CHEE Seminar: Bryan W. Boudouris
Monday, May 1, 2023 – 3:00 p.m.
Bryan W. Boudouris
Professor
Charles D. Davidson School of Chemical Engineering
Purdue University
“Designing Functional Polymers for Organic Electronic and Sensing Applications”
Harvill Bldg., Room 302
Social Hour immediately following seminar in Old Engineering 157 (Graduate Student Lounge) at 4:00 p.m.
ABSTRACT
Designer macromolecules provide a platform by which to generate structured, multifunctional materials with tailored biochemical, redox, electrochemical, and optoelectronic properties. As such, they offer the promise of providing made-to-order, low-cost materials solutions to some of the most pressing polymer and soft materials challenges facing the world today. Here, we describe two specific efforts currently ongoing by our team. In the first of these efforts, the computational design, synthesis, molecular characterization, and the electronic and electrochemical device application of an emerging class of redox-active macromolecules, radical polymers, is described. Radical polymers are macromolecular materials that have flexible polymeric backbones and pendant groups that bear stable open-shell moieties. In contrast to almost all other optoelectronically-active polymers, radical polymers lack backbone conjugation and are completely amorphous in the solid state. Despite this shift in macromolecular design archetype, we demonstrate that the solid-state electrical conductivity of a designer radical polymer exceeds 20 S m-1, and this places this non-conjugated polymer conductor in the same regime as many grades of common commercially-available, chemically-doped conjugated conducting polymers. The second effort describes sensing elements, which continue to play a crucial role in myriad human health efforts. In one example, we combine a tailored blend of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and polyethyleneimine (PEI) with microelectromechanical system (MEMS) resonant mass sensors to yield low-cost, low-power consumption carbon dioxide sensors. The PEO-PEI sensors show clear response signals across a broad range of carbon dioxide concentrations (i.e., from 100 ppm to 10,000 ppm). In a second example, we demonstrate the design of all-printed stretchable corneal sensor built on commercially-available disposable soft contact lenses that can intimately and non-invasively interface with the corneal surface of human eyes. This is critical as electroretinogram (ERG) examinations serve as routine clinical procedures in ophthalmology for the diagnosis and management of many ocular diseases. Our polymer-based corneal sensor is integrated with soft contact lenses via an electrochemical anchoring mechanism in a seamless manner that ensures its mechanical and chemical reliability. Thus, the resulting device enables the high-fidelity recording of full-field ERG signals in human eyes without the need of topical anesthesia or a speculum.
BIOSKETCH
Bryan W. Boudouris is a professor in the Charles D. Davidson School of Chemical Engineering and a professor (by courtesy) in the Department of Chemistry at Purdue University where he is also serving as the associate vice president for Research, Strategic Interdisciplinary Research. He recently served on an Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) assignment as a program director in the Division of Materials Research at the National Science Foundation from 2020-2022. He received his B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2004. After receiving his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 2009, he conducted postdoctoral research from 2009 to 2011 at the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Since joining Purdue University in 2011, he has been the recipient of a number of awards including the AFOSR YIP award, the DARPA YFA, the NSF CAREER Award, the AIChE Owens Corning Early Career Award, the Saville Lectureship at Princeton University, and the John H. Dillon Medal from the APS.