In this talk, I will highlight recent synthetic and processing efforts leading to a new class of soft active materials. Electronic and ionic processes relying on bulk transport and charging can be readily tuned and enable novel form factors. For example, OMIECs can form flexible and stretchable gel or scaffold-like constructs for tissue engineering and smart skins, and allow for vertical, stacked transistors for compact circuits. I will show that electrochemical devices based on these materials can efficiently amplify local bio-signals and can be engineered for non-volatility in order to mimic basic neural function. Materials and device challenges for future applications and new growth opportunities for the field will also be discussed.

Biography:

Jonathan Rivnay is a Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University. Jonathan earned his B.Sc. in 2006 from Cornell University. He then moved to Stanford University, where he earned a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering, studying the structure and electronic transport properties of organic electronic materials. In 2012, he joined the Department of Bioelectronics at the Ecole des Mines de Saint-Etienne in France as a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow, working on conducting polymer-based devices for bioelectronics. Jonathan spent 2015–2016 as a member of the research staff in the Printed Electronics group at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC, a Xerox Co.) before joining the faculty at Northwestern in 2017. His research explores fundamentals of soft polymer electronic materials, and how they can be applied to solve hard problems in bioelectronics with applications ranging from diagnostics and therapeutics to computing and robotics. He is a recipient of a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation, a fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and was named a Materials Research Society (MRS) Outstanding Early Career Investigator, ACS Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering (PMSE) Young Investigator, and US Office for Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator.

Source: iCANX