the speaking of chemistry road trip is rollingon through the golden state. we’ve traveled the grueling five and a half miles from redwoodcity to stanford university to visit the lab of zhenan bao, a chemical engineer whose teamis trying to do huge things with tiny materials. zhenan bao: so our goal is to transform the futureof electronic devices. matt: zhenan’s team is designing smart materialsfor electronic devices to do things that haven’t
flexible snake scope usb camera, been possible before. take this electronicskin that could help patients with prosthetic limbs regain a sense of touch. how do youmake electronic skin? teamwork. i know. i know. that sounds so cliche, but trust me. itwon’t after you see how zhenan’s lab works. and the electronic skin is a perfect exampleof that. phd student alex chortos demo’d
a prototype skin for us. it's this thing that kinda looks like a more scientific and purple version of the power glove. the electronic skin on the purple glove haspressure pads on each fingertip. these pressure pads are made from a mixture that zhenan’steam developed that includes carbon nanotubes and a stretchy polymer. as alex presses downon the pads, the electrical conductance of that nanotube-polymer composite changes, convertingpressure changes into electrical signals. the skin’s foundation is a clear, flexiblepolymer, but the wires inside the polymer need to be bendy and stretchy, too. to makethese, the team used long, narrow silver nanowires. the wires are not stretchy themselves,but they do allow the team to create a flexible, conductive network.
alex: so although the network is being stretched,the individual materials are not being broken or stretched.noel: they kind of stay together because there’s so many of them so close together? is thatthe idea? alex: yeah. matt: so how do they get the silver networkand the carbon nanotube sensors into the same platform? well, like i said before, teamwork. alex: collaborating with people who reallyknow what they’re doing is really important for a project like this. you definitely haveto rely on the people that you work with because you can’t be an expert in everything.
matt: which brings us to francisco molinalopez, an expert at using what might be the world’s fanciest inkjet printer. franciscouses it to print the electronic materials concocted by zhenan’s team. francisco: my colleagues here, they designthe material and then together we formulate the ink to have the right parameters to be printable. andall the inks that we have, once they dry, they’re also stretchable, so they will comply withthe substrate. matt: although prosthetic skin is zhenan’slong-term goal, both she and her team are well aware that these materials could have near-termapplications as well. dig, if you will, this sensor. it’s tracking phd student amandanguyen’s pulse. wearable devices like this
one could be used to track and transmit apatient’s health information in real-time. zhenan: we don’t design our research forthe purpose of commercialization. but at the same time, as we develop materials and devicesand new technology, i would also like to see such inventions get actually used.that’s how my first company was started. matt: being in silicon valley certainly helpsfoster an entrepreneurial spirit. this setting allows zhenan’s team to get feedback fromits industrial neighbors as it develops new materials and devices at stanford. amanda: i think it’s a pretty unique environment, yes.it kind of gives you an idea of what are the parameters that you want to focus in on to optimize so you can meet these industry needs. it’s nice to do research
and know there’s a target application forit, right? matt: beyond bridging academia and industry,zhenan’s team also spans departmental divides, as well. her group is made up of scientistswith all sorts of backgrounds. this is intentional and zhenan really developed this collaborativephilosophy while working at the historic bell labs, which is kind of like science’s versionof camelot. although it may not maintain its former prestige, bell labs legacy is downrightmagical. even if you don’t know the bell labs’ name, you know its technology. for instance,you may have heard of the transistor or the laser. and bell labs can claim more than adozen nobel laureates and even an academy award winner. so if you don't know, now you do know.
zhenan: bell labs was such an exciting placeto work in. i worked side-by-side with the best in the world. matt: but there’s a dark twist inthe story of bell labs. in the early 2000s, bell labs was rocked by a scientific scandal soheinous it has its own wikipedia page. zhenan’s colleague and rising star, jan hendrik schã¶n,falsified and straight up made up data in papers with huge implications for electronics.zhenan played no part in this breach of scientific trust and integrity, but she worked directlywith hendrik. zhenan: it came as a shock. we sent molecules to germany for him to do testing. at the time because of some visa issue.i wasn’t able to see the actual experiments being performed.
matt: because hendrik didn’t keep lab notebooksand because he discarded or destroyed samples, it’s still unclear how many results he fabricatedand how many were legit. although that still haunts zhenan, this notorious improprietyhas done nothing to change her attitude toward collaboration. zhenan: i think it definitely had an impact on mycareer, but it’s not going to stop me from collaboration, because that’s extremelyimportant for the advancement of our science and technology.
matt: huge thanks to zhenan and her team forshowing us around their lab. be sure to tune into the road trip’s next stop at nasa’sjet propulsion lab in pasadena, where we’re going to learn about some tiny little satellitesgetting ready to do some chemistry in space. thanks for watching!
