Abstract:
Large area flexible electronics is an emerging segment of electronics that opens up new possibilities of developing conformal, flexible, lighter and more robust applications. Some examples of flexible electronics will be presented. This field has the potential to contribute in a large number of sectors including sensors. The industry is growing and this opportunity is to be seized by India to derive various technological, scientific and strategic benefits; and the strengths of India which make it well positioned to realize this opportunity will be presented.
Conjugated polymer based chemical sensors have attracted attention on account of several advantages such as ease of processing, near room temperature operations, scope for derivatization, and for use on flexible substrates for applications needing a form factor. In this talk, two applications of such sensors are discussed - for detecting gases and for detecting aqueous metal ions. First, studies on several aspects of gas sensing are presented. The effect of film thicknesses, doping levels and dopant types of nanoscale films on the responses to different gases and the underlying mechanisms are highlighted. Further, the enhanced sensitivities with template nanostructures are discussed. Specifically, for detection of VOCs, the experimental results and density function theory (DFT) based calculations role of metal phthalocyanines are presented. Then the role of composites in enhanced gas sensing are discussed. And the performance of the device structure of a field effect transistor vis-a-vis a chemiresistor is presented. The second application, aqueous metal ion sensors, focuses on the aspect of interference. The explanation of the interference with the help of the barrier width technique, and a scale of interference is discussed. Also, the role of composites in obtaining improved performance parameters is presented
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Siddhartha Panda is a Professor of Chemical Engineering, and a participating faculty in the Materials Science Programme, and is the former Coordinator (i.e. Head) of the National Centre for Flexible Electronics (NCFlexE), at IIT Kanpur. His research focuses on chemical sensors for various applications (including healthcare) and the accompanying transport, reactions, transductions, materials processing, and intelligence -- utilizing flexible printable platforms. He has over 75 research publications and over 50 granted patents. Several of the technologies developed at IIT Kanpur have been licensed to the industry. Prior to joining IIT Kanpur in 2006, he was a Staff/Advisory Engineer at the IBM Semiconductor R&D Center, New York, for over six years. He obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Houston in 1999, an M.S. from the University of Cincinnati in 1995 and a B.Tech. from IIT Kharagpur in 1992, all in Chemical Engineering.