Soft Intelligent Materials & Interfaces: some examples of my research

Giovedì 9 giugno alle ore 18 Francesco Greco, professore associato presso l'Istituto di BioRobotica della Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna presenta il seminario "Soft Intelligent Materials & Interfaces: some examples of my research". L'incontro fa parte del ciclo di seminari 'La ricerca negli Istituti di Ingegneria della Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna' nell'ambito della programmazione didattica di Ingegneria '21/'22 a cura del prof. Christian Cipriani.
Diretta streaming sulla piattaforma WebEx e sul canale YouTube della Scuola Sant'Anna.

Abstract

Many recent advancements in Bioengineering and Robotics are related with a shift from hard, “passive” materials to soft and “intelligent” ones. This is needed, for example, in the case of wearable or implanted devices -where a seamless interfacing with human body is a must- or in soft robots. Innovative strategies are needed for manufacturing those materials and for integrating them in new devices, i.e. sensors and actuators. Also, materials from bioderived/renewable sources, which can be biodegradable and produced with energy saving methods are sought for, in view of contributing to the global effort in sustainable development.
It is therefore a big interdisciplinary challenge: how to tackle it? From where the inspiration could come?
In this talk I will provide an overview of my past and current research: how I try to investigate various kinds of soft intelligent materials and to use them in applications.
Investigation of thin films and nano/microstructured conductive and responsive materials (polymers, composites) has been the focus of much of my research so far. A special attention is given to the interplay of conductive and mechanical properties of soft materials and to applications in bioengineering, within 3 main areas:

• A) Smart Active Materials for soft actuators & sensors,
• B) Soft Printed and Tattoo Electronics,
• C) Functional Structured Surfaces & Biointerfaces.

Some selected highlights of past and ongoing work in my Research Group LAMPSE @ SSSA and @ TUGraz will be provided. The overview will include examples of: elastomer/conjugated polymer composites with humidity- or temperature-triggered actuation [1,2], ultraconformable organic electronics based on temporary tattoos[3,4] & applications in epidermal health monitoring systems [5–7], laser induced graphene and laser scribed wearable sensors [8], direct laser writing of bioinspired functional surfaces [9,10].

References

1.  S. Taccola, F. Greco, E. Sinibaldi, A. Mondini, B. Mazzolai, V. Mattoli, Advanced Materials 2015, 27, 1668.
2. F. Greco, V. Domenici, A. Desii, E. Sinibaldi, B. Zupančič, B. Zalar, B. Mazzolai, V. Mattoli, Soft Matter 2013, 9, 11405.
3. G. E. Bonacchini, C. Bossio, F. Greco, V. Mattoli, Y.-H. Kim, G. Lanzani, M. Caironi, Advanced Materials 2018, 30, 1706091.
4. N. Piva, F. Greco, M. Garbugli, A. Iacchetti, V. Mattoli, M. Caironi, Advanced Electronic Materials 2018, 4, 1700325.
5. A. Zucca, C. Cipriani, Sudha, S. Tarantino, D. Ricci, V. Mattoli, F. Greco, Adv. Healthcare Mater. 2015, 4, 983.
6. L. M. Ferrari, S. Sudha, S. Tarantino, R. Esposti, F. Bolzoni, P. Cavallari, C. Cipriani, V. Mattoli, F. Greco, Advanced Science 2018, 5, DOI 10.1002/advs.201700771.
7. L. M. Ferrari, U. Ismailov, J.-M. Badier, F. Greco, E. Ismailova, npj Flexible Electronics 2020, 4, 1.
8. A. Dallinger, K. Keller, H. Fitzek, F. Greco, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2020, 12, 19855.
9. O. Tricinci, T. Terencio, B. Mazzolai, N. M. Pugno, F. Greco, V. Mattoli, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2015, 7, 25560.
10. O. Tricinci, E. V. Eason, C. Filippeschi, A. Mondini, B. Mazzolai, N. M. Pugno, M. R. Cutkosky, F. Greco, V. Mattoli, Smart Mater. Struct. 2018, 27, 075009.

Biosketch

Prof. Francesco Greco is an Associate Professor at the Biorobotics Institute of SSSA. He also is the Head of the Laboratory of Applied Materials for Printed and Soft Electronics (LAMPSe) at Institute of Solid State Physics, Graz University of Technology (Austria), where he was formerly an Assistant Professor. He holds a PhD in Chemical Science and a M.Sc. in Materials Science from University of Pisa. His research focuses on functional polymer materials for actuators and sensors, fabrication/patterning through printing or Direct Laser Writing methods, ultraconformable tattoo electronics and their applications in soft and bio-robotics, organic bioelectronics, smart biointerfaces. Previously, he was Associate Professor at School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo (Japan) and Researcher at Center for MicroBiorobotics of Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, (Italy).