11020E500100 College of Engineering Seminar

TOPIC
▸　Self-driven Nanomaterials, Devices and Systems for Healthcare and Environmental Applications

abstract
❝　The self-powered nanosensors developed by Dr. Lin’s group can function without external power supply. By directly converting mechanical energy or thermal energy into electric outputs (means can be triggered by mechanical motion or temperature difference), the output values of the developed nanosensors will be varied upon the sensing of target molecules or ions. With the simplicity (no complex circuitry or power supply involved), low-cost fabrication (small-sized; minimal and low-priced materials required) and label-free sensing mechanism, the developed self-powered nanosensors demonstrate great potential to serve as new prototypes of portable devices for the in-field sensing of samples. And as far as the development of wearable electronics is concerned, power supply has always been the bottleneck to overcome. Dr. Lin’s group also utilized commercial textiles and proteins/hydrogels to fabricate biocompatible, portable, and lightweight nanogenerators to harvest biomechanical energy from human motions or thermal energy in the environment to directly power wearable electrochemical systems for humidity/temperature/sweat detections (ions, glucose, and lactate) and antibacterial applications. The developed wearable systems also show their adaptability to be integrated with next-generation smart clothes. This innovative concept is going to furtherly demonstrated for the self-powered detection of biomarkers. In the other way, the highly reactive nature of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is the basis for widespread use in healthcare and biomedical research fields. However, conventional photocatalysts (like TiO₂) have been limited due to various environmental and physical factors. To address this problem, Dr. Lin’s group reported piezoelectric (like MoS₂) and thermoelectric (like Bi₂Te₃, Sb₂Te₃ and PbTe) materials as piezocatalysts and thermocatalysts which can produce ROS (like •OH, •O₂^- or H₂O₂). Vibration triggered •OH/•O₂^- formation by piezocatalysts or temperature difference induced H₂O₂ generation by thermocatalysts results in the effectively oxidative damage of bacteria, which makes both of them highly promising for real-time disinfection applications. As a whole, the concepts presented here highly promote the merits of catalysts for round-the-clock ROS generation that can open a new direction towards sustainable environmental remediation and biomedical applications.　❞

SPEAKER
▸　Prof. Zong-Hong LIN
Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Power Mechanical Engineering, and Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan

Short Bio
❝　Dr. Zong-Hong Lin received his PhD degree in Chemistry from the National Taiwan University in 2009 and continued with his postdoctoral research at the National Taiwan University and the Georgia Institute of Technology during the years of 2010-2014. Subsequently, Dr. Lin joined the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) as Assistant Professor in August 2014 and was successfully promoted to Associate Professor and Full Professor with Tenure effective from August 2017 and August 2021, respectively. In recognition of his academic achievements, Dr. Lin was invited as Adjunct Faculty for both the Department of Power Mechanical Engineering and Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters at NTHU. Dr. Lin’s research interests include the development of self-powered (bio)chemical sensors, biomedical diagnostic devices, wearable healthcare electronics and remote intelligent monitoring platform, micro- and nano-electrodes/materials for in-vitro and in-vivo applications. He has published more than 100 SCI papers (sum of the times cited: 11181, h-index: 54), as well as received awards for his acclaimed research contributions, such as Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), Ta-You Wu Memorial Award of the Ministry of Science and Technology (2021), Young Scholar Fellowship of the Ministry of Science and Technology (2020), IEEE-NANOMED New Innovator Award (2019) and Young Investigator Award of the National Tsing Hua University (2018). Meanwhile, Dr. Lin is devoted to turning his scientific research into industry viable solutions – with more than 20 patents as inventor and developed technologies of great commercial potential across varied healthcare market segments.　❞

TIME
▸　2022/06/07 (TUE) 13:20 – 15:20

VENUE
▸　Google Meet