Date/Time Date(s) - 13/03/20262:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Categories
Prof. Laure Kayser
Materials Science and Engineering, University of Delaware
Electrically conductive hydrogels, composites of crosslinked and water-swollen polymers with a conducting material (polymer or inorganic nanoparticles) can address the mechanical and electronic mismatch between electronic devices and biological systems. While several methods have been reported to prepare these conductive hydrogels, several issues have to be addressed to enable their translation in bioelectronics. These issues include: (1) the increase in elastic modulus at high loading of conducting material, (2) the irreversibility of the gelation mechanism, which complicates the delivery and potential removal of the conductive hydrogel in vivo, and (3) the difficulty in controlling the micro- and macro-structure of the conductive hydrogels for applications in tissue engineering and wearable electronics. In this talk, I will share our progress towards addressing these issues with stimuli-responsive polyelectrolytes. The first part will be focused on achieving spatiotemporal control by using photo-active polymers to simultaneously photo-catalyze the polymerization of a conducting polymer and photo-crosslink its supporting matrix. This approach allows for printing conductive hydrogels with high resolution. In the second part, I will discuss the use of thermo-responsive polyelectrolyte block copolymers to achieve a reversible sol-gel transition close to body temperature in conductive systems. The materials hold promise in injectable bioelectronics for their mechanical and electronic properties and biocompatibility.
Prof. Laure Kayser is an assistant professor at the University of Delaware (UD) in the department of Materials Science and Engineering, and holds a joint appointment in the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. After undergraduate studies and a M.Sc. degree in Chemistry and Supramolecular Chemistry at the University of Strasbourg in France, she did her Ph.D. at McGill University working with Prof. Bruce Arndtsen on multicomponent polymerization of conjugated polymers. She moved to the United States for her post-doc in NanoEngineering at the University of California San Diego with Prof. Darren Lipomi working on stretchable electronics. She started her independent faculty career at UD in 2019, where her group uses innovative synthetic chemistry to solve problems in human health (polyelectrolytes for bioelectronics, osteoarthritis treatments and haptics) and sustainability (plastic upgrading). Her research led to several recognitions including the outstanding early career faculty from the College of Engineering (2025), ACS PMSE Early Investigator (2024), NSF CAREER award (2023), Beckman Young Investigator (2023), Rising Star in Polymers (ACS Polymers Au, 2023), ACS PRF doctoral new investigator award (2023), University of Delaware Research Foundation (UDRF) award (2022). At UD, Prof. Kayser is the co-director of professional development of the NSF Research Traineeship in Computing and Data Science Training for Materials Innovation, Discovery, and AnalyticS (NRT-MIDAS) and a mentor for the NIH-funded Chemistry-Biology Interface (CBI) graduate training program.
In-Person: ABB 102
Online: Echo360