Taste of Tech Seminar: Building America’s first foundry for displays and hybrid electronics | Chemically Modular Hydrogel Absorbents for Capturing Aqueous PFAS

Taste of Tech Seminar Series

12/13/2024

Lunch will be provided during the seminar

Time

11:45 AM – 1:00 PM (EST)

Max Lemaitre is a technology entrepreneur and expert in carbon physics and nanotechnology. He received a bachelor’s degree in materials science and engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he published research on soft-lithography patterning and carbon nanotube growth. He completed a Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 2013, where he co-founded Delta R Detection, a national-award-winning start-up aimed at commercializing an explosive detection technology. His subsequent work on source-gated, vertical field-effect transistors helped unravel the novel operating mechanisms behind Mattrix Technologies’ CN-VFETs and VOLETs. Having contributed to numerous peer-reviewed publications and patents on the subject, he co-founded Mattrix Technologies to bring improved manufacturing solutions to the OLED display industry.

Presentation Title:  Building America’s first foundry for displays and hybrid electronics
Abstract: We interface with our digital world through displays. But after decades of neglect, the USA has NO domestic manufacturer of flat-panel displays and is thus reliant on foreign manufacturers – a situation that is unacceptable for our national security and competitiveness. Current display manufacturing processes are too inefficient and expensive to onshore. Mattrix has developed a process that dramatically reduces the cost and simplifies the production of advanced OLED displays, enabling these critical semiconductor devices to be profitably made in the USA. 

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Dr. Joshua Moon is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and Affiliate Graduate Faculty with Department of Materials Science and Engineering at UF. His research group focuses on designing and understanding advanced polymer materials for chemical separations to overcome Grand Challenges in clean water and energy production. Prior to joining the faculty at UF, he worked as a post-doc at UC Santa Barbara. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at University of Alabama.

Presentation Title: Chemically Modular Hydrogel Adsorbents for Capturing Aqueous PFAS
Abstract: Conventional adsorbents such as activated carbon and ion exchange resins often exhibit limited ability to capture or remove PFAS due to poor sorption capacities, slow kinetics, and competition with other organic compounds. Underlying these challenges is a lack of PFAS-tailored chemical functionalities in commercial adsorbents, which typically use a one-size-fits-all approach to performing organic ion separations. Polymer ionic liquids (PILs) and PIL networks offer promise as a versatile platform for designing fit-for-purpose and scalable PFAS separation technologies. A cornerstone of PIL design is the ability to tune electrostatic interactions with PFAS anions by modulating the chemistry of a fixed PIL cation, which could enable precise control over binding affinity and kinetics for broad classes of PFAS, including short chain PFAS. Our lab has developed a modular synthetic approach to readily functionalize hydrogel adsorbents with a wide range of PIL functionalities using active ester click chemistry. A unique aspect of these networks is they are entirely fluorine-free and rely solely on acid-base and hydrophobic interactions to promote PFAS binding. We have demonstrated that grafted Lewis base groups impart high affinity for PFOA, resulting in >99% sorption at initial PFOA concentrations of 10 ng/mL as well as high regeneration using light alcohols. Stronger Lewis bases exhibit higher affinity for PFOA than weaker bases, and increased Lewis base grafting density positively correlates with increased Langmuir sorption capacities.

AGENDA