Yee Lab Nanotechnology using Polymers afyee @ uci afyg.eng.uci /

1. Peptide Nanopillars • Yee LabNanotechnology using Polymersafyee@uci.eduhttp://afyg.eng.uci.edu/ • Prof. Albert Yee • Chair and Professor  • B.S. Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley (1967) • Ph.D. Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley (1971) Research Summary: The research on nanotechnology is motivated by the development of complex micro- and nano-electronic, photonic and biomedical devices, which require the integration of many layers and channels comprised of different materials. A major tool we use is a nanoimprinter that allows us to reproduce features as small as 30 nm using polymers. The group has developed the reversal imprinting technique which uniquely allows the imprinting of 3-dimensional nanostructures and for imprinting on substrates that are not flat. The substrate may be a silicon wafer, glass, or a polymer film. By using inking technique that we have also developed, metal films, electrodes, nanospheres, etc., may also be patterned on an imprinted nanostructure. Other nano-sized functional elements such as nanowires may also be grown from these patterns. The research on physical and mechanical behavior of polymers currently focus on the relaxation and deformation of nanostructures that we have fabricated. Because the size of polymer molecules may actually be larger than these nanostructures, interesting and unexpected relaxation behavior have been observed. The deformation and fracture of polymeric nanostructures are also expected to be quite different from those of bulk materials. These studies will have significant impact on the design and application of polymeric nanostructures to devices. An emerging area of research is to use nanotexturing to control wettability of polymer surfaces and cell adhesion. Using nanoimprintingto create nano-structures for various applications including interactions with cells and tissues. Key Publications: Kong YP, Chen L, Yee AF, Probing near-surface nanoscale mechanical properties of low modulus materials using a quartz crystal resonator atomic force microscope. Nanotechnology 22, 295709, 2011. Peng, HG, Kong YP, Yee AF, Relaxation Kinetics of Nanostructures on Polymer Surface: Effect of Stress, Chain Mobility, and Spatial Confinement. Macromol  43,  409, 2010. He CB, Liu, Liu TX, Tjiu WC , Sue HJ, Yee AF, Microdeformation and fracture mechanisms in polyamide-6/organoclay nanocomposites. Macromol 41, 193, 2008.