Zhai, Lei - University of Central Florida

个人简介

Carnegie Mellon University: Department of Chemistry Pittsburgh, PA Ph.D. Chemistry (December, 2002) Dissertation Title: Micro- and Nanostructures from Functionalized Regioregular Polythiophenes Advisor: Professor Richard D. McCullough East Tennessee State University Johnson City, TN M.S., Computational Chemistry (December, 1998) Thesis Title: Theoretical Study of Pyrolysis Mechanisms of Pyrrole and Furan Advisor: Professor Ruifeng Liu East China University of Science and Technology Shanghai, China B.S., Chemical Engineering (June, 1993) Experience: University of Central Florida: Nanoscience Technology Center and The Department of Chemistry Orlando, FL Assistant Professor, August 2005 – present Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering Cambridge, MA Postdoctoral Research Associate, January 2003-present Advisors: Professor Michael F. Rubner and Professor Robert E. Cohen Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA Research Assistant, May 1999-December 2002 Graduate Teaching Assistant, August 1998-May 1999 East Tennessee State University Johnson City, TN Research Assistant, August 1996-August 1998 Chemistry Teacher, Summer 1998

研究领域

Polyelectrolyte Multilayer Films for Sensing and Tissue Engineering. Polyelectrolyte multilayer films are assembled on the molecular level, and there is unequaled control of thickness, molecular architecture, and composition. In addition, these films have been shown to coat virtually any surface or geometry, use aqueous based processing, and are extremely easy to produce. These factors allow the polyelectrolyte multilayers to be a good molecularly imprinted polymeric (MIP) system for large biomolecules. It is of interest from both a fundamental and technological standpoint to determine if the pores in the porous multilayer films can close with biomolecules or living cells trapped inside. The research will explore the possibilities to load biomolecules and cells into porous multilayer films, and the applications of these films in making MIPs and tissue engineering. Smart Surfaces Factors that determine the surface wettability are the surface roughness and surface chemical properties. The research aims at functionalizing the surfaces of porous multilayer structures with various molecules that can change their conformations with environmental stimuli such as temperature and electrical potential, immobilizing gold nanoparticles inside porous structures, and modulating local temperature changes with incident lasers. Our goal is to build surfaces that are able to switch from superhydrophilicity to superhydrophobicity by temperature, an incident laser or an electrical field. By incorporating the patterning technique that we have developed, we will also explore the fabrication of switchable microfluidic devices and microarrays for sensing. Conductive Polymer Nanowires and Composites The major research themes in molecular electronics are the construction of electronic circuits in which molecular systems act as connection elements, measurement and understanding of their voltage-current response. The research aims at the construction of nanojunctions containing gold nanoparticles and conductive polymers and the measurement of the charge transport of these nanojunctions using ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunelling spectroscopy (UHV-STS).

近期论文

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.ucSarkar, S.; Zou, J.; Liu, J.; Xu, C.; An, L.; Zhai, L. “Polymer-Derived Ceramic Composite Fibers with Aligned Pristine Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes” ACS Applied Materials & Interface 2010, ASAP. Joung, D.; Chunder, A.; Zhai, L.; Khondaker, S. I. “High Yield Fabrication of Chemically Reduced Graphene Oxide Field Effect Transistors by Dielectrophoresis”Nanotechnology, 2010, 16, 165202. Sharma, R.; Karakoti, A.; Seal, S.; Zhai, L. “MWCNT-PSS Supported Polypyrrol/Manganese Oxide Nano-Composite for High Performance Electrochemical Electrodes” J. Power Sources 2010, 195, 1256. Chunder, A.; Liu, J.; Zhai, L. “Reduced Graphene Oxide/Poly(3-hexylthiophene)Supramolecular Composites” Macromol. Rapid Commun. 2010, 31, 380. Liu, J.; Arif, M.; Zou, J.; Khondaker, S. I.; Zhai, L. “Controlling Poly(3-hexylthiophene) Crystal Dimension: Nanowhiskers and Nanoribbons” Macromolecules, 2009,42, 9390. Zou, J.; Tran, B.; Huo, Q.; Zhai, L. “Transparent Carbon Nanotube/Poly (3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene) Composite Electrical Conductors” Soft Materials 2009, 7, 355. Sharma, R.; Zhai, L. “Multiwall Carbon Nanotube Supported Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/Manganese Oxide Nanocomposite Electrode for Supercapacitors” Electrochim. Acta 2009, 54, 7148. Dai, Q.; Li, Y.; Zhai, L.; Sun, W. “3, 4-Ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT)-Based π-Conjugated Oligomers: Facile Synthesis and Excited-state Properties” J. Photochem. Photobio. A: Chem. 2009, 206,164. Liu, J.; Zou, J.; Zhai, L. “Bottom-up Assembly of Poly(3-hexylthiophene) on Carbon Nanotubes: 2D Building Blocks for Nanoscale Circuits” (Cover Featured) Macromol. Rapid Commun. 2009, 30,1387. Dhir, V.; Natarajan, A.; Stanceescu, M.; Chunder, A.; Bhargava, N.; Das, M.; Zhai, L.; Molnar, P. “Patterning of Diverse Mammalian Cell Types in Serum Free Medium with Photoablation” Biotechnol. Prog. 2009, 25, 594. Londe, G.; Chunder, A.; Zhai, L.; Cho, H. J. “An Analytical Model for the Wettability Switching Characteristic of a Nanostructured Thermoresponsive Surface”Appl. Phys. Lett. 2009, 94, 164104. Chunder, A.; Etcheverry, K.; Wadsworth, S.; Boreman, G. D.; Zhai, L. “Fabrication of Antireflection Coatings on Plastics Using the Spraying Layer-by-layer Self-assembly Technique” Journal of the Society for Information Display (invited),2009, 17, 389. Scolari, L.; Gauza, S.; Xianyu, H.; Zhai, L. ; Eskildsen, L.; Akleskhold, T. T.; Wu, S. –S.; Bjarklev, A. “Frequency Tunability of Solid-Core Photonic Crystal Fibers Filled with Nanoparticle-Doped Liquid Crystals” Opt. Exp. 2009, 17, 3754. Stokes, P.; Liu, L.; Zou, J.; Zhai, L.; Huo, Q.; Khondaker, S. I. “Photoresponse in Large Area Multi-walled Carbon Nanotube/Polymer Nanocomposite Films” Appl. Phys. Lett. 2009, 94, 042110. Zou, J.; Khondaker, S. I.; Huo, Q.; Zhai, L. “A General Strategy to Disperse and Functionalize Carbon Nanotubes Using Conjugated Block Copolymers” Adv. Funct. Mater. 2009, 19, 479. Chunder, A.; Etcheverry, K.; Londe, G.; Cho, H. J.; Zhai, L. “Conformal Switchable Superhydrophobic/Hydrophilic Surfaces for Microscale Flow Control”Colloids Surf., A 2009, 333, 187. Zou, J.; Chen, H.; Chunder, A.; Yu, Y.; Huo, Q.; Zhai, L. “A Simple Preparation of Superhydrophobic and Conductive Nanocomposite Coating from a Carbon Nanotube-Conjugated Block Copolymer Dispersion.” Adv. Mater. 2008, 20, 3337. Sarkar, S.; Chunder, A.; Fei, W.; An, L.; Zhai, L. “Superhydrophobic Mats of Polymer Derived Ceramics.” J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 2008, 91, 2751. Zou, J.; Liu, L.; Chen, H.; Khondaker, S. I.; McCullough, R. D.; Huo, Q.; Zhai, L. “Dispersion of Pristine Carbon Nanotubes Using Conjugated Block Copolymers” Adv. Mater. 2008, 20, 2055. Londe, G.; Chunder, A.; Wesser, A.; Zhai, L.; Cho, H. J. “Microfluidic Valves Based on Superhydrophobic Nanosctructures and Switchable Thermosensitive Surface for Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) Systems” Sens. Actuators, B 2008, 132, 431.