Recently, the team published a paper in Advanced Materials. The topic is "Ultra-fast response/recovery flexible piezoelectric sensor with DNA-like double helix yarn for epidermal pulse monitoring".
In textile, double strand is very common and one of the basic structures. In the process of research, Hu Jinlian found that the structure of double-stranded wire is very easy to use. Later they thought the structure was the same as DNA. In the research, they mainly achieved the following two goals: first, they solved the problem of the recovery lag of textile materials used in pressure sensors; Secondly, the pressure sensor needed in the pulse diagnosis scene of traditional Chinese medicine is developed.
Research on "Long Stories"
Zhang, a professor of biomedical engineering at City University of Hong Kong, is a colleague of Hu Jinlian and an expert in blood pressure measurement and cardiovascular diseases. Previously, he worked in the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and both sides sometimes attended meetings together.
Now, Zhang has a large center in Hong Kong Science Park, and the government has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to develop real-time monitoring equipment related to cardiovascular diseases. Hu Jinlian cooperated with each other, during which the latter sent a student to understand the problem that Zhang's research group hoped to solve. Knowing that they need a pressure sensor to measure blood pressure, Hu Jinlian and the students made several versions, one of which was published a few years ago.
Because I studied textiles, I mainly designed the fabric structure to realize the performance of the sensor. Later, she found a kind of yarn and tested different configurations such as single strand, double strand and four strand. As a result, she found that the interweaving of two strands had the best performance, so she used it as a pressure sensor.
This sensor has two main advantages: first, the pulse is constantly jumping up and down, and its jumping times are very frequent, which leads to the material going through the cycle of deformation-recovery-deformation. The sensor made of double-stranded wire has almost no hysteresis, which shows that its recovery ability is very strong. In addition, because the intensity of the pulse is not very strong, the response of the sensor must be controlled within the force range, so that its function will be more obvious, otherwise the performance and hysteresis of the sensor will change. In a word, this kind of sensor measures the pulse accurately, without lag and with outstanding repeatability.
Students are incubating related companies.
Hu Jinlian said that this application is mainly related to the body and is expected to be used in robots in the future. The biggest requirement of wearable devices is to fit the skin or conform to the human physiological structure. First of all, it should be easy to deform because the body is irregular. Second, it needs to be particularly soft. You know, there are many sensors on our skin, and it is easy to feel uncomfortable if there is a slight discrepancy.
In the past, people may put a hard photoelectric device on their skin and then collect data for processing, which is definitely not in line with physiological needs. Later, flexible devices appeared, which were basically flexible. But it's still not enough, so there are telescopic materials. Textiles can adapt to various deformations, including stretching, bending and shearing, so they are ideal materials for developing wearable devices.
In the follow-up plan, the City University of Hong Kong has established a fund, and Hu Jinlian's students are also setting up companies. However, they just made a sensor, and if they want to make a truly applicable device, they need more comprehensive research. For example, it is necessary to add reliable electrodes, extract signals for processing, and then show them after parameterization. As the project is an innovative project of HK300 of City University of Hong Kong, teachers are not allowed to be the main person in charge, so Hu Jinlian only operates as a consultant and shareholder, specifically as a student.
Do "one-stop" research
It is reported that Hu Jinlian is a native of Hubei and came to Hong Kong 28 years ago. After finishing my master's degree in the mainland, I also worked in the society, and then I won a Sino-British cooperative science and technology scholarship and was sent to study in the UK. After receiving her doctorate, she returned to work in China, first at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and then at the City University of Hong Kong. At present, the team has about 30 people.
Learning textile as a student is not a common reason that people think that "girls may love textile more". On the contrary, she said that when she was an undergraduate, she really didn't feel anything about textiles, preferring science. When I was in college, it happened shortly after the "ten-year turmoil" and the conditions were relatively lacking. While studying textile engineering, she had never seen many machine structures. In class, she felt that all these things were stipulated by people, because at that time, she mainly learned weaving, the structure of machines, design principles and functional manufacturing, so she felt a little wasted time.
Later, when she was studying for a master's degree, she chose textile materials science, because textile materials science was closer to science. At that time, textile materials science was a special major, which happened to be available when I came to Donghua University (then called China Textile University) for my master's degree. As a textile major, she has not studied engineering knowledge, so it is difficult to understand and interpret.
But for textile materials science, she can understand its connotation by reading related books. Learning a theorem can lead to other things without studying those machines. Later, because Hu Jinlian was admitted to another school, the school transferred her to the textile products major, which is a combination of textile engineering and textile materials. After that, she went to England to study and continue her research in this field. After graduation, she joined the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and taught textile engineering at first, but almost all her scientific research was about materials.
From fiber, to cloth, to clothing, she turned to materials and then began to synthesize polymer materials. In addition, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University has a textile department, so textile materials, clothing and sales are all her teaching and research fields. She said: "From the synthesis of polymer materials to the performance of textile products, I have completed it in a' one-stop'. This kind of experience is very unique, and most people don't. "
At the same time, it is also related to the business environment in Hong Kong. At that time, she wanted to make functional smart fabrics. This material has a good market in Hong Kong, and there are many related companies. After receiving the company's funding, she can apply to the Hong Kong government for large projects, which often range from material design to synthetic processing to textiles. She has done several rounds of big projects, which makes her cooperation with the company very handy, and the company especially likes her.
Hu Jinlian said: "I don't consider myself a female professor or have any shortcomings or advantages." I haven't thought about it. Basically do what you have to do, neither supercilious nor supercilious. The most important thing is that I have a good understanding of the upstream and downstream of the research background and can organically combine it from beginning to end. "
For example, to develop a product, we must first understand the requirements of the product. At this time, Hu Jinlian will find out the problem realistically and then find a solution. She said: "These solutions are not limited by textiles or polymer materials. I am willing to learn anything that I think can solve the problem, including cutting-edge things such as nanotechnology and biomedicine. "
At present, she has 50 patents authorized and more than 30 are applying for patents. In Hong Kong, she was the first teacher to apply for a patent. During the period of 1994, there were not many scientific research activities in Hong Kong. As a group of scholars who came earlier, she was very active and did some pioneering work. For example, at that time, there were no teachers applying for patents in universities, and there were no related supporting services. Later, with her efforts, the school began to establish an intellectual property office, even under the responsibility of the vice president. She said: "I witnessed this process and was the first person to participate in it. At the same time, it also promoted the patent development of Hong Kong Polytechnic University and City University of Hong Kong. "
Business returns are expected in the near future.
At present, Hu Jinlian has a wearable medical and health materials center in the City University of Hong Kong, and his research interests include clothing materials and textile materials. Specifically, there are three directions: the first direction is Chinese medicine and energy therapy, including acupuncture and scraping, electromagnetic light and so on; The second direction is bionic spider silk and its application, and the third direction is immature materials, especially clothing and biological materials.
"Materials are our strong point," she said. "When we do energy and Chinese medicine therapy, we will also start with materials. For example, how about horn for scraping board? How about ceramics? In this way, we can also study the interaction between materials and organisms. "
In terms of industrial incubation, she said: "I stayed at City University of Hong Kong for two years, and my classmates got three business projects including an angel fund. In addition to funding from City University of Hong Kong, we also received two projects funded by Hong Kong Science and Technology Park. In addition, I also have a project at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. These projects are all incubating and may have certain effects and commercial returns immediately. "
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Support: righteousness
Reference:
1, Chen Jun, Zhang Jun, Hu Jun, Luo, Ni, Sun, Wen catterson, ... & Zhang, in (2022). The ultra-fast response/recovery flexible piezoresistive sensor for epidermal pulse monitoring adopts DNA-like double helix yarn. Advanced materials, 34(2), 2 1043 13.