[Seminar] Electrokinetics and Plasmonics at NanoScale Singularities: Designing Next-Generation Molecular Diagnostics by Professor Hsueh-Chia Chang

Abstract:

Sharp wedges and cones at nanoscale offer very focused fields that can be used for sensitive molecular detection and quantification.  Yet the local solutions of their field equations offer simple scaling theories that allow us to decipher the underlying physics and optimize the sensor design. We use this approach to develop several new technologies: a new AC Taylor cone electrospray for soft-ionization mass spectrometry, an AC electrospray technology for monodispersed droplet generation for digital PCR and single-cell assay/coating, a surface-acoustic wave cell lysing technology based on corner scattering, a broad-bandwidth tip plasmonic resonance for multiplexed optical sensors, a conic nanopore sensor with corner field leakage for miRNA quantification, a plasmonic-heating bubble-pen nanowriting technology for nanoarrays etc.

References

1.Maheshwari, S., Zhang, L., Y. Zhu and Chang, H.-C., “ Coupling between Precipitation and Contact-line Dynamics: Multi-ring Stains and Stick-Slip Motion”, Phys Rev Lett, 100, 044503 (2008). 

2. Chetwani, N., Maheshwari, S. and Chang, H.-C., “Universal Cone Angle of ac Electrosprays due to net charge entrainment”, Phys Rev Lett., 101, 204501 (2008).

3. Taller, D., Go, D. B. and Chang, H.-C., “Self-Similar Micron-size and Nanosize Drops of Liquid Generated by Surface Acoustic Waves”, Phys Rev Lett, 109, 224301 (2012).

4. Wang, Y. , Plouraboue, F. and Chang, H.-C., "Broadband Converging Plasmon Resonance at a Conic Nanotip", Optics Express, 21, 6609(2013).

5. Yan, Y., Wang, L., Xue, J., and Chang, H.-C., “Ion Current Rectification in Conic Nanopores: Nonequilibrium Ion Transport Biased by Ion Selectivity and Spatial Asymmetry”, J Chem. Phys., 138, 044706 (2013).

6. Pan, Z., Wang, C., Li, M. and Chang, H.-C., “Universal Scaling of Robust Thermal Hotspot  and Ionic Current Enhancement by Focused Ohmic Heating in a Conic Nanopore, Phys Rev Lett, 117, 134301(2016).

Biography:

Prof Hsueh-Chia Chang received his BS at Caltech and his PhD at Princeton. He started his career at UC Santa Barbara and U of Houston. He has been at Notre Dame since 1987.  He has held visiting and adjunct positions at Cambridge University, Imperial College, HKUST, National Cheng Kung and National Tsinghua. He received the Frenkiel Hydrodynamics Award from American Physical Society, the Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation, the Distinguished Visiting Fellow Award from the United Kingdom Royal Society of Engineering. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and is the founding editor of Biomicrofluidics, an American Institute of Physics journal.  He has given numerous named lectures and keynote talks, including the Corrsin Hydrodynamics lecture at Johns Hopkins and the Distinguished Lecture at Boston University.  Over 30 of his students are in academia over 5 continents. He is active in tech transfer, having licensed his technologies to 3 startups.