Abstract
Multifunctional soft materials and interfaces create intriguing new opportunities to enhance performance through adaptable and programmable properties. I will discuss two examples of this approach, one that utilizes material composition through liquid-solid soft composites for soft machines and deformable, self-healing electronics and another inspired by kirigami, the art of paper cutting, where material structures are manipulated to create materials with tunable adhesion. For soft composites, I will present an all-soft matter approach that combines soft elastomers with dispersions of liquid-phase eutectic Ga-In (EGaIn) metal alloy microdroplets. Experimental and theoretical investigations show that liquid metal droplets incorporated into elastomers enables exceptional combinations of soft elasticity and electrical and thermal properties with extreme toughness, autonomously self-healing circuits, damage detection, and mechanically triggered stiffness tuning. For kirigami, I will present a framework for designing materials with highly tunable adhesive properties. Here, we can tune adhesive force by a factor of ∼100 across a spatially patterned sheet while enhancing adhesion in different directions for high capacity yet easy release switchable interfaces. These approaches provide model systems to study fundamental material properties while enabling electronic skins, soft robots, and ‘smart’ adhesives for a variety of soft matter systems.
Bio
Michael Bartlett is an Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Iowa State University. His research investigates and creates soft multifunctional materials and interfaces with highly tunable mechanical and functional properties for deformable electronics and soft robotics, adaptive materials, and ‘smart’ adhesives. He received his BSE in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2008 and completed his Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2013 studying bio-inspired adhesion. After obtaining his Ph.D. he worked as a Senior Research Engineer in the Corporate Research Laboratory at 3M and as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University before joining Iowa State in 2016. His research has resulted in publications, patents, media coverage through outlets such as the Discovery Channel, and awards including a DARPA Young Faculty Award, a 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, and an Outstanding Faculty Award from the Iowa State Engineering Student Council (student nominated). More at: www.mse.iastate.edu/bartlett.
Host: Professor Sam Tawfick
