Mechanics of Soft Materials Lab

Soft materials are capable of large deformation, and have mechanical properties comparable to those of biological tissues. Recent developments in soft materials are enabling the rise of soft robotics, stretchable electronics, and biomechatronics. These new fields are profoundly altering the interactions between human beings and machines. Through the integration of analytical modeling, computational simulation and experiment, our group aims to investigate the fundamental physics and mechanics of soft materials, such as their constitutive relation, nonlinear deformation, instability, and fracture. On the other hand, our group strives to develop new materials, structures, and functions for soft robotics and stretchable electronics.

• 11/2022 Shivam, Boliang and Yu present their work in 2022 ASME's International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE)!

• 11/2022 Prof Jin delivered a guest lecture for middle and high school teachers at Nanoscience Teacher Training Workshop in partnership with CNSI.

• 11/2022 Prof Jin delivered an invited talk at North Carolina State University.

• 10/2022 Prof Jin delivered invited talks in the Technology Meeting of Society of Engineering Science (SES).

• 10/2022 Congratulate Yu for winning the 2022 Haythornthwaite Foundation Student Travel Award to attend ASME IMECE 2022!

• 09/2022 Shivam, Boliang and Prof Jin present their work in the Gordon Research Conference on Multifunctional Materials and Structures.

• 08/2022 Our undergraduate students present their posters in Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) poster symposium, and celebrate their achievement. Congratulate Kenneth for the honorable mention for his technical presentation!

• 08/2022 Prof Jin delivered an invited talk in the Golden Gate Polymer Forum.

• 08/2022 Our group receives a NIH grant to work on medical soft robots. Thanks to our collaborators and NIH for the support!

• 08/2022 Our group receives a NSF grant to work on wearable devices. Thanks to our collaborators and NSF for the support!

• 08/2022 Welcome our new postdoc, Dongwon Kang!

• 06/2022 Chen and Prof Jin delivered talks in 19th U.S. National Congress for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.

• 'Editorial: Materials, design, modeling and control of soft robotic artificial muscles' published in Frontiers in Robotics and AI

• 'Highly stretchable metallization based on metal-polymer intermixing for skin-inspired organic transistors' published in Science Advances

• 'Photo-induced spatiotemporal bending of shape memory polymer beams' published in Smart Materials and Structures

• 'Buckling and postbuckling of thick tubes' published in Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids

• 'Buckling of viscoelastic spherical shells' published in Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids

• 'Mechanics underpinning phase separation in hydrogels' published in Macromolecules

• 'Tough interface-enabled stretchable electronics using non-stretchable polymer semiconductors and conductors' published in Nature Nanotechnology

• 'A hemispherical image sensor array fabricated with organic photo-memory transistors' published in Advanced Materials

• 'Rolling of liquid crystal elastomer bistrips' published in Soft Matter

• 'Harnessing friction in interwoven structures for high-capacity reusable energy-absorbing metamaterials' published in Advanced Science

• 'Spatiotemporally programmable surfaces via viscoelastic shell snapping' published in Advanced Intelligent Systems

• 'Photodriven self-excited hydrogel oscillators' published in Physical Review Applied

• 'Electrolyte modulators towards polarization mitigated lithium-ion batteries for sustainable electric transportation' published in Advanced Materials

• 'A stretchable and strain-unperturbed pressure sensor for motion-interference-free tactile monitoring on skins' published in Science Advances