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Feb 18 2022

Micro- and surface-engineered ultrananocrystalline diamond for biosensing

ECE 595 SEMINAR SERIES

February 18, 2022

11:00 AM - 12:15 PM

Location

online

Micro- and surface-engineered ultrananocrystalline diamond for biosensing

Presenter: Hongjun Zeng, Adaxius Corporation

Abstract: Diamond is an ideal structural and functional material for biosensor applications. It is highly biocompatible and surface-functionalizable, mechanically robust and chemically inert. However, diamond has not been widely accepted for commercial sensors because of the challenges in manufacturing and high cost. Ultrananocrystalline Diamond (UNCD) consists of 3-5 nm grains of crystalline diamond separated by atomically-abrupt grain boundaries. Such a grain size is smaller than the tiniest feature size of any microsensors that have ever been fabricated, ensuring extremely high uniformity and repeatability in the sensor fabrication. At the same time, UNCD does not consist of mixed phases of sp3 and sp2-bonded carbon, so it is a phase-pure carbon nanomaterial. Therefore, it owns most of the “good” properties of the diamonds produced by conventional technologies. UNCD is expected to become the first and probably the only commercialized diamond species capable of manufacturing through standard semiconductor processes. This talk introduces how the UNCD becomes an enabling materials platform for the latest biosensing applications through advanced micromachining and surface engineering.

Speaker bio: Hongjun Zeng is a co-founder and the CTO of Adaxius Corp, focused on novel carbon nanomaterials. He is an ORISE fellow and the chain reaction innovator supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. Before Adaxius, Zeng founded Aqua via Rock LLC Consulting, worked at Alcorix Corp, Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc., and the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has been a principal investigator and technical lead in multiple governmental and industrial projects in advanced manufacturing, micro & nanofabrication, thin films technology, and biomedical devices to reach limit-breaking goals. Zeng is the inventor of 12 patents, including the movable masking lithography, the nanodiamond composites, the mini ozone-water generator, and the diamond nanofeathers. He authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications and has served as a senior reviewer for more than 20 journals in the fields above. His contribution to the development of low-temp NCD devices was recognized with an R&D 100 Award by R&D Magazine.

Faculty Host: Alan Feinerman (feinerma@uic.edu)

This lecture will not be recorded. Please contact the department for login information.

Contact

ECE Student Affairs

Date posted

Feb 15, 2022

Date updated

Feb 15, 2022