Abstract

Phenomena at the surface and interface are integral to chemical and material engineering processes. They are playing increasingly important roles in the development of new functional materials with desired properties for applications in advanced manufacture, water, energy, healthcare etc. Inspired by the catechol and amine functional groups found in the adhesive proteins of marine mussels, one of the simplest catecholamines, dopamine, has been widely exploited by material and polymer scientists for surface modification and functionalization of a variety of materials including polymers, metals, ceramics. In this talk, I will present our recent work on the film properties of polydopamine, and in particular the functionalization of electrically conductive polypyrrole with mussel-inspired catechols to form single core/shell polypyrrole nanofibers (about 50 nm in diameter and 1 μm in length). The hydrophilic catechol shell render the nanofibers to be readily dispersed in aqueous solutions and form thin coating film with good surface adhesion. We also discovered that the morphology and electrically conductivity of the dopamine (DA)-functionalized polypyrrole (Py) can be finely controlled by the DA/Py reaction ratio to fabricate advanced electronic materials.

Short Bio:

Dr. Boxin Zhao is a tenured associate professor at the University of Waterloo. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Mineral Processing Engineering from the Central South University in 1996, MEng in Chemical Technology from Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1999 and PhD in Chemical Engineering from McMaster University in 2004, worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Prof Jacob Israelachvili’s lab at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 2005-2008. Professor Zhao joined the University of Waterloo in 2008 and has created and directed the Laboratory of Surface Science and Bionanomaterials, working on both fundamental and applied research. He have 180 publications in total; 87 are peer-refereed papers on the top journals including Langmuir, Macromolecules, Advanced Materials, and Advanced Functional Materials, PNAS. He was awarded the Early Researcher Award from the Province of Ontario in 2012 and was awarded a prestigious Fulbright Visiting Research Chair at UCSB from Fulbright Canada in 2015. The current research interests of his group are in the areas of multifunctional composites, interfacial technologies and surface science, biomimetic adhesion and adhesives, biopolymers, 3D printing, interfacial phenomena and contact dynamics in polymers and biological systems.