Henry Du, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Stevens Institute of Technology
Date: October 28, 2008 (Tuesday)
Time: 5:00pm (refreshment starts at 4:45pm)
Location: ECEC 202, NJIT

About the Presenter:

 Henry Du is Professor and Director of Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey. Du holds a doctoral degree in Ceramic Science from Penn State. His primary research interests include photonic crystal fibers as novel sensing platform, molecular and nanoscale surface functionalization, targeted delivery and release of drugs, and biomedical imaging. His research has been funded by NSF, AFOSR, NASA, ONR, US Army, New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology, Bell Laboratories, and Honeywell International. Du’s work has resulted in more than eighty technical publications and over one hundred invited and contributed presentations. He is a recipient of Dean’s Research Award and Jess Davis Memorial Award for Faculty Research Excellence at Stevens and a National Science Foundation Research Initiation Award. He is a member of the American Ceramic Society, the Materials Research Society, and SPIE. He also serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Ceramic Society, among other activities in professional societies.

About the Talk:

This presentation will focus on the strategy and the methods to integrate surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) functionality with the emerging photonic crystal fiber (PCF) technology in order to achieve a robust sensing platform for ultra-trace chemical detection and molecular fingerprinting. SERS is referred to as the orders of magnitude enhancement of the Raman scattering cross section in the presence of a metallic nanostructure. PCF is a class of optical fiber with axially aligned air holes along the fiber length. Key to realizing SERS-active silica-based PCF platform lies in the controlled immobilization of Ag nanoparticles in the fiber air channels. Highlighted in the presentation will be (1) our theoretically study of the interaction of the evanescent field with the nanoparticles immobilized on the guiding core for proper selection of their size and the coverage density in consideration of resultant light attenuation; (2) synthesis of colloids of Ag nanoparticles and their general characteristics; (3) immobilization of the Ag nanoparticles on planar silica substrates and inside the PCF using self-assembled polyelectrolyte monolayers as intermediate; and (4) demonstrated feasibility of SERS-active PCF platform with measurements of positively and negatively charged analytes in aqueous solutions as examples.

For more information contact Prof. H. Grebel, (973) 596-3538; grebel@njit.edu

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Note: All ECE MS thesis defense and Ph.D. dissertation (proposal) defense are counted towards ECE791.