Title: Advancing Multifunctional Soft Materials and Surfaces Through Reversible Molecular Interactions
Speaker: Professor Zeng Hongbo
Inviter: Researcher Qian Yong
Time: July 23, 2025, at 3:00 PM
Venue: Conference Room 105, Yifu Engineering Hall
Organizing Unit:School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Report Abstract:
The intermolecular interactions and surface characteristics of materials play a crucial role in determining their physicochemical properties and functionalities. Extensive efforts have been devoted to characterizing these interactions, particularly non-covalent ones, in soft materials (e.g., surfactants, polymers, biopolymers) and biological systems. In this talk, I will briefly introduce the basics of intermolecular and surface forces, along with some commonly used nanomechanical techniques. I will also present recent progress on how we have applied nanomechanical tools to quantify the intermolecular and surface interactions in polymer/biopolymer materials and biological systems, such as the wet adhesion of marine mussels. Our recent studies have systematically characterized the intermolecular and surface interaction mechanisms in mussel adhesives. The fundamental mechanisms elucidated, including biopolymer-metal ion coordination, cation-π, anion-π, hydrophobic, and hydrogen bonding interactions in aqueous media, have been further applied to the development of multifunctional soft materials, such as self-healing polymers/hydrogels and wet adhesives, with various bioengineering applications. These findings offer valuable insights into biological self-assembly processes and suggest new approaches to developing multifunctional soft materials and surfaces via tunable non-covalent interactions.
Speaker Introduction:
Zeng Hongbo is a tenured professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Alberta, Canada. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Engineering, as well as a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He holds the title of National Chair Professor and is a leading expert in molecular forces and interface science. He obtained his bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering from Tsinghua University and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His current research focuses primarily on colloid and interface science, polymer materials, molecular and nano mechanics, and interfacial phenomena in various engineering processes. He has published over 500 papers in high-level SCI journals and has authored and edited a monograph. He has received numerous awards, including the Canadian Petroleum Young Innovator Award, the Canadian Chemical Engineering and Chemistry Society Innovation Award, the University of Alberta Engineering Research Excellence Award, the Engineering Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award, the Engineering Graduate Teaching Excellence Award, the Outstanding Mentor Award, and the Engineering Research Career Achievement Award. He has also received the International Outstanding Young Chemical Engineer Award, the Steacie Award from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (one of the highest national science and technology awards), the Killam Professorship Award, the van der Waals Award, and the John R. Grace Award in Particulate Science and Green Chemistry from the Canadian Chemical and Chemical Engineering Society. He currently serves as editor-in-chief of *Advances in Colloid and Interface Science* and as associate editor for journals such as *Science China Materials* and *Friction*.
