Chemistry research centre to build on strengths in organic materials

Chemistry research centre to build on strengths in organic materials

Three researchers will head up a new Functional Organic Materials Research Centre with grants totaling $700,000 from the Canada Foundation for Innovation(CFI), the Ontario Research Fund and contributions from industry partners.

The centre will allow chemistry and biochemistry professors Tricia Carmichael, John Trant, and Simon Rondeau-Gagné to expand on their current research into designing and synthesizing new organic materials to create wearable electronics, stretchable transistors, and highly specified drug delivery methods.

“This supports the infrastructure we already have in place, and provides new and essential instrumentation that will bolster our ability to do leading edge research,” says Dr. Trant.

Dr. Carmichael is a leader in stretchable electronic devices. This centre will give her new tools to characterize electrically functional materials and devices for stretchable and wearable electronics applications, and she says this new infrastructure will create a world-class interdisciplinary facility.

“The research we can now pursue will lead to new innovative materials for use in the rapidly growing wearable electronics market, ‘smart’ drug-delivery technologies and biomedical devices, as well as new self-healing materials,” says Carmichael.

Synthetic chemist Trant investigates triggerable drug delivery devices to help fight cancer and certain autoimmune diseases. He says this infrastructure is necessary to move forward on this research, which includes designing chemotherapy drug delivery methods that would target cancer cells and avoid healthy cells.

“I will get a custom-built peptide synthesizer — which is essentially a robot that makes peptides,” says Trant. “This made-to-order robot will be designed specifically to work with unnatural, high-value amino acids and allow ready recovery of them and will be the first of its type in the world.”

Dr. Rondeau-Gagne’s lab uses materials to build new types of transistors needed for innovative bio-electronics. He requires specialized tools to measure difficult-to-define polymers.

“We are designing the centre to be able to create new biomaterials and polymers to go from design, to preparation at large scale, and get to the final application in electronics,” says Rondeau-Gagné.

“The centre is the connection between all our capabilities and this is about delivering innovative, final applications with state-of-the-art materials. It is why we call it functional materials, because it won’t give us just the capabilities of working with our research program, but also to expand and really get that materials expertise.”

Dean of science Chris Houser says with recent strategic research hires, the University of Windsor has attained a critical mass of researchers focusing on organic materials, which makes it one of the strongest departments in Canada in this field. Together with this new research centre, they can start training the next generation of materials scientists.

“This builds momentum with research, but with Science UWindsor’s commitment to undergraduate training, we are also going to have undergrads working with this state-of-the-art equipment so that when they graduate, they will have worked with the absolute top line in equipment and materials science methods,” says Dr. Houser.

“This also makes us highly competitive, with researchers around the province, the country, and even from Michigan, wanting to come and use this equipment.”

The centre will be housed in the Faculty of Science’s new research facility and will be divided into two major biomaterials and bioelectronics platforms, and includes advanced instrumentation such as a custom-built peptide synthesizer, an ultra-high-temperature gel permeation chromatography system, and a cutting-edge transistor fabrication station.

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Sara Elliott

For the original story, please visit:

http://www.uwindsor.ca/dailynews/2018-06-27/chemistry-research-centre-build-strengths-organic-materials

University of Windsor professors exploring new frontier of stretchable electronics

University of Windsor professors exploring new frontier of stretchable electronics

(From the Windsor Star, Sat. Mar. 18, 2017 Edition)

In the thin layers of the polymers oozing out of a machine that looks an expensive version of an ink jet printer lays the next frontier of electronics.

The research being done into new synthetic polymers in Simon Rondeau-Gagne’s University of Windsor lab is the first step in creating wearable electronics.

“Probably in the next decade every object is going to be connected through the Internet,” said Rondeau-Gagne, who accepted an assistant chemistry professor’s position at Windsor last July after completing his post-doctoral work at Stanford University.

“There’s a want for smart electronics. Stretchable electronics will be an important piece of the Internet of things.

“Once we have a material that is stretchable, robust enough to take repeated use and can self-repair, the potential is whatever industry’s designers can imagine.”

Rondeau-Gagne is combining his expertise in designing synthetic materials with Professor Tricia Carmichael, who has already built an international reputation for her work in the stretchable electronics field.

Carmichael, a researcher at IBM’s headquarters in Armonk, New York before returning to her hometown in 2005, said the two research teams offer complimentary skill sets.

“My team’s strength is we’re good at building things and working with different materials and integrating them into stretchable electronics that are stable and maintain their functionality,” Carmichael said.

“Simon is an expert in synthetizing different materials and designing them for different functions.

“Together we can do stuff that no one has ever done before.”

Beyond smart clothing that could monitor in real time the body’s condition, Rondeau-Gagne envisions such possibilities as stretchable electronics helping restore the electrical impulse connections in a damaged spinal cord or new materials in car doors that self-repair after being dented.

“I think one of the emerging uses will be in elder care,” Carmichael said.

“It allows for constant monitoring of pulse, blood pressure, sweat or where they are,” said Carmichael, who oversees a team of nine student researchers.

“However, there are still huge challenges to doing all these things.”

The first step is for Rondeau-Gagne to find the right material.

Rondeau-Gagne said what his research team of six students is doing is akin to building a foundation for stretchable electronics.

“It’s like sci-fi stuff,” said Rondeau-Gagne, a native of Chicoutimi-Saguenay.

“The material I’m working with looks like ink, but when it’s solid it looks like blue plastic.

“It makes a film, but it’s only 40 Nano-millimeters thick.”
Rondeau-Gagne already has been successful in creating a polymer containing transistors that could be ‘re-healed’ with heat.

He hopes to soon finish developing self-healing materials that don’t require an outside stimulus to allow Carmichael to use her expertise in stretchable electronics.

“I believe within a year we’ll reach that point,” Rondeau-Gagne said.

“Tricia has a real expertise in these electronic devices and stretchable materials. She’s had great results already using rubber materials.”

Indeed Carmichael’s team has already created a new type of rubber. It’s clear and impermeable to gases and was modification of the rubber used for the inner tubing in car tires.

“What we were able to do is develop a transparent version of this material,” Carmichael said. “That means we make displays to use in it.”

However, the ultimate goal is to find a synthetic compound that is more stretchable, can take repeated use, self-repairs and can handle the heat produced by the transistors and circuitry embedded in it.

“We already have materials that can be stretched 100 per cent,” Rondeau-Gagne said.

“However, even if it can stretch 10,000 per cent, if it can’t be stretched more than a couple times without the circuit breaking, we can’t use it. There’s going to be pressure and stretching all the time with wearable electronics.”

Carmichael said the field of stretchable electronics is developing rapidly with the growing investment from major corporations and foundations.

“Simple demos (of stretchable electronics) are real,” Carmichael said.

“There’s a huge community who make wearable electronics by sewing things into their clothes. There’s already a cottage industry.

“I visited a wearable electronics company in Toronto making real products – sweat sensors for clothing. It’s coming.”

Student success at CSC 2016 in Halifax

Student success at CSC 2016 in Halifax

Congratulations to the following students, who were awarded prizes for their presentations at the Canadian Society for Chemistry Conference in Halifax, NS:

Mitch Nascimento (Rawson group) - 1st place, poster, materials division
Stephanie Kosnik (Macdonald group) - 2nd place, poster, inorganic division
Yiting Chen (Carmichael group) - 2nd place,m oral presentation, materials - Xerox
Sarah Salloum (Eichhorn group) - Hon. mention, poster, organic division

Windsor Research Spotlight - Stretching the Limit

NSERC Research Spotlight - Stretching the Limit

A research team at the University of Windsor has found that working with a problem, instead of against it, can result in incredible breakthroughs. Chemistry professor Tricia Carmichael and co-investigator Heather Filiatrault have successfully created stretchable electronics able to continue conducting electricity even after stretching to the point of cracking.

Stretchable light-emitting devices are the building blocks of foldable and expandable display screens and electronics-integrated clothing, as well as other soft devices designed to go inside a body, like a stretchable balloon catheter that can mend damaged areas of the heart.

“The dilemma with the design of these devices is that when we use electrically conductive materials, like aluminum or copper, these materials will crack when stretched even a minimal amount,” says Dr. Carmichael.

Stretchable electronics integrate a thin film of electrically conductive material with a film of rubber, but the conductive materials crack when they are stretched, which breaks the circuit and renders the device useless.

Carmichael and her lab team investigated the theory that when a rough surface is stretched it generates multiple micro-cracks, instead of a few large debilitating cracks. To manipulate the cracking, she simply added a layer of inexpensive white glue before the thin sheet of metal was attached.

“Instead of eliminating cracks, we encouraged a lot of cracking, like a spider web of cracks that don’t form a continuous pathway through the sheet,” says Carmichael. “The cracks purposefully interfere with each other, relieving the strain, so the current can flow along a jagged but continuous pathway.”

The glue layer is watered down to control the film thickness. It is spread over the rubber layer and creates the required roughness by forming blobs. Members of Carmichael’s lab built a strain sensor out of rubber, glue and gold and wrapped it around a thumb. The sensor successfully monitored when the digit was extended, and when it was not.

Carmichael says this is a low-cost, green solution, which uses simple components that could potentially scale up to larger surface devices.

“We made the system more defective in order to make it work better,” she says. “I love this concept of embracing the natural tendency of cracking, and then pushing it further.”


This research is published as the cover story in the September 30th edition of  ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. 

To see the original story on the NSERC web site, click here.

High school students conduct their own chemistry magic show

About 35 students from the International Baccalaureate program at Assumption College Catholic High School participated in the chemistry and biochemistry department’sINteractive Chem ExperimentS, or INCHES program, an outreach and recruiting initiative which provides them the opportunity to conduct experiments in the University’s chemistry labs.

 “You can talk and talk, but if kids get the chance to do these things themselves, then they’re really going to remember it,” said chemistry professor Tricia Carmichael, who oversaw the students, along with colleague Rob Schurko and a group of graduate students.

If any high school chemistry teachers from Windsor or Essex County want to bring their class in for our INCHES (INteractive CHemsitry ExperimentS) laboratory program, please contact Tricia Carmichael or Rob Schurko.

Graduate students who are interested in volunteering in the INCHES project can contact Profs. Carmichael or Schurko as well!

Click here to see the Daily News article.

Chemists develop innovative method for making bendable electronics

A chemist and her team of researchers have made a major stride forward in the race to make cell phones, televisions and other electronics that can bend and stretch.

Tricia Carmichael, an associate professor in chemistry and biochemistry, and her PhD student Michael Miller, are two of five co-authors on a recently published paper describing a process that uses tiny silver nanowires as conductors and then arranging and mixing them right in to the adhesive that bonds them to surfaces like the plastic which could be used in bendable electronic devices.

“Glues are really durable material, so it made sense to do it that way,” Dr. Carmichael said of the never-before-used process described in the academic journal Applied Materials and Interfaces. “We wanted it to be general enough that it could be used by everyone in the industry. It’s just really practical.”

Until now, manufacturers have relied on indium tin oxide as a conductor in electronic light-emitting displays, but it’s completely unsuitable for flexible devices because it’s a brittle ceramic which cracks under relatively low bending strains and causes electrical failure.

Click here to read the whole story on the Daily News.

Two three-minute thesis winners from Chemistry!

A sweep for science: Biology student Rebecca Williams and chemistry students Chris Allan and Heather Filiatrault claimed all the hardware at UWindsor’s inaugural Three Minute Thesis Competition, Monday in the CAW Student Centre.

Congratulations to Chris Allan (Macdonald group) and Heather Filiatrault (Carmichael group) for winning first place and the people's choice awards, respectively, in the Three-Minute Thesis Competition.

From the Daily News:

Winning the University’s inaugural Three Minute Thesis Competition was a little overwhelming for Chris Allan, but he is already looking ahead: “I am really excited to be going to Kingston,” he said.

The doctoral student in chemistry will represent Windsor in the province-wide competition, April 18 at Queens University, after taking top local honours Monday with his presentation “From your TV to the lab: Exploring the reactivity of indium.” He also will receive a $1,000 cash award.

Joining Allan in Kingston will be runner-up Rebecca Williams, a biology student whose presentation “Great Lakes Undercover: Can fish evolve to survive pollution?” was good for the $500 second-place prize.

And crowd favourite Heather Filiatrault won the people’s choice award and $250 with her précis “Stretchable electronics cast in a new light.”

Dean of graduate studies Patti Weir said the competition highlighted the excellent research conducted by graduate students across campus.

“This has been an awesome three days!” she said.

Click here to see the original article.

Chemistry grad Michael-Anthony Ferrato is the 2012 President’s Medal winner

Before he even got to the University of Windsor, Michael-Anthony Ferrato was helping new students get oriented to campus. It was a habit he kept up through his undergraduate career.

That level of involvement helped to earn the chemistry graduate the 2012 President’s Medal, awarded each year to a graduating student who has made significant contributions to campus and community activities while maintaining a superior academic record.

After his acceptance to the University in the summer of 2008, Ferrato produced videos documenting his experiences with academic orientation and course registration.

“We were looking for ways to get students involved and then we were pleased to find out Michael-Anthony was there ahead of us,” recalls liaison officer Tim Brunet. “He was helping to orient students by sharing his own experiences.”

After he started classes, Ferrato joined the recruitment team, acting as a guide for campus tours and working alongside staff and faculty to represent Windsor at the Ontario Universities Fair. He says that experience helped him see the many opportunities available on campus.

“I tell anyone who asks that the University of Windsor has everything they could want,” he says.

Ferrato made the most of his time here, holding an appointment as an Outstanding Scholar, getting involved in Lancer athletics, and pulling down top grades.

His work in the research lab of chemistry professor Tricia Carmichael brought him two summer research awards from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and earned him credit as a published author in a top academic journal.

He served as video coordinator for the Lancer basketball program; the broadcast he produced of the 2011 Canadian Interuniversity Sport women’s championship tournament was the primary feed for fans across Canada.

Ferrato is just as excited about his role as a co-founder and co-captain of the men’s baseball team: “With the talent we have in  this part of the province, it could be a powerhouse.”

And he earned places on the Dean’s List and President’s Honour Roll with a cumulative grade point average of 12.70 and a major grade point average of 12.90. Ferrato will continue his University of Windsor career in September as he pursues a masters degree in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

See the original story on the Daily News:
http://www.uwindsor.ca/dailynews/2012-06-13/involvement-started-early-for-president%E2%80%99s-medal-winner

Chemists develop new method to make stretchable light-emitting devices

Chemistry student Heather Filiatrault and professor Tricia Carmichael examine a light-emitting device fabricated in their lab.

A common method of treating babies born with jaundice is phototherapy, which involves bathing the infant in light from fluorescent bulbs, halogen quartz lamps, light-emitting diodes, and even fiber-optic mattresses.

Tricia Carmichael can see a day when those babies can simply be wrapped in a light-emitting blanket.

An associate professor in chemistry and biochemistry, Dr. Carmichael spends most of her lab time studying ways of making flexible and stretchable electronic devices. In a recent Advanced Materials journal cover article – whose first author was grad student Heather Filiatrault – Carmichael and her colleagues describe an emerging method used to make light-emitting devices designed to tolerate strain so that they can stretch, bend and wrap.

“There are all kinds of cool applications for this technology, but the idea is to be able to make it inexpensively,” Carmichael said.

The challenge with making stretchable conventional organic light-emitting devices, which rely on technology currently used in cell phones, cameras and digital media players, is the device complexity, Carmichael said. The display screens on those devices consist of thin film layers and each one needs to have an element of elasticity.

Carmichael’s approach has been to reduce the device complexity by using light-emitting electrochemical cells, which rely on materials that give off light when voltage is applied, sandwiched between electrodes. Along with her team, Carmichael developed a way to make a light-emitting material—an organometallic ruthenium complex—stretchable by blending it with an elastic silicone rubber.

“It’s actually a fairly simple idea but no one has ever really done it before,” said Carmichael.

Under lab tests to measure its “stretchability,” the team found the material could achieve about 25 to 30 per cent elongation before the device failed to emit light.

 The concept is still in its infancy, but if developed it could have a wide range of potential applications from electronic display signs that could wrap around the corners of buildings to such health applications as light therapy used for healing wounds or activating certain chemotherapy drugs, Carmichael said.

See the original story and a video describing the process on the Daily News:
http://www.uwindsor.ca/dailynews/2012-05-23/chemists-develop-new-method-to-make-stretchable-light-emitting-devices

Student chemist perfecting data transfer for electronic devices

Silicon-based integrated circuits currently used in cell phones and mp3 players are about as small as they’re going to get with current technology. Now, in response to consumer demand for even faster, more efficient electronic devices, chemists are racing to develop tiny molecular structures that would process data instead—and a UWindsor PhD student in chemistry has joined the race.

“Everyone knows that if we want data to be transferred faster we need to make things smaller, but we’ve almost reached the limit now with how small we can go,” said Mike Miller, who recently won a three-year post-graduate doctoral scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council worth $63,000.

Miller, who works under the supervision of associate professor Tricia Carmichael, said many scientists are trying to create molecular wires and resistors by linking together chains of functional molecules that could be lined up in such a way so that one day, data could be transferred through them and they could replace conventional circuits. Miller’s attention, meanwhile, is devoted to studying ways to smooth the surfaces those molecules would bond with, as a way of ensuring better conductivity and data transfer.

Specifically, he is analyzing an industrial process called chemical mechanical planarization, which involves polishing metal surfaces with a combination of abrasives and chemical etchants to control the surface roughness and grain structure of thin films of metals such as gold, copper, silver and palladium.

“We’re studying what we can change about the molecules, but also what we can change about the surfaces and how that might affect how those molecules will behave,” he said. “It’s not quite there yet. There’s a lot of fundamental work that needs to be done.”

But if breakthroughs are made, they’ll go a long way towards creating some amazing new technologies, such as low-cost flexible electronic devices. As an example, Miller points to the possibility of electronic wallpaper. Users would be able to change the look of their room with a few simple keystrokes instead of stripping and putting new paper up on their walls, he said.

Student chemist perfecting data transfer for electronic devices

[Excerpt from the University of Windsor Daily News]

To read the full article, click here.

Silicon-based integrated circuits currently used in cell phones and mp3 players are about as small as they’re going to get with current technology. Now, in response to consumer demand for even faster, more efficient electronic devices, chemists are racing to develop tiny molecular structures that would process data instead—and a UWindsor PhD student in chemistry has joined the race.

"Everyone knows that if we want data to be transferred faster we need to make things smaller, but we’ve almost reached the limit now with how small we can go," said Mike Miller, who recently won a three-year post-graduate doctoral scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council worth $63,000.

Miller, who works under the supervision of associate professor Tricia Carmichael, said many scientists are trying to create molecular wires and resistors by linking together chains of functional molecules that could be lined up in such a way so that one day, data could be transferred through them and they could replace conventional circuits. Miller’s attention, meanwhile, is devoted to studying ways to smooth the surfaces those molecules would bond with, as a way of ensuring better conductivity and data transfer.

To read the full article, click here.