Faculty Candidate Seminar
Title: |
Extreme Soft Materials by Polymer-Network Design |
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Speaker: |
Dr. Shaoting Lin |
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Affiliation: |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
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When: |
Thursday, February 24, 2022 at 2:00:00 PM |
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Where: |
MRDC Building, Room 4211 |
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Host: |
Yuhang Hu | |
Abstract Soft materials are materials of choice in diverse modern technologies ranging from soft robots, stretchable electronics, to water harvesting. In all these technologies, soft materials’ mechanical and physical properties play an indispensable role. My research is to leverage molecule design and theoretical modeling to understand the structure-property relationship of soft materials, thereby developing extreme soft materials for long-term healthcare and sustainable water harvesting. In the first part of the talk, I will discuss the mechanics to design tough and fatigue-resistant hydrogels. First, I will explain three methods to toughen soft materials through bulk hysteric dissipation, near-crack dissipation by chain entanglement, and extreme toughening mechanism. Second, I will discuss one principle to make hydrogels anti-fatigue by introducing intrinsically high-energy phases such as nanocrystalline domains. In the second part of the talk, I will discuss rational polymer network design to achieve desired sorption properties of hydrogels for low-cost family-scale freshwater production. Specifically, I will discuss two molecular engineering approaches through plasticizer introduction and defect manipulation. I will conclude the talk with a perspective on future efforts in long-term healthcare and sustainable water harvesting enabled by extreme soft materials. |
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Biography Dr. Shaoting Lin holds the position of Postdoctoral Associate at MIT. He earned his Ph.D. degree in 2019 at MIT and got his M.S. degree in 2013 and B.S. degree in 2010 at Tsinghua University. His Ph.D. focused on fundamental problems associated with mechanical failures of soft materials and longevity of soft machines. His research mission is to leverage molecular design and theoretical modeling to develop high-performing soft materials for long-term healthcare and sustainable water harvesting. As the first/co-first author, he published 17 papers in leading journals such as Sci. Adv., Nat. Commun., PNAS, JMPS, including 4 ESI Highly Cited Papers. His research work was featured in Nature, MIT News, BBC, Bloomberg, etc. He was the recipient of the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad in 2018, the Den Hortog Travel Award in Mechanics in 2015, Kaifeng Scholarship, Top 10 at Tsinghua University, 2008, and National Scholarship, Top 5% at Tsinghua University, 2007. In addition, he was the co-founder of the EASF_Young Webinar, an online platform for graduate students, postdoctoral fellow, and young faculties. |
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Notes |
Please join via bluejeans |
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