Guest Speaker: Prof. XU Xiaomin
Associate Professor, Institute of Materials Research, Tsinghua Shenzhen
International Graduate School, Tsinghua University
Prof. Xu graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2011 and obtained her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in 2015. From 2016 to 2019, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Emergent Matter Science at RIKEN and the Department of Physics at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. In September 2019, she joined Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (TBSI), Tsinghua University, as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in June 2022. Her research on organic and flexible electronics has been published in well-known journals such as PNAS, Nat. Energy, Chem, Adv. Mater., etc. with more than 2600 citations and an h-index of 26. She serves on the Early Career Editorial Advisory Board of Appl. Phys. Rev., and as a reviewer for journals including Nat. Commun., Adv. Electron. Mater., J. Mater. Chem. C, and Mater. Today Phys, etc. She has received awards and honors, including Outstanding Graduate of USTC, Hong Kong Ph.D. Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS), Humboldt Research Fellowship, Overseas High-caliber Personnel in Shenzhen, Shenzhen Excellent Youth, etc. She is leading research projects funded by national, provincial, and municipal funding agencies, including a Key program by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the General and Youth programs by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the General program by the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, and several others by Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee.
Abstract
In the fast-evolving landscape of decentralized and personalized healthcare, the need for flexible biosensing systems that integrate seamlessly with the human body is growing rapidly. However, devising ultraflexible configurations that accommodate multiple sensors, and developing high-performance sensing components with long-term stability, pose significant challenges. This talk addresses materials and device engineering toward high-performance skin-integrated optoelectronics and implantable neural interfaces suitable for chronic applications.
We first introduce ultraflexible organic optoelectronics functioning as wearable sensors or energy harvesters. To bridge soft tissue and rigid electronics, we introduce an ultrathin hydrogel film as the electronics/skin interface that overcome their stark disparities. Further, we demonstrate a highly conductive “tattoo electrode” designed for on-skin or under-skin electrophysiology, offering reduced contact impedance and superior signal acquisition capability. Finally, strategies toward highly conductive and compliant hydrogels and their application potential as chronic neural interfaces will be discussed.
