The Chemical and Biological Engineering Department is pleased to present a seminar by Xiaodan Gu from University of Southern Mississippi as part of our ChBE Seminar Series.

Dr. Xiaodan Gu will be presenting a seminar titled "Predictable design of soft electronic materials through backbone conformation control."

ABSTRACT: Organic semiconducting polymers have been widely studied for their unique optoelectronic and mechanical properties, which make them key components in various functional electronic devices, such as organic photovoltaic devices, flexible displays, wearable sensors, neuromorphic computing, and, more recently, bioelectronics. Despite tremendous progress made in improving charge carrier mobility and optimizing energy bandgap, our understanding of the physical properties of conjugated polymers - such as chain rigidity, molecular entanglement behavior, and the glass transition phenomenon - has been limited. This knowledge gap has prevented the field from being able to predictively design new conjugated polymers to meet the demands of future wearable needs. In my talk, I will provide an overview of our efforts toward the predictive design of soft, wearable electronic materials using unique thin-film-based experimental techniques, neutron scattering technique, and molecular dynamics simulations (in collaboration with W. Xia NDSU). Specifically, I will: 1) discuss the use of thin-film mechanics to understand the mechanical properties of sub-100nm polymeric thin films; 2) demonstrate the integration of thin-film dynamics measurements and informatics to accurately predict the glass transition temperature and mechanical properties of semirigid conjugated polymers; 3) elucidate the role of chain rigidity in polymer entanglement and thin-film fracture behavior; and 4) share my perspective on the limitations of utilizing conjugated polymers as functional layers and potential pathways forward.

Xiaodan Gu is an assistant professor in the School of Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he holds the Nina Bell Suggs Endowed Professorship. He obtained his Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2014, with a focus on the self-assembly of block copolymers and their lithographic applications. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, where he studied the morphology of roll-to-roll printed electronics using real-time X-ray scattering at various synchrotron beamlines.

Dr. Gu's current research interests are in various fundamental polymer physics phenomena related to functional conjugated polymers and their derivative devices. His group studies the structure, dynamics, and morphology of conjugated polymers and aims to link their molecular structures to their macroscopic properties through advanced metrology, with an emphasis on scattering techniques. His research team's work has been recognized by several prestigious awards, including the NSF Career Award, DOE Early Career Award, ACS PMSE Young Investigator Award, 3M nontenured faculty award, and ORAU Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award.

Bagels and coffee will be provided at 9:30am, and the seminar will start at 9:40am. Please plan to arrive on time to grab a bagel and mingle!

*Please note that there will be no Zoom option for seminars this year.