NRF POC AWARDEES – 7TH GRANT CALL, MAY 2012

 

1. Development of Integrated Li-ion Battery for Portable Electronic Devices

NUS in collaboration with a Singaporean company, Meiban International Pte Ltd aims to develop an integrated flat type Li-ion battery (LIB) for portable electronic device applications. The proposed integrated LIB will use indigenously developed cathode and anode materials, available LIB manufacturing facility at NUS and advanced packaging facility at Meiban International Pte Ltd.

Currently, commercial LIB has moderate energy density (usage time) and low power density (long time charging). This is partly due to usage of conventional graphite anode which has low operating voltage; the insertion of Li+ ions into graphite (storage) at fast rate is not quite a safe process. As an alternative, we had earlier developed mesoporous TiO2 anode material which is quite safe at fast charging (5 – 10 min.).  We had employed a simple (soft-template) synthetic process for this purpose. Using 4th NRF-POC funding (Nov. 2010- Nov.2011), we had successfully scaled up the production of this anode material up to 5 kg and fabricated a prototype LIB with LiMn2O4 as cathode in collaboration with E-One Moli at Taiwan.

Compared to commercial LiMn2O4, the novel Li3V2(PO4)3 cathode material proposed in this project can deliver more than 6 times higher power and is a suitable cathode to pair with mesoporous TiO2 anode in a LIB. Recently, we have successfully produced mesoporous Li3V2(PO4)3 cathode material in the laboratory scale with superior storage performance.

In this 7th NRF-POC project, one of the objectives is to scale up the production of mesoporous Li3V2(PO4)3 up to 5kg and thereafter develop flat LIB for portable electronic device applications. The proposed novel flat type LIB using mesoporous Li3V2(PO4)3 and mesoporous TiO2 provides an ideal battery technology solution for portable electronic devices with safety features and all the advantages of batteries and supercapacitors in one unit; that is, battery like energy and capacitor like power.

Dr Palani Balaya
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
National University of Singapore

 

 

 

Just after graduating (1993) from the University of Hyderabad, India, in the area of Solid State Ionics, Dr. Palani joined at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore as a Research Associate (1994-1996) and worked on the thermal properties of insulating materials at low temperature. He later joined the Inter University Consortium, Mumbai, as a Scientist (1996-2001) and worked with neutron diffractometer to investigate the structure of amorphous materials. He then moved to the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany as a Guest Scientist (2001-2006) and worked in the areas of electrical conduction at nano-size, thermodynamics at nano-size and lithium storage. Dr. Palani joined as an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Engineering, NUS, Singapore in January 2007. His current research interests are on nanostructured solar cells, lithium-ion battery and sodium-ion battery. His research focuses on the development of large scale stationary storage systems for smart grid applications to mitigate the climate change.

 

2. Development of Li rechargeable batteries with fast charge rate and high energy storage capacity

To meet demands of Li ion rechargeable batteries with high energy density and fast charge rate, the present investigators have recently developed and patented positive materials which can be charged within a short duration, and a graphene-based negative material which possesses a capacity about 3 times higher than that of current-commercially used graphite. Furthermore, the potential of the newly developed graphene is higher than that of graphite. Therefore, pairing the said positive material with the negative one will lead to the development of a novel Li-ion rechargeable battery with high energy density and high charge rate with excellent safety features.

In this POC, the investigators will fabricate full battery cells using the said positive and negative materials. To minimize the increase in the cost of batteries fabrication, except for the change in active materials, fabrication techniques for the batteries will remain unchanged.

The newly fabricated prototypes of Li ion rechargeable battery cells are safe and are expected to have high energy density, fast charge rate and high power density. Accordingly, these Li ion rechargeable batteries will have extremely high commercial potential for large scale applications such as electric vehicles, grid storage and different types of electronic products.

Dr Lu Li
Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
National University of Singapore

 

 

Dr Lu Li is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS). He received his B. Eng and M. Eng from Tsinghua University, China and his Ph.D from Katheliek Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. After two years of postdoctoral studies, he joined NUS as a research scientist in 1991 and later a lecturer in 1993, and was promoted to a full professor in 2004. His main research interests include functional and nanostructured materials, and their properties. In the past 15 years he has been involved in research in the areas of functional thin films such as thin film microbatteries, and ferroelectric and multiferoic functional thin films. He has also been involved in the studies of energy storage materials for lithium ion rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors. As a principle and co-principle investigator and a collaborator, he has been awarded several million dollars worth of research grants from different sources including NUS, A-STAR, DSTA, AOARD (USA) etc. He is an Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Functional Materials Letters, and an Editorial Board member for three other journals. He has published three books, about 300 research papers in international journals, and holds 6 patents.

 

3. Versatile core-shell-shell fluorescent upconversion nanoparticles for light based detection and disease diagnostics

Biomarkers are widely used for disease diagnostics and biomedical imaging. Many single test assay kits have been developed for detection and quantitative measurement of biomarkers. When diagnostic tests or bioimaging studies are based on using a single biomarker, diagnosis can be unreliable and bioimaging studies limited, due to complexity and variability of any disease or biological process. Technology barriers currently hold back development of diagnostic tests and bioimaging analyses based on simultaneous multiple marker detection in a single test (multiplexing). Particularly so, in complex samples such as tissues and biological fluids. Detection of multiple biomarkers will allow for enhanced accuracy and considerable savings in time, cost, and amount of sample required.

A major limitation to multiplexing arises from limitations of ‘traditional’ fluorophores. Current fluorescent dyes/proteins and quantum dots (QDs), emit low energy fluorescence when excited by high energy light (downconversion fluorescence). These detection systems have several drawbacks including photobleaching, autofluorescence, low tissue penetration depth and tissue photo-damage, which makes usage in multiplexing systems impractical.

The presently funded project will use UpConversion Nanoparticles (UCNs) for optical imaging/detection to overcome above mentioned drawbacks in an attempt to achieve multiplex biomarker detection. UCNs emit higher energy visible range fluorescence upon irradiation with lower energy near-infrared (NIR) light. UCNs show absolute photostability, negligible autofluorescence, high penetration depth and minimum photodamage to biological tissues.

If the objectives of this project are successfully achieved, biomedical imaging and diagnostics tests will be tremendously enhanced. This proposal addresses a major market need by seeking to provide enhanced reliability and savings in time, cost, and sample amount over current fluorescence-based diagnostic tests and bioimaging technologies.

Dr Zhang Yong
Associate Professor
Department of Bioengineering
National University of Singapore

 

 

Dr. Zhang Yong is an Associate professor in the Department of Bioengineering, National University of Singapore. His current research interests include nanobiophotonics, nanomedicine, biomedical microdevices, and tissue engineering. He is a leading researcher in the field of fluorescent nanoparticles where he has made highly significant achievements in developing some new technologies based on upconversion nanoparticles for bio-imaging, bio-detection, disease diagnostics and treatment. He has authored over 100 research papers (H-index=33) in various top tier international journals such as Nature Medicine and PNAS, a number of book chapters and patents, and a series of keynote/invited talks delivered in international conferences. He received a NUS Young Investigator Award in 2003 and a few other research awards. Currently he is on the editorial board of more than 15 international peer-reviewed journals, besides also serving as a reviewer for more than 20 international journals and a number of funding agencies.

 

4. ASANA – Analyte-specific Spatially Addressable Nanostructured Arrays

Microarray technology is an emergent technology for capturing and identifying “analytes” such as DNA, proteins and other substances important in biological and clinical sciences. Recently, this technology has seen an explosive growth as they can be used to detect specific analytes efficiently, quickly and many at the same time. However, their use in detecting proteins (such as virus and bacteria) – an important healthcare application – and development of new classes of applications are hampered by two significant technological barriers. One is the current unavailability of good enough surfaces that enable the capture of proteins present in very small quantities. As a result, the measurements are not accurate.  The second barrier arises from how the proteins are introduced into the microarrays. Currently, the unknown proteins are placed on the microarray surface directly before detection, which causes the proteins to lose their functionality, thus limiting the usefulness. Therefore, reliable detection requires relatively large amounts of proteins, thus making detection of trace amounts of proteins impossible.

Here, we use our propriety technologies to overcome the above barriers so that three key, significant advances can be made, namely, (i) efficient and fast detection of even trace quantities of proteins, (ii) significant enhancement of the versatility of microarrays for new and next-generation applications, and (iii) cost-effective fabrication processes for large-scale production of the devices. First, we plan to use our proprietary nanotechnology for tailored,
nanostructured surfaces that provide very-high-capacity capture sites for many orders of magnitude improvements in signal strength relative to noise. Second, we will use another proprietary technique to eliminate the performance limiting, deleterious interference of microarray substrates with proteins. This unique solution-based capture technique combined with established “microfluidic” technology provides a novel platform for detection of proteins and as a proof-of-concept this platform will be applied to the measurements of sepsis.

Dr Choi Wee Kiong
Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
National University of Singapore

 

 

 

Prof Choi Wee Kiong received his BSc, MBA and PhD from the Edinburgh University, UK. He is currently a Professor and the Deputy Head (Administration) of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the National University of Singapore, and the Co-Chair of the Advanced Materials for Micro- and Nano- System Programme of the Singapore-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alliance. Prof. Choi’s research interests are in the synthesis of nanostructures for biomedical and energy storage applications and he holds 9 patents in these areas. He was awarded the Younger Member Written Premium by the Institute of Electrical Engineers, the Best Paper Award in Reliability of the International Symposium on Physical & Failure Analysis of Integrated Circuits and the Inaugural Research Achievement Award by the NUS Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Initiative. Prof. Choi is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (USA), a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (UK) and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (UK). Prof. Choi is a member of the Advisory Board of Nanotube Therapy (Versita).

 

Dr Too Heng Phon
Associate Professor
Department of Biochemistry
National University of Singapore

 

 

 

 

 

Prof Too Heng Phon received his undergraduate training in Biochemistry, Imperial College of Science & Technology, UK. He then continued with his PhD training in a joint research project in Imperial College, Institute of Ophthalmology and West Minister Hospital, London. Thereafter, he received further training in the Medical Research Council, Cambridge (UK), where he was a Procter & Gamble Fellow. He then moved to the Department of Anesthesiology and Department of Biological Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, where he was a recipient of the Merck Sharpe Dohme Academic Development Fellowship. Currently, he is a faculty in the Department of Biochemistry, National University Singapore, a Principal Scientist in the Bioprocessing Technology Institute and a Fellow of the Singapore-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alliance (Molecular Engineering of Biological & Chemical Systems program; Chemical & Pharmaceutical Engineering Programme). Dr Too is a molecular biologist focusing on biotechnology and neuroscience. In recent years, he was funded by Roche Diagnostics (USA & Asia Pacific) and the National Institutes of Health (USA) to develop qPCR assays for infectious diseases. He is an awardee of a Commercialization of Technology grant and GAP funding by A*STAR. He has intellectual property protections on specific diagnostic platforms with various research departments and with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.

 

Dr Raj Rajagopalan
Professor
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
National University of Singapore

 

 

 

 

 

Prof Raj Rajagopalan received his undergraduate education at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India, in chemical engineering and did his PhD in Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, also in chemical engineering. He moved to the National University of Singapore in 2003 as the Head of the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, and has held a number of other administrative appointments at National University of Singapore. Prior to moving to Singapore, he spent about 30 years in academia in the US, where his activities also included service at the US National Science Foundation as a Program Director and Expert Advisor. While in the US, he has held joint faculty positions in environmental engineering, materials science, physics, and chemistry, with primary appointments in chemical engineering, and has served in administrative and leadership capacities in professional societies such as the American Chemical Society. His research areas cover a number of disciplines, but always with a focus on statistical and molecular biophysics and colloid and polymer physics. His research and educational activities have been recognized through a number of international awards, and his textbook on colloids is used in a number of universities worldwide. He has served on a number of A*STAR and MOE committees in Singapore and has served in similar advisory capacities in the US, Canada, UK, Russia, Middle East, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong and India. At NUS, he currently chairs the Chemical and Pharmaceutical Engineering Programme in the Singapore-MIT Alliance, where his research activities include theory of pharmaceutical crystallization, protein stability, protein folding, especially under macromolecular crowding relevant to in vivo protein dynamics.

 

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