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SUMMARY:Soft Machines: From Artificial Muscles and Renewable Energy to Str
 etchable Ionics and Bionic Skin
DTSTART:20150326T160000
DTEND:20150326T170000
DTSTAMP:20260610T054611Z
UID:f6b0ca4f17e6f90c58e78f3222b3d8321678b7461e02ec9dbbe4ba90
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr. Christoph Keplinger\, Harvard University\, USA\nBio : Chri
 stoph Keplinger is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University\, 
 where he first worked with Zhigang Suo (Mechanics of Materials and Structu
 res) and currently works with George Whitesides (Department of Chemistry a
 nd Chemical Biology). Supervised by Siegfried Bauer (Department of Soft Ma
 tter Physics)\, he earned his PhD in physics from the Johannes Kepler Univ
 ersity of Linz\, Austria. His awards include the Award of Excellence (2011
 ) and the Award for Outstanding Young Scientists (2011) (both from the Aus
 trian government)\, the Loschmidt Award (2012) (from the Chemical-Physical
  Society of Austria)\, and the EAPromising European Researcher Award (2013
 ) (from the European Scientific Network for Artificial Muscles\, awarded f
 or evidence of a promising career in the field of electroactive polymers).
 \nBased upon his background in physics and his research experience at Harv
 ard in mechanics and chemistry\, Dr. Keplinger enjoys collaborative\, inte
 rdisciplinary research\, with a current\, primary focus on (i) bioinspired
 \, soft actuators/sensors and robots/machines\, (ii) sustainable energy ge
 neration and energy harvesting for biomedical applications and (iii) basic
  questions in materials science\, which are stimulated by practical proble
 ms.\nAbstract : The biological world and the engineered world differ in te
 rms of mechanics: man-made machines are built from hard materials\, while 
 nature predominantly uses soft materials. The elegance of nature’s desig
 n inspires scientists to create soft machines.\nThis talk starts with an e
 lementary component: artificial muscles\, materials that deform in respons
 e to external stimuli. Two approaches are presented to achieve giant volta
 ge-induced deformation of an elastomer: electrode-free actuators\, and act
 uators that harness snap-through instabilities. Subsequently\, soft genera
 tors are identified as unique tools for electricity generation. Based on p
 rinciples used in classical thermodynamics\, experimental and theoretical 
 methods are introduced to assess the maximum electrical energy that can be
  generated. Natural rubber is found to be a prime material for sustainable
 \, high-power energy generation from ocean waves.\nSoft machines require e
 lectrical conductors with special properties\, such as stretchability\, bi
 ocompatibility and transparency. This talk introduces stretchable ionics 
 – a new class of devices enabled by ionic conductors that are highly str
 etchable\, fully transparent\, biocompatible and capable of operation at f
 requencies beyond 10 kilohertz and voltages above 10 kilovolts. The electr
 omechanical transduction is achieved without electrochemical reaction. Ini
 tial demonstrations include: i) a transparent\, large-strain actuator\, ii
 ) a transparent\, full-range loudspeaker\, and iii) bionic skin that sense
 s strain and pressure.\nIdeas for future research give an outlook on excit
 ing opportunities in soft matter science.
LOCATION:ME B1 10 http://plan.epfl.ch/?room=MEB110
STATUS:CANCELLED
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