Applied Physics Seminar: "Dynamic kirigami for solar tracking and concentration, and Organic vapor jet printing for pharmaceutical applications"

Part I – We demonstrate how a simple 2-dimensional cut and fold patterns transform into 3-dimensional shapes upon stretching, resulting in mechanical metamaterials with several interesting properties and applications (e.g. stretchable electronics, energy storage and energy harvesting). We de-tail several shapes that can be used for diurnal solar tracking and for up to 100x solar concentration, while maintaining a low profile of a flat panel, potentially transforming the economics of solar electrici-ty generation.

Part II – We demonstrate a simple thin-film printing technique with which we obtain complex molecu-lar organic nano-crystalline structures with dramatically enhanced dissolution behavior and bioavailabil-ity (e.g. for small molecular cancer drugs). We discuss how this technique, compatible with 90% of ac-tive pharmaceutical ingredients on the market, unlocks new frontiers for drug discovery, formulation, and manufacturing.

References:
“Dynamic kirigami structures for integrated solar tracking.” Nature Comm. 6, 8092 (2015)
“A kirigami approach to engineering elasticity in nanocomposites through patterned defects.” Na-ture Mater., 14 (2015) 785
“An Electric Eel-Inspired Artificial Soft Power Source from Stacked Hydrogels.” Nature, 552 (2017) 214
“Printing of Small Molecular Medicines from the Vapor Phase.” Nature Comm., 8 (2017) 711
“Growth and modelling of spherical crystalline morphologies of molecular materials.” Nature Comm. 5 (2014) 5204

Bio: Prof. Shtein earned his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at UC Berkeley (1998) and Ph.D. in Chem-ical Engineering, while co-advised by Prof. Benziger in ChE and Prof. Forrest in EE at Princeton (Summer 2004), where he developed key aspects of Organic Vapor Phase Deposition and invented Or-ganic Vapor Jet Printing. He joined the Materials Science and Engineering department at the Univ. of Michigan in Fall 2004, where he now serves as Professor, with appointments in Chemical Engineering, Applied Physics, Macromolecular Science and Engineering, Art & Design, and as faculty co-director for the Undergraduate Program in Entrepreneurship. His work has been recognized through several awards: Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), MSE Department Achievement Award, College of Engineering-wide Vulcans Prize for Excellence in Education, New-port Award for Excellence and Leadership in Photonics and Optoelectronics, Materials Research Soci-ety (MRS) graduate student Gold Medal Award, and others. He co-founded Arborlight, LLC (a mul-tiple award-winning lighting technology company), and co-authored the book “Scalable Innovation: A Guide for Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and IP Professionals.” (Taylor & Francis, ISBN-10: 1466590971)