MateriAlZ Seminar: Kaitlyn Crawford
Friday, September 2, 2022, 10:50 am MST
Kaitlyn Crawford
Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
University of Central Florida
"Sustainability in Human Health Monitoring"
Zoom Link | Password: 081401
MateriAlZ Seminar website | YouTube | Twitter
Abstract
Over 200 million wearables were shipped in 2020 with the number of shipped devices likely to increase to over 700 million by 2026 [1]. Wearables are being used for a range of applications from human health monitoring to lifestyle organizing. The rapidly increasing demand for wearable devices come at a time when environmental and interplanetary pollution are at an all-time high. It is becoming ever-more necessary to consider the sustainability and life-cycle of emerging wearables. To this end, the amount of electronic waste (e-waste) produced in 2020 was ~50 million tons with up to 80% of that waste expected to reach landfills [2]. Other devices such as medical implants remain in patients or require risky second surgeries for removal when their use is complete. The development and integration of degradable materials for wearables can facilitate the decomposition of electronic devices when they are no longer needed. This talk focuses on the development of biodegradable polyesters and incorporation of naturally occurring materials such as plant-based gums to achieve transient flexible piezoelectric composites. Included is a discussion on the use of polysaccharides to form transient piezoelectric composite flexible films. Finally, the development and characterization of new biodegradable polyesters for use in future electronics applications will also be discussed.
[1] mordorintelligence.com
[2] thebalancemb.com
Bio
Kaitlyn Crawford joined the University of Central Florida (UCF) as an assistant professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Biionix member in Fall 2017. She also has courtesy appointments in the Department of Chemistry and the Nano Science and Technology Center at UCF. At UCF, Dr. Crawford’s research focuses on identifying new materials (usually polymers) for sensing applications that are environmentally sustainable. Prior to UCF she studied bioelectronics as a postdoc with joint affiliation at the Northwestern University Center for Bio-integrated Electronics and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Department of Materials Science and Engineering, both within the research group of Prof. John A. Rogers from 2015-2017. Dr. Crawford is a contributing author on several peer-reviewed articles and has received more than 12 awards related to research and teaching.