Research
Dissertation Work
Sustainable Ink Development
As electronic waste continues to build-up, alternative green methods are being explored. One promising approach is to use recyclable and biodegradable materials deposited by a printer. My current dissertation work focuses on the development of water-based inks, typically carbon, that require low-energy and water-based post-processing techniques.
Transistor Characterization
Using environmentally sustainable inks and printing processes developed in our lab, we create fully-printed flexible thin film transistors (TFTs). Specifically, we demonstrated that biodegradable ionic dielectric TFTs have the potential to perform close to if not better than environmentally harmful dielectrics for wearable applications.
Sensor Platform Creation
In addition to transistors, we have used carbon-based printed materials to realize resistive and capacitive sensors. Through the development of a new printing process, graphene pillars have been added to the sensing surface to further improve sensitivity. This work provides a platform to base new sensor work from in the future!
Future Work
Wearables & Flexible
One application space my group will focus on is the development of environmentally friendly wearable and flexible sensors, which will require robust and highly sensitive printable materials. This work can be extended beyond human sensing to other flexible applications, such as on animals and plants to monitor the environment.
Extreme Environments
We will also print robust nanomaterials for to survive extreme environments, such as oceans, space, desserts, and volcanos. The creation of electronic devices that maintain their electrical properties in each environment presents many challenges that my group will overcome through the investigation of new and exciting materials!
Modeling
To increase our success in expanding the application space of printed electronics, we will model each material and electronic device, updating physics models through experiments as we build out the modeling decks. These models will increase the efficiency of creating devices for each environment and inform directions to pursue.
The work of my group will be crucial for developing electronics for every environment someone may come across as well as provide sensors to better understand Earth and beyond.
Publications
1. B. N. Smith*, F. M. Albarghouthi*, J. L. Doherty, X. Pei, Q. Macfarlane, M. Salfity, D. Badia, and A. D. Franklin, “Fully printed Sub-1 µm Carbon Nanotube Thin-film Transistors,” (in preparation).
2. H. A. Hobbie, J. L. Doherty, B. N. Smith, P. Maccarini, and A. D. Franklin “Conformal Electronics on 3D Curvilinear Substrates Using Lathe-based Aerosol Jet Printing,” npj Flexible Electronics, (in review).
3. F. M. Albarghouthi, B. N. Smith, and A. D. Franklin, “Printable FET Biosensors based on Carbon Nanotubes” in “Roadmap on printable Electronic Materials for Sensing,” IOP Nano Futures, (in press).
4. F. M. Albarghouthi, D. Semeniak, I. Khanani, J. L. Doherty, B. N. Smith, M. Salfity, Q. Macfarlane, A. Karappur, S. G. Noyce, N. X. Williams, D. Y. Joh, J. B. Andrews, A. Chilkoti, and A. D. Franklin, “Addressing Signal Drift and Screening for Detection of Biomarkers with Carbon Nanotube Transistors,” ACS Nano, (in press). https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.3c11679
5. B. N. Smith, P. Ballentine, J. L. Doherty, R. Wence, H. A. Hobbie, N. X. Williams, and A. D. Franklin, “Aerosol Jet Printing Conductive 3D Microstructures from Graphene without Post-Processing,” Small, (in press). https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202305170
6. J. Rich, B. Cole, T. Li, B. Lu, H. Fu, B. N. Smith, J. Xia, S. Yang, R. Zhong, J. L. Doherty, K. Kaneko, H. Suzuki, Z. Tian, A. D. Franklin, and T. J. Huang, “Aerosol Jet Printing Surface Acoustic Wave Microfluidic Devices,” Microsystems and Nanoengineering, vol. 10, pp. 2, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41378-023-00606-z
7. B. Huegen, J. L. Doherty, B. N. Smith, and A. D. Franklin, “Role of Electrode Configuration and Morphology in Printed Prothrombin Time Sensors,” Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, vol. 399, pp. 134785, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2023.134785
8. E. G. Franklin, B. N. Smith, and A. D. Franklin, “Impact of NaCl concentration in crystalline nanocellulose for printed ionic dielectrics,” J. Emerging Investigators, vol. 6, pp. 1-5, 2023. https://doi.org/10.59720/22-240
9. S. Lu, B. N. Smith, H. Meikle, M. J. Therien, and A. D. Franklin, “All-Carbon Thin-Film Transistors Using Water-Only Printing,” Nano Letters, vol. 23, pp. 2100-2106, Feb. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c04196
10. R. McNaboe, L. Beardslee, Y. Kong, B. N. Smith, I. Chen, H. F. Posada-Quintero, and K. H. Chon, “Design and Validations of a Multimodal Wearable Device for Simultaneous Collection of Electrocardiogram, Electromyogram, and Electrodermal Activity,” Sensors, vol 22, pp. 8851, Nov. 2022. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22228851
11. B. N. Smith, H. Meikle, J. L. Doherty, S. Lu, G. Tutoni, M. L. Becker, M. J. Therien, and A. D. Franklin, "Ionic dielectrics for fully printed carbon nanotube transistors: Impact of composition and induced stresses," Nanoscale, vol. 14, pp. 16845-16856, Nov. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1039/D2NR04206A
12. A.B.M.H. Talukder, B. Smith, M. Akbulut, F. Dirisaglik, H. Silva, and A. Gokirmak, “Temperature-Dependent Characteristics and Electrostatic Threshold Voltage Tuning of Accumulated Body MOSFETs,” IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, vol. 69, pp. 4138-4143, Aug. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2022.3184906