Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Spring 2015 Seminar Series
Seminar Title: Functional Nanostructured Polymers for Energy Storage and Biosensors Technologies Time: 3:00-4:00 PM, Friday, April 24, 2015
Location: PETRE 00121
Speaker:
Guihua Yu
University of Texas at Austin
Abstract:
Nanostructured materials become critically important in a wide range of applications from renewable energy,
electronics, and photonics to medical and life science, because of their unusual physical/chemical properties due to
confined dimensions of such materials. This talk will present a novel class of polymeric materials we developed
recently: nanostructured electronic gels that are hierarchically porous, and structurally tunable in size, shape,
composition, porosity and chemical interfaces. Given advantageous features such as intrinsic 3D nanostructured
conducting framework, excellent electronic conductivity and electrochemical activity to store and transport ions, they
have been demonstrated powerful for a number of technological applications in energy, bioelectronics, and
environmental devices. Several examples on developing next-generation energy storage and ultrasensitive biosensors
devices will be discussed to illustrate ‘structure-derived functions’ of this special class of materials.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Guihua Yu is an Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin
starting in fall 2012. He received his B.S. degree with the highest honor in chemistry from University of Science and
Technology of China, and earned his Ph.D. in chemistry at Harvard University, followed by postdoctoral research in
Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. Dr. Yu’s research focuses on novel synthesis and self-assembly of
synthetic architectural nanomaterials and their innovative applications in advanced energy, environmental and
healthcare technologies. He has published over 50 scientific papers (>5600 total citations) including Science, Nature,
Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, PNAS, Nano Letters, Energy & Environmental Sciences. He has
received several notable awards and honors for young scientists, including recent MIT Technology Review ‘35 Top
Innovators Under 35’, Emerging Young Investigator named by Royal Society of Chemistry, 3M Nontenured Faculty
Award, Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Award.