MAE Seminar Series: Bharat Bhushan

Title:

Lessons from Nature: Bioinspired Mechanically Durable and Self-healing Superliquiphilic/phobic Surfaces

Abstract:

Living nature, through some 3 billion years of evolution, has developed materials, objects, and processes that function from the nanoscale to the macroscale. The understanding of the functions provided by species and processes found in living nature can guide us to design and produce bioinspired surfaces for various applications. There are a large number of flora and fauna with properties of commercial interest. Nature provides many examples of surfaces that repel (hydrophobic) or attract (hydrophilic) water. The most famous is the lotus leaf. Its surface contains a hierarchical structure that, combined with specific surface chemistry, results in a water repellant surface that is self-cleaning, as water droplets collect contaminants as they roll off. Some plant leaves, such as fagus leaves, are hydrophilic, allowing water to rapidly spread into a thin layer, increasing evaporation, leading to a dry and self-cleaning surface. By taking inspiration from nature, it is possible to create hierarchically structured surfaces with re-entrant geometry and surface chemistry that provide multifunctional properties including superliquiphilicity/phobicity, self-cleaning/low biofouling, and/or low drag.

A facile, substrate-independent, multilayered nanoparticle/binder composite coating technique has been developed to produce various combinations of water and oil repellency and affinity with self-cleaning properties. These coatings having a so-called re-entrant geometry can also repel surfactant-containing liquids. Some of the nanostructured surfaces have been found to be anti-bacterial.  These coatings provide the basis to fabricate surfaces for a range of applications including self-cleaning, anti-fouling, anti-smudge, optical transparency, anti-fogging, anti-icing, low drag, water purification, and oil–water separation. The coatings have been found to be mechanically durable and self-healing.

Bio:

Dr. Bharat Bhushan is an Academy Professor (San Jose, CA), and has served as an Ohio Eminent Scholar and The Howard D. Winbigler Professor in the College of Engineering, the Director of the Nanoprobe Laboratory for Bio- & Nanotechnology and Biomimetics (NLB²) and affiliated faculty in John Glenn College of Public Affairs at the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. In 2013-14, he served as ASME/AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow, House Committee on Science, Space & Technology, United States Congress, Washington, DC. He has served as Expert Investigator on IP related issues in the U.S. and International Courts. He holds B. S., two M.S., a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering/mechanics, an MBA, and five honorary doctorates, a total of 10 College degrees. His research interests include Fundamental studies in the interdisciplinary areas of Bio/nanotribology/nanomechanics, Nanomaterials Characterization, Scanning Probe Techniques, Magnetic Storage, Bio/nanotechnology, Nanomanufacturing, Bioinspired Liquid Repellency, Self-cleaning, Anti-icing, Anti-fouling, and Water Harvesting, Science and Technology Policy. He is an internationally recognized expert of bio/nanotribology and bio/nanomechanics using scanning probe microscopy, and biomimetics. He is considered by some one of the pioneers of tribology and mechanics of magnetic storage devices, nanotribology, green tribology, and biomimetics. He had introduced the word nanotribology in the title of a Nature paper in 1995 and in the title of a first book on green tribology in 2010. He is one of the most prolific authors. He has authored 10 scientific books, 100+ handbook chapters, and 900+ scientific papers. He is Google Scholar’s one of 1248 Highly Cited Researchers in All Fields, h-index – 145+ with 100 k+ citations; Scopus’s one of 401 Scientists for Career-long Citation Impact Across All Fields out of over 8 million scientists from around world; 4^th Highly Cited Researcher in Mechanical Eng.; 149^th Most Cited in Materials Science in the World; and ISI Highly Cited Researcher in Materials Science and in Cross-field Category. His research was listed as one of the Top Ten Science Stories of 2015. He holds more than 25 U.S. and foreign patents.  He has given more than 400 invited presentations including 300+ keynote/plenary addresses at major international conferences on six continents. He delivered a TEDx 2019 lecture.

He is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards and international fellowships including the Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize for Senior Scientists, Max Planck Foundation Research Award for Outstanding Foreign Scientists, Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, International Tribology Gold Medal, Institution of Chemical Engineers (UK) Global Award, and NASA’s Certificate of Appreciation to recognize the critical tasks performed in support of President Reagan’s Commission investigating the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident.  He has organized various international conferences and workshops.  He is a member of various professional societies, including the International Academy of Engineering (Russia). He has previously worked for various industrial research labs including Mechanical Technology Inc., SKF, and IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA. He has held visiting professorship at University of California at Berkeley, University of Cambridge, UK, Vienna University of Technology, Austria, University of Paris, Orsay, ETH Zurich, EPFL Lausanne, Univ. of Southampton, UK, Univ. of Kragujevac, Serbia, Tsinghua Univ., China, Harbin Inst., China, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, BITS Pilani and Hyderabad, and KFUPM, Saudi Arabia.

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