Source: MICHIGAN STATE UNIV submitted to
ROBUST, GREEN AND SMART PACKAGING SYSTEM: MATERIALS, DESIGNS AND FABRICATIONS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
HATCH
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1016788
Grant No.
(N/A)
Project No.
MICL02570
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Oct 16, 2018
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2023
Grant Year
(N/A)
Project Director
Cao, CH.
Recipient Organization
MICHIGAN STATE UNIV
(N/A)
EAST LANSING,MI 48824
Performing Department
Packaging
Non Technical Summary
Packaging is significantly important in supply chain and has attracted great attention in food and agriculture departments due to their strict requirements in shelf life, contamination, food safety and quality, food waste and environmental impacts. However, current packaging systems are mostly based on plastic materials from fossil resources and cannot communicate the essential information of products to potential customers. Thus, there is a strong demand in developing a green, robust and smart packaging system of new technologies and low-cost. In this project, we will employ novel printing techniques to fabricate high-performance and compatible sensors and RFIDs and batteries for integrating them into a low-cost and smart packaging system and to develop environment-friendly and degradable packaging materials. Prototype products for the electronics and energy devices will be demonstrated in practical packaging applications.The success of the project will be able to ensure food quality and improve food safety in supply chains. Information collected through RFID sensor tags along the supply chain will be used to protect food products as they move through the supply chain, which will not only improve consumer safety, but also food industry profitability. This research aligns well with USDA's goal to reduce food waste and improve food safety by improving storage, distribution, labeling, and packaging. We believe that the technology will have significant social, economic and environmental impacts and will shift people's life style to a healthier one. The proposed project is also helpful to generate economic prosperity, sustain natural resources and enhance the quality of life in Michigan, the nation and the world.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
25%
Applied
40%
Developmental
35%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
71274102020100%
Knowledge Area
712 - Protect Food from Contamination by Pathogenic Microorganisms, Parasites, and Naturally Occurring Toxins;

Subject Of Investigation
7410 - General technology;

Field Of Science
2020 - Engineering;
Goals / Objectives
The goal of the project is to develop a robust, green and smart packaging system, which will be capable of protecting the products from damage, biodegradation or reuse after delivery or service, and automatically monitoring package environment and conditions as well as facilitating the transfer and communication in distribution process. To achieve this goal, we will have to employ experimental, analytical and numerical methods to develop robust materials with ultra-toughness and energy absorption capability, to develop low-cost biodegradable materials and manufacturing technologies, to design and fabricate novel sensors, RFIDs and batteries. Therefore, we propose the following specific research objectives for implementing the plan as below:To develop biodegradable nanocomposites for robust and green packaging applications and related uses;To design, fabricate and test printed temperature, humidity and chemical sensors using aerosol jet printed nanomaterials to achieve higher sensitivity and flexibility;To design and fabricate printed nanomaterial-based flexible batteries or supercapacitors with high performance;To design and fabricate RFIDs from metal nanoparticle inks (e.g. Ag, Cu) and metallic carbon nanotubes;To integrate sensors, battery and RFID for wireless detection and communication of recorded packaging information.
Project Methods
Degradable nanocomposites will be developed from natural materials for green tough packaging materials as well as transient electronics substrates. The 3D printing compatibility for the nanomaterials will be studied in detail. The composite manufacturing will have three main phases: 1) Raw materials optimization, 2) Process development and optimization and 3) Product optimization. To evaluate and control the manufacturing progress, five Gate Reviews (GRs) are considered in the project. The GRs provide a checklist, with the aid of characterization techniques in every five steps, for compliance with the requirements and standards to achieve the deliverables/milestones.The smart packaging system will be integrated from nanomaterials-based sensors, RFIDs, and batteries. The fabrication method will be mainly aerosol jet printing technology. The sensors used in packaging include temperature sensors, humidity sensors and chemical/gas sensors, which are able to monitor the environmental conditions and to detect spoilage of food and agriculture products. The Ag and Cu conductive inks will be selected for printing RFID tag antennas due to their low cost, low curing temperature and relatively high conductivity. The integration approach and detailed strategies will also be explored: either directly printing on packages or indirectly fabricating disposable tapes or labels. The tags' design, configuration, bonding and connection will be studied as well. For each part, we will measure their performance individually. The final system will be integrated together and finally delivered for application.The results of the proposed research will be communicated widely through oral presentations at national and international conferences and workshops, and in written form published in top-quality journals. Results will also be disseminated through collaborations with a network of international colleagues, and through supervising PhD, Master and undergraduates. Some research results will also be included into lectures or seminars given by the PI both nationally and internationally. We will promote the reuse and redistribution of our curricular materials (e.g., lecture notes and homework assignments) to faculty at other schools and universities to ensure wide dissemination and broad impact. To benefit research communities who are interested in reproducing our research results or testing their own methods, we will provide means to facilitate data access and sharing. In general, reuse and redistribution of data and course materials will be permitted provided proper acknowledgement is given to its originator(s). In addition, all publications and presentations from this project could be accessed from my personal academic website (www.caogroup.org) for personal use under the copyright laws.

Progress 10/16/18 to 09/30/21

Outputs
Target Audience:Undergraduate, graduate and Ph.D. students, post-doc's, visiting scholars, researchers, scientists and stakeholders. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?One postdoc, two PhD students and two undergraduates were trained in carrying out experiments, paper writing, critical review and attended the department seminars. Coauthored papers were produced from the projects. They also were offered opportunity to meet with external visitors from industry (Molex Inc., Ford Motor Inc.) and academia (Prof. Michael Dicky, NCSU; Prof. Damiano Pasini, McGill University; Prof. Yiming Rong, Southern University of Science and Technology). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The research outcomes were published in scientific journals and presented in conferences and workshops. Research presentations were also delivered to broader audience from other institutions by invited talks. Invention disclosures were also filed to MSU Technologies. In addition, the research work/stories were reported by social media such as MSU Today, ScienceDaily, NanoWerk, Techxplore, EurekAlert, Agenparl, etc. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? This project focused on the invention and development of new materials, structures, device and technologies for building a robust, green and smart packaging system, to better protect the products, extend the shelf life of food, address the concerns of food safety and security, improve the management of supply chain, and meet the requirements of building smart cities and communities. The new packaging materials and technologies generated by this project will benefit the packaging industry related with food production, precision instruments, transportation, cold chain, pharmacy, and many others. 1. To develop biodegradable nanocomposites for robust and green packaging applications and related uses: We developed robust, high-performance stretchable supercapacitors based on crumpled carbon nanotube (CNT) forests and MXene-RGO composites. I supervised a master's student to successfully develop a new biobased superhydrophobic coating for paper packaging of food or liquid by a combined use of palm kernel oil and mechanical surface patterning. This coating method was simple to use and the cost of fabrication low, but the final coated paper demonstrated a very stable and attractive wetting properties. The 3D printing of PLA-based nanocomposites for thermal insulation designs was explored for developing energy efficient packaging materials. Based on this concept, I collaborated with other faculty in materials science to submit a DOE proposal in August 2019 for constructing next-generation biobased energy efficient residential houses. The related technology and materials from this project will be applicable to designing and manufacturing of innovative packages for temperature sensitive products and the cold-chain packaging industry. A phase transition diagram and optimal actuation strategy for bilayer structures made of soft active materials was developed. Potential applications of soft materials can be expected in developing packaging designs, packaging robots, agriculture robots, programmable structures, rehabilitation devices, and so on. The presented model and the obtained phase diagram provided potential guidance for the future design of high-performance bilayer-based actuators and machines for a broad range of applications. Another work was the theoretical and numerical work related to the finite deformations of magneto-active elastomers (MAE) under applied magnetic fields. This novel method and framework offered a new solution for modeling mechano-magneto problems of MAEs and will pave the way for the rational design and analysis of MAE-based actuators and soft robotics for a variety of applications in the future. Based on this pilot study, I formed a team with colleagues from Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering and a USDA scientist to invent a tree fruit harvesting robot based on our expertise in soft robotic technology. This research has potential to address the labor shortage and increasing costs of fruit picking industry, and physical injuries to involved workers performing such arduous tasks. 2. To design, fabricate and test printed temperature, humidity and chemical sensors using aerosol jet printed nanomaterials to achieve higher sensitivity and flexibility: To power different kinds of sensors for smart packaging system or other smart monitoring systems, we developed a variety of high-performance triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) to power electronics and sensors through harvesting energy from vibrations and motions induced by wind, waves and vehicle dynamics. We designed a MC-TENG for building self-powered forest fire alarm system, which was published in Advanced Functional Materials. An invention disclosure on the technology has been filed to MSU technologies, and a few industry investors are interested in the work. We also received an ADVANCE Grant sponsored by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) for further prototype optimization of the TENG based energy harvesters. We fabricated the temperature sensor and ethylene sensor using the printed electrodes and sprayed ZnO nanowires on flexible Kapton films. PhD students tried to test and optimize the performance of the sensor with target gas. We also have printing fabricated a new flexible PCB based split-ring resonator sensor for near field microwave imaging which was able to conform to complex shaped geometries and detect the damages in composite materials structures, through a collaboration with Prof. Yiming Deng from the MSU ECE Department. The developed SRR sensors provided good flexibility and exceptional spatial resolutions with preliminary results demonstrating its capability as a promising NDE tool for inspection of composites. We designed a new kind of hybrid organic-inorganic pressure sensor with collaborators from Duke via the self-assembled 3D dome-shaped structures by bacteria. This progress is significant and promising in developing bionics. 3. To design and fabricate printed nanomaterial-based flexible batteries or supercapacitors with high performance: We developed a novel desiccant-based triboelectric nanogenerators which can be used for building self-powered smart packaging system for food supply chain. This work presented an innovative approach to combine the widely used desiccant bags with the energy harvesting technology for continuous monitoring product conditions during the distribution process. I also invented a new method to fabricate high-performance stretchable supercapacitors based on crumpled carbon nanotube (CNT) forests. To power different kinds of sensors, we proposed to utilize triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) to power electronics and sensors through harvesting energy from vibrations and motions induced by wind, waves and vehicle dynamics. Inspired by the concept of the Matryoshka Dolls (or Stacking Dolls), we proposed a hierarchically structured triboelectric nanogenerator (HS-TENG) with nest-assembling multiple shells of decreasing sizes to effectively harvest low-frequency wave energies with low cost, high power density and high efficiency. 4. To design and fabricate RFIDs from metal nanoparticle inks (e.g. Ag, Cu) and metallic carbon nanotubes: We designed and demonstrated a smart soft robotic gripper that can be used for picking apples and sensing the weight and size of the objects in manipulation. We also worked on developing humanoid grippers than can generate large forces for heavy duty and stiffness-tunable soft robotic arms for a variety of applications such as elder care, rehabilitation, packaging and harvesting. The idea and the progress led to a NSF grant ($1.5 M, Co-PI) for developing collaborative multi-armed soft robotics. 5. To integrate sensors, battery and RFID for wireless detection and communication of recorded packaging information: We worked on the integration of TENGs and chemical sensors for contamination detection now. This kind of self-powered sensor will be able to be used for meat spoilage and water contamination testing. We also did a pilot study for the PLA-based nanocomposites for packaging applications and thermal insulation applications. My group collaborated with other colleagues from Chemical Engineering and polymer science from MSU, ORNL, and Akron for developing advanced sustainable packaging materials. We jointly filed a DOE proposal in August 2020 for seeking external grant support. The related technology and materials from this project will be applicable to designing and manufacturing of innovative packages for substituting the current non-biodegradable materials like PET and PS.

Publications


    Progress 10/01/19 to 09/30/20

    Outputs
    Target Audience:I have taught the graduate course: PKG 805 Advanced Packaging Dynamics in 2020 Spring with both on-campus and online students attended. I have supervised 3 PhD students, and 1 master's students (Plan A), and 3 postdoc and visiting scholars. I have also served in the thesis committees of 2 PhD students. I am supervising 2 undergraduate students for research projects. Ph.D. Students (Major Professor): Shoue Chen (Aug. 2018-Present), Project:Soft Robotics for Agriculture and Food Processing. Juan Gu (Aug. 2019-May. 2020), Project: Packaging Design and Innovation. Yihang Chu (Aug. 2018-Present), Project: Printed Electronics and Smart Packaging System. (Co-advisor, ECE) Master Students Plan A (Major Professor): Kexin Zeng (Oct. 2017-Dec. 2019), Project: Biobased Composite and Coating for Packaging Applications. Postdocs and Visiting Scholars Dr. Yaokun Pang (Feb. 2019-Present), Project: Emerging Electronics and Smart Packaging System. Dr. Xiaomin Liu (Nov. 2018-Nov. 2019), Project:Soft Robotics. Mr. Zhiqiang Yu (May 2018-Dec. 2019), Project: Micro/Nano Manufacturing and Robotics. Dr. Masoud Derakhshani (Jun. 2020-May 2021), Project:Self-powered sensing system. Committee Member of Thesis/Dissertation Gaurav Chauda (Aug. 2018-Present), PhD Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Michigan State University. Role: Research advice and support. Morteza Sarparast (Jan. 2019-Present), PhD Student, Department of Chemistry, Michigan State University. Role: Research supervision and paper editing. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The research outcomes were published in scientific journals and presented in conferences and workshops (see the Product section). Research presentations were also delivered to broader audience from other institutions by invited talks. Invention disclosures were also filed to MSU Technologies. In addition, the research work/stories have been reported by social media such as MSU Today, ScienceDaily, NanoWerk, Techxplore, EurekAlert, Agenparl, etc. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? This project focuses on the invention and development of new materials, structures, device and technologies for building a robust, green and smart packaging system, to better protect the products, extend the shelf life of food, address the concerns of food safety and security, improve the management of supply chain, and meet the requirements of building smart cities and communities. The new packaging materials and technologies generated by this project will benefit the packaging industry related with food production, precision instruments, transportation, cold chain, pharmacy, and many others. 1. To develop nanomaterial-based flexible batteries or supercapacitors with high performance for smart packaging system. We have developed robust, high-performance stretchable supercapacitors based on crumpled carbon nanotube (CNT) forests and MXene-RGO composites. The results have been published in high-impact journals ACS Nano, Matter in 2019 and 2020. These works were highlighted by MSU Today, ScienceDaily, NanoWerk, Techxplore, EurekAlert, Agenparl, PioneeringMinds, MakeMeFeed, AZONano, EINnews, Medgadget, etc. Our work on additive manufacturing of printed batteries has been published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, with all reviewers commenting the work to be of "significant interest to the scientific community". 2. To develop TENG-based forest fire alarm system for low-cost and large-area monitoring of fire incidents. To power different kinds of sensors for smart packaging system or other smart monitoring systems, we developed a variety of high-performance triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) to power electronics and sensors through harvesting energy from vibrations and motions induced by wind, waves and vehicle dynamics. We have designed a MC-TENG for building self-powered forest fire alarm system, which is published in Advanced Functional Materials. An invention disclosure on the technology has been filed to MSU technologies, and a few industry investors are interested in the work. We also got an ADVANCE Grant sponsored by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) for further prototype optimization of the TENG based energy harvesters. 3. To develop self-powered sensing system for smart packaging system applications. We have developed a novel desiccant-based triboelectric nanogenerators which can be used for building self-powered smart packaging system for food supply chain. The manuscript is in preparation and will be submitted to Nano Energy for review. This work presents an innovative approach to combine the widely used desiccant bags with the energy harvesting technology for continuous monitoring product conditions during the distribution process. 4. To develop smart soft robotic arms and grippers for safety robotics-human interaction and fruit harvesting. We have designed and demonstrated a smart soft robotic gripper that can be used for picking apples and sensing the weight and size of the objects in manipulation. We are also developing humanoid grippers than can generate large forces for heavy duty and stiffness-tunable soft robotic arms for a variety of applications such as elder care, rehabilitation, packaging and harvesting. The research results have been published in high-impact journals of the fields: Advanced Materials Technologies, Soft Robotics. An invited journal paper is in preparation for submission soon. These results are also reported by many media, including MSU Today, ScienceDaily, Topix, EurekAlert, ScienceNewsline, TheRegister, Medgadget Advanced Manufacturing, Kurzwei, Technovelgy. The idea and the progress have led to our recent NSF grant ($1.5 M, Co-PI) for developing collaborative multi-armed soft robotics this summer. 5. To develop biodegradable nanocomposites and coatings for sustainable packaging applications. I have supervised a postgraduate to successfully develop a new biobased superhydrophobic coating for paper packaging of food or liquid by a combined use of palm kernel oil and mechanical surface patterning. This coating method is simple to be used and the cost of the fabrication will be very low, but the final coated paper demonstrated a very stable and attractive wetting properties. This work has been published in ACS Applied Materials and Interface, and an invention disclosure was filed to MSU Technologies. We have done some pilot study for the PLA-based nanocomposites for packaging applications and thermal insulation applications. My group has collaborated with other colleagues from Chemical Engineering and polymer science from MSU, ORNL, and Akron for developing advanced sustainable packaging materials. We have jointly filed a DOE proposal in August 2020 for seeking external grant support. The reviewers evaluating the project stated it as "...unique and innovative" and an "... interesting high risk/high reward exploration ...". The related technology and materials from this project will be applicable to designing and manufacturing of innovative packages for substituting the current non-biodegradable materials like PET and PS.

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: 10. L. Wang*, Z. Wu, Changyong Cao*. Technologies and Fabrication of Intelligent Packaging for Perishable Products. Applied Science, 9 (22), 4858, 2019. (Impact Factor: 2.474) https://doi.org/10.3390/app9224858.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: 11. Yaokun Pang, Shoue Chen, Zhong Lin Wang, Changyong Cao*. Matryoshka-Inspired Hierarchically Structured Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Wave Energy Harvesting. Nano Energy, 66, 104131, 2019. (Impact Factor: 16.602) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2019.104131.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Changyong Cao. Robust Highly Stretchable Supercapacitors Enabled by MXene-Reduced Graphene Oxide Composite, Virtual Symposium on Advances in 2D Materials and Their Applications, IEEE-NEMS 2020, September 27-30, 2020.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Changyong Cao. Printed Electronics and Energy Storage Devices for Wearables and Soft Robotics. ECS PRiME 2020: 4DMS+SoRo: 4D Materials & Systems + Soft Robotics, Honolulu, HI, October 4-9, 2020.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Yin Liu, Changyong Cao. New Continuum Theory and Finite Element Framework for Magneto-Active Elastomers with Strong Mechano-Magnetic Interaction. The 5th International Conference on Frontiers in Applied Mechanics (ICFAM2020), Virtual Conference, August 13th-18th, 2020. (Keynote Lecture)
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Changyong Cao. Soft Materials and Soft Machines -- Creating a smarter world and better life. The 7th International Interdisciplinary Research (Cloud) Forum, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, China, July 11, 2020.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: 5. Yin Liu, Changyong Cao. New Continuum Theory and Finite Element Framework for Magneto-Active Elastomers with Strong Mechano-Magnetic Interaction. ASME 2019 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Salt Lake City, Utah, November 11-14, 2019.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Changyong Cao. Stretchable Energy Devices for Soft Robotics and Wearable Electronics. ASME 2019 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Salt Lake City, Utah, November 11-14, 2019.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Changyong Cao. Soft Materials, Electronics & Machines: from Tunable Surfaces to Stretchable Electronics to Soft Robotics, Oak Ridge National Lab, Oak Ridge, TN, November 5, 2019.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Shoue Chen, Yaokun Pang, Xiaobo Tan, Changyong Cao*. Smart, Fast-Responsive, Soft Gripper with Self-Powered Tribo-Skins. 2020 Gordon Research Conference: Robotics, Ventura, CA, January 12-17, 2020.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Yin Liu, Shoue Chen, Xiaobo Tan, Changyong Cao*. Magneto-Active Elastomers with Strong Mechano-Magnetic Interaction: A Theoretical Framework for Numerical Simulations. 2020 Gordon Research Conference: Multifunctional Materials and Structures, Ventura, CA, January 19-24, 2020.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Yin Liu, Changyong Cao*. Magneto-Active Elastomers with Strong Mechano-Magnetic Interaction: A Theoretical Framework for Numerical Simulations. MRS 2019 Fall Meeting, Boston, MA, December 1-6, 2019.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: 1. Yaokun Pang, Shoue Chen, Junchi An, Keliang Wang, Yiming Deng, Andre Benard, Nizar Lajnef, Changyong Cao*. Multilayered Cylindrical Triboelectric Nanogenerator to Harvest Kinetic Energy of Tree Branches for Monitoring Environment Condition and Forest Fire. Advanced Functional Materials, 2003598, 2020. (Impact Factor: 16.836). DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202003598
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: 2. Xiaomin Liu, Yunwei Zhao*, Dexu Geng, Shoue Chen, Xiaobo Tan, Changyong Cao*. Soft Humanoid Hands with Large Grasping Force Enabled by Flexible Hybrid Pneumatic Actuators, Soft Robotics, online, 2020. (Impact Factor: 6.403) https://doi.org/10.1089/soro.2020.0001
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: 3. Yihao Zhou, Changyong Cao*, Yunteng Cao, Qiwei Han, Charles B. Parker, Jeffrey T. Glass*. Robust and High-Performance Electrodes Made by Crumpled Au-CNT Forests for Stretchable Supercapacitors, Matter, 2 (5), 1307-1323, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2020.02.024
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: 4. Yihao Zhou, Kathleen Maleski, Babak Anasori, Jimmy Thostenson, Yaokun Pang, Yaying Feng, Charles Parker, Stefan Zauscher, Yury Gogosti, Jeffrey Glass*, Changyong Cao*. MXene-Reduced Graphene Oxide Composite Electrodes for Highly Stretchable Supercapacitors with Improved Performance, ACS Nano, 14 (3), 3576-3586, 2020. (Impact Factor: 14.588) https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.9b10066
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: 5. Kexin Zeng, Juan Gu, Changyong Cao*. Facile Approach for Ecofriendly, Low-Cost, and Water-Resistant Paper Coatings via Palm Kernel Oil, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 12 (16), 18987, 2020. (Impact Factor: 8.758) https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.0c00067
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: 6. Shoue Chen, Yaokun Pang, Hongyan Yuan, Xiaobo Tan, Changyong Cao*. Smart Soft Actuators and Grippers Enabled by Self-Powered Tribo-Skins, Advanced Materials Technologies, 1901075, 2020. (Impact Factor: 5.969) DOI:10.1002/admt.201901075
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: 7. Yin Liu, Shoue Chen, Xiaobo Tan, Changyong Cao*. A Finite Element Framework for Magneto-Actuated Large Deformation and Instability of Slender Magneto-Active Elastomers, International Journal of Applied Mechanics, 12 (1), 2050013, 2020. (Impact Factor: 2.449) https://doi.org/10.1142/S1758825120500131
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: 8. Shoue Chen, S. Brahmab, J. Mackayc, Changyong Cao, B. Aliakbarian*. The Role of Smart Packaging System in Food Supply Chain, Journal of Food Science, 85 (3), 517-525, 2020. (Impact Factor: 2.478) doi:10.1111/1750-3841.15046
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: 9. Shoue Chen, Yunteng Cao, M. Sarparast, Kexin Zeng, Hongyan Yuan, Lixin Dong, Xiaobo Tan, Changyong Cao*. Soft Crawling Robots: Design, Actuation and Locomotion, Advanced Materials Technologies, 1900837, 2019. (Impact Factor: 5.969) https://doi.org/10.1002/admt.201900837.


    Progress 10/16/18 to 09/30/19

    Outputs
    Target Audience:I have taught the graduate course: PKG 805 Advanced Packaging Dynamics in 2018, and co-taught the PKG 985 Analytical Solution to Packaging Design in 2019. I am planning to open a new graduate course on Smart Packaging Technologies and Design in the next couple of years to substitute the canceled course PKG 444 RFID. I also gave a lecture for 2019 Packaging Basics: Trends in Smart and Intelligent Packaging, MSU, May 4, 2019. MSU School of Packaging, East Lansing, MI. ~20 engineers and managers from industry. I have supervised 3 PhD students, and 2 master's students (Plan A), and multiple visiting scholars. I have also served in a few thesis committees of PhD and Master's (Plan A) students. Ph.D. Students (Major Professor): Shoue Chen (Aug. 2018-Present), Project:Soft Robotics for Agriculture and Food Processing. Juan Gu (Aug. 2019-Present), Project: Packaging Design and Innovation. Yihang Chu (Aug. 2018-Present), Project: Printed Electronics and Smart Packaging System. (Co-advisor with Dr. Prem Chahal, ECE) Master Students Plan A (Major Professor): Kexin Zeng (Oct. 2017-Dec. 2019), Project: Biobased Composite and Coating for Packaging Applications. Chirag Bangera (Oct. 2017-Apr. 2018), Project: Multifunctional Surfaces and Interfaces. (Enrolled in Plan A, but having difficulty to maintain his GPA well, the student was transferred to Plan B and graduated). Postdocs and Visiting Scholars Dr. Yaokun Pang (Feb. 2019-Present), Project: Emerging Electronics and Smart Packaging System. Dr. Xiaomin Liu (Nov. 2018-Nov. 2019), Project:Soft Robotics. Mr. Zhiqiang Yu (May 2018-Dec. 2019), Project: Micro/Nano Manufacturing and Robotics. Dr. Ling Li (Sep. 2018-Sep. 2019), Project:Surface and Interfaces of Advanced Materials. Dr. Yin Liu (Jun. 2018-May 2019), Project: Soft Active Materials and Soft Robotics. Current position: Postdoc Associate, King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia. Dr. Mahdi M. Zand (Dec. 2017-Aug. 2018), Visiting Professor, Project:Applied Mechanics & Medical Devices. Current position: Assistant Professor, The University of Teheran, Iran. Dr. Hongyan Li (Jan. 2018-Apr. 2018), Visiting Scholar, Project: Flexible Electronics. Current position: Unknown. Dr. Omid Nabinejad (Jan. 2018-Jul. 2018), Visiting Scholar, Project: Nanocomposite Materials. Current position: Postdoc Associate, MSU. Committee Member of Thesis/Dissertation Morteza Sarparast (Jan. 2019-Present), PhD Student, Department of Chemistry, Michigan State University. Role: Research supervision and paper editing. Gaurav Chauda (Aug. 2018-Present), PhD Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Michigan State University. Role: Research advice and support. Zack Dutcher (Jan. 2017-2018/07), Master Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Michigan State University. Thesis Title: Evaluation and Validation of Soft Robotic End Effectors for Produce Harvesting. Role: I offered advice and guidance on his research project, edited his thesis and provided feedback. Attended his thesis defense as a committee member. I have been serving as the chair of the Undergraduate Research Program (URP) of the MSU School of Packaging in 2018-2019 for coordinating the students' participation in research with faculty members as well as organizing the evaluation of proposals, scholarships and reports (4 students selected in Fall 2018; 4 students selected in Spring 2019). I have supervised two undergraduates for research training in my group. Caroline Cook (Nov. 2018-May 2019), Project: Multifunctional Surfaces and Interfaces. Sangwon Shin (May 2018-Nov. 2018), Project: 3D printing of functional materials. (Co-advisor, Dr. Shiwang Cheng in Chemical Engineering & Materials Science, MSU) Changes/Problems:Multiple printing and manufacturing methods will be used for device fabrications due to the cost and availability of resource and facility around the campus. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?One postdoc and two PhD students and two undergraduates that are attending the project are well trained by the PI in carrying out experiments, paper writing, critical review and attend the department seminars. Coauthored papers are produced from the projects. They are also offered opportunity to meet with external visitors from industry (Molex Inc., Ford Motor Inc.) and academia (Prof. Michael Dicky, NCSU; Prof. Damiano Pasini, McGill University; Prof. Yiming Rong, Southern University of Science and Technology). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The research outcomes were published in scientific journals and presented in conferences and workshops (see the Product section). Research presentations were also delivered to broader audience from other institutions by invited talks. Invention disclosures were also filed to MSU Technologies. In addition, the research work/stories have been reported by social media such as MSU Today, ScienceDaily, NanoWerk, Techxplore, EurekAlert, Agenparl, etc. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? This project focuses on the invention and development of new materials, structures, device and technologies for building a robust, green and smart packaging system, to better protect the products, extend the shelf life of food, address the concerns of food safety and security, improve the management of supply chain, and meet the requirements of building smart cities and communities. The new packaging materials and technologies generated by this project will benefit the packaging industry related with food production, precision instruments, transportation, cold chain, pharmacy, and many others. 1. To develop biodegradable nanocomposites for robust and green packaging applications and related uses; I have supervised a master's student, Ms. Kexin Zeng, to successfully develop a new biobased superhydrophobic coating for paper packaging of food or liquid by a combined use of palm kernel oil and mechanical surface patterning. This coating method is simple to be used and the cost of the fabrication will be very low, but the final coated paper demonstrated a very stable and attractive wetting properties. This work has been filed with MSU Technologies for a patent application, and a manuscript is submitted to ACS Applied Materials and Interface for review. The 3D printing of PLA-based nanocomposites for thermal insulation designs are exploring now for developing energy efficient packaging materials. Based on this concept, I also collaborated with other faculty in materials science to submit a DOE proposal in August 2019 for constructing next-generation biobased energy efficient residential houses. The reviewers evaluating the project stated it as "...unique and innovative" and an "... interesting high risk/high reward exploration ...". The related technology and materials from this project will be applicable to designing and manufacturing of innovative packages for temperature sensitive products and the cold-chain packaging industry. In addition, my team has developed a phase transition diagram and optimal actuation strategy for bilayer structures made of soft active materials. Potential applications of soft materials can be expected in developing packaging designs, packaging robots, agriculture robots, programmable structures, rehabilitation devices, and so on. The presented model and the obtained phase diagram provide potential guidance for the future design of high-performance bilayer-based actuators and machines for a broad range of applications. This work was published in the journal Extreme Mechanics Letters (IF: 4.08). Another work is the theoretical and numerical work related to the finite deformations of magneto-active elastomers (MAE) under applied magnetic fields. This novel method and framework offer a new solution for modeling mechano-magneto problems of MAEs and will pave the way for the rational design and analysis of MAE-based actuators and soft robotics for a variety of applications in the future (under review now). Based on these pilot study, I have formed a team with colleagues from Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering and a USDA scientist to invent a tree fruit harvesting robot based on our expertise in soft robotic technology. The research has potential to address the labor shortage and increasing costs of fruit picking industry, and physical injuries to involved workers performing such arduous tasks. 2. To design, fabricate and test printed temperature, humidity and chemical sensors using aerosol jet printed nanomaterials to achieve higher sensitivity and flexibility; We have fabricated the temperature sensor and ethylene sensor using the printed electrodes and sprayed ZnO nanowires on flexible Kapton films. The PhD students are trying to test and optimize the performance of the sensor with target gas. The experimental setup and equipment calibration are ongoing now. Meanwhile, we also have printing fabricated a new flexible PCB based split-ring resonator sensor for near field microwave imaging which is able to conform to complex shaped geometries and detect the damages in composite materials structures, through a collaboration with Prof. Yiming Deng from MSU ECE Department. This work has been reported in the 2019 ASNT Research Symposium in Garden Grove, CA on April 2, 2019. The developed SRR sensors provide good flexibility and exceptional spatial resolutions with preliminary results demonstrating its capability as a promising NDE tool for inspection of composites. We designed a new kind of hybrid organic-inorganicpressure sensor with collaborators from Duke via the self-assembled 3D dome-shaped structures by bacteria. This progress is significant and promising in developing bionics and was published in the top journal Nature Biotechnology (IF: 43.27), and broadly reported by many social media, including ScienceDaily, Topix, EurekAlert, ScienceNewsline, TheRegister, Medgadget Advanced Manufacturing, Kurzwei, Duke Research, Technovelgy. 3. To design and fabricate printed nanomaterial-based flexible batteries or supercapacitors with high performance; I invented a new method to fabricate high-performance stretchable supercapacitors based on crumpled carbon nanotube (CNT) forests. This work was published in Advanced Energy Materials (IF: 24.88) in 2019. This work was highlighted by the journal, and was subsequently reported by MSU Today, ScienceDaily, NanoWerk, Techxplore, EurekAlert, Agenparl, PioneeringMinds, MakeMeFeed, AZONano, EINnews, Medgadget, etc. It was also reported in the USDA Weekly News. Additionally, based on our study and expertise in the field, we published one review paper in the prestigious journals Small (IF: 10.86) on stretchable supercapacitors. Our most recent work on additive manufacturing of printed batteries has been published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials (IF: 15.62), with all reviewers commenting the work to be of "significant interest to the scientific community". To power different kinds of sensors, we proposed to utilize triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) to power electronics and sensors through harvesting energy from vibrations and motions induced by wind, waves and vehicle dynamics. Inspired by the concept of the Matryoshka Dolls (or Stacking Dolls), we proposed a hierarchically structured triboelectric nanogenerator (HS-TENG) with nest-assembling multiple shells of decreasing sizes to effectively harvest low-frequency wave energies with low cost, high power density and high efficiency. This work has been published in Nano Energy (IF: 15.55). Furthermore, MSU technologies has interest to file a patent for this invention to protect the intellectual property and recently with their strong endorsement, we have submitted a proposal to the ADVANCE Program sponsored by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) for further prototype optimization of the harvester. 4. To design and fabricate RFIDs from metal nanoparticle inks (e.g. Ag, Cu) and metallic carbon nanotubes; We have done some pilot literature research and let the student to know better of this RFID field. In this process, we completed one review paper on the recent progress and technologies for printed diodes and RFIDs, which was published in the journal Advanced Science (IF: 15.80) in 2018. The experimental work and device design are ongoing now and collaboration with Dr. PremjeetChahal will continue in this direction for developing sensor enabled RFIDs. 5. To integrate sensors, battery and RFID for wireless detection and communication of recorded packaging information. We are working on the integration of TENGs and chemical sensors for contamination detection now. This kind of self-powered sensor will be able to be used for meat spoilage and water contamination testing. A collaboration with Dr. Nizar Lajnef is developed and the experimental work is ongoing now. One paper manuscript in this direction is in preparation now.

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: L. Wang#, Z. Wu, Changyong Cao#. Technologies and fabrication of intelligent packaging for perishable products, Applied Science, accepted, 2019. (Impact Factor: 2.217)
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Y. Pang, S. Chen, Y. Chu, Z. L. Wang, Changyong Cao#. Matryoshka-Inspired Hierarchically Structured Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Wave Energy Harvesting. Nano Energy, 66, 104131, 2019. (Impact Factor: 15.55) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2019.104131
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Y. Pang, Y. Cao, Y. Chu, M. Liu, K. Snyder, D. MacKenzie, Changyong Cao#. Additive Manufacturing of Batteries, Advanced Functional Materials, in press, 2019. (Impact Factor: 15.621)
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: L. Li, Q. Yun, Z. Li, Y. Liu, Changyong Cao#. A new contact model of joint surfaces accounting for surface waviness and substrate deformation, International Journal of Applied Mechanics, 11, 8, in press, 2019. (Impact Factor: 1.94) https://doi.org/10.1142/S1758825119500790
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: O. Nabinejad#, Y. H. Liew, D. Sujan, M. E. Rahman, Changyong Cao, Ian J. Davies. Tribological Behavior of Unsaturated Polyester Hybrid Composites Containing Wood Flour and Carbon Nanotubes, SN Applied Sciences, 1, 777, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-019-0792-x
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: L. Li#, Q. Yun, H. Tian, A. Cai, Changyong Cao. Investigation into the contact characteristics of rough surfaces with surface tension. Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering, 41:343, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40430-019-1847-z (Impact Factor: 1.743)
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: M. M. Roozbahani, M. M. Zand#, M. M. Mashhadi, M. D. Banadaki, S. J. Ghalekohneh, Changyong Cao#. Dynamic pull-in instability and snap-through buckling of curved microbeams under combined squeeze film damping, mechanical shock and axial force. Smart Materials and Structures, 28, 097001, 2019. (Impact Factor: 3.543) http://iopscience.iop.org/10.1088/1361-665X/ab2c40
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Changyong Cao#, Yihao Zhou, Stephen Ubnoske, Jianfeng Zang, Yunteng Cao, Phil�mon Henry, Charles Parker, Jeffrey Glass#. Highly stretchable and flexible supercapacitors with aligned CNTs forests, Advanced Energy Materials, 1900618, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201900618 (Impact Factor: 24.88)
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Yin Liu, Yunteng Cao, Xi-Qiao Feng, Changyong Cao#. Phase Transition and Optimal Actuation of Active Bilayer Structures. Extreme Mechanics Letters, 29, 100467, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eml.2019.100467 (Impact Factor: 4.08)
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Yihang Chu, Chunqi Qian, Prem Chahal, Changyong Cao#. Printed Diodes: materials processing, fabrication and applications, Advanced Science, 1801653, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.201801653 (Impact Factor: 15.80)
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Changyong Cao#, Yihang Chu, Yihao Zhou, Chi Zhang, Shaoxing Qu. Recent Advances in Stretchable Supercapacitors Enabled by Low-Dimensional Nanomaterials, Small, 1803976, 2018. (Impact Factor: 10.86) https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.201803976
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Glass Kia Dastani, Mahdi Moghimi Zand#, Amin Hadi, Changyong Cao#. Revealing electrocompressive stresses acting on the surface of protoplast cell under electric field, European Journal of Mechanics-B Fluid, 76, 292-302, 2019. DOI: 10.1016/j.euromechflu.2019.02.010 (Impact Factor: 1.98)
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Xianchun Zeng, Shengqiang Xu, Changyong Cao, Jian Wang, Chunqi Qian#. Wireless Amplified NMR Detector (WAND) for Improved Visibility of Image Contrast in Heterogeneous Lesions, NMR in Biomedicine, e3963, 2018. doi:10.1002/nbm.3963 (Impact Factor: 3.04)
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2019 Citation: Shoue Chen, S. Brahmab, J. Mackayc, Changyong Cao, B. Aliakbarian*. The Role of Smart Packaging System in Food Supply Chain, Journal of Food Science, under review, 2019.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Kexin Zeng, Pascal D. Kamdem, Ramani Narayan, Changyong Cao*. A facile, low-cost, eco-friendly and water-resistant paper coating via palm kernel oil, submitted, 2019.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2019 Citation: Yihao Zhou, Kathleen Maleski, Babak Anasori, Jimmy Thostenson, Yaokun Pang, Yaying Feng, Charles Parker, Stefan Zauscher, Yury Gogosti, Jeffrey Glass*, Changyong Cao*. MXene-Reduced Graphene Oxide Composite Electrodes for Highly Stretchable Supercapacitors with Improved Performance. ACS Nano, under review, 2019.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2019 Citation: Yin Liu, Xiaobo Tan, Changyong Cao*. New Continuum Theory and Finite Element Framework for Magneto-Active Elastomers with Strong Mechano-Magnetic Interaction. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, under review, 2019.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2019 Citation: Shoue Chen, Yunteng Cao, M. Sarparast, Kexin Zeng, Hongyan Yuan, Lixin Dong, Xiaobo Tan, Changyong Cao*. Soft Crawling Robots: Materials, Design and Actuations, Advanced Materials Technologies, under review, 2019.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Yin Liu, Changyong Cao. Magneto-Active Elastomers with Strong Mechano-Magnetic Interaction: A Theoretical Framework for Numerical Simulations. MRS 2019 Fall Meeting, Boston, MA, December 1-6, 2019.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Shoue Chen, Yaokun Pang, Changyong Cao. Smart, Fast-Responsive, Soft Gripper with Self-Powered Tribo-Skins. ASME 2019 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Salt Lake City, Utah, November 11-14, 2019.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Yin Liu, Changyong Cao. New Continuum Theory and Finite Element Framework for Magneto-Active Elastomers with Strong Mechano-Magnetic Interaction. ASME 2019 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Salt Lake City, Utah, November 8-14, 2019.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Changyong Cao. Stretchable Energy Devices for Soft Robotics and Wearable Electronics. ASME 2019 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Salt Lake City, Utah, November 8-14, 2019.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Changyong Cao. Stretchable Energy Devices for Soft Robotics and Wearable Electronics, School of Materials Engineering, ISFSE-IWSMM 2019, Shenzhen, China, June 28-30, 2019.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Changyong Cao. Stretchable Energy Devices for Soft Robotics and Wearable Electronics, The 4th International Conference on Nanoenergy and Mesosystems, Beijing, China, June 15-17, 2019.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Xiaodong Shi, Srijan Datta, Saptarshi Mukherjee, Yihang Chu, Lalita Udpa, Changyong Cao and Yiming Deng. Flexible PCB based split-ring resonator sensor for near field microwave imaging, ASNT Research Symposium, Hyatt Regency Orange County, Garden Grove, CA, April 1-4, 2019.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Yin Liu, Yunteng Cao, Xi-Qiao Feng, Changyong Cao. Self-Folding of Active Bilayers: Phase Transition and Optimal Actuation, Gordon Research Conference, Ventura, CA, January 29, 2019. (Poster)
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Changyong Cao. Printed Electronics from Low-dimensional Nanomaterials-Toward Low-cost Transistors, Sensors, and Energy Devices, IMECE 2018, Pittsburgh, PA, November 9-15, 2018.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Changyong Cao. Mechanics of Soft Magnetoactive Elastomers - Experimental and Numerical Study, IMECE 2018, Pittsburgh, PA, November 9-15, 2018.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Changyong Cao. Printed, Flexible and Stable Carbon Nanotube Thin-Film Transistors and Sensors, Mechanics of Soft Materials with Multi-physics: From Deformation to Failure, 13th World Congress in Computational Mechanics, New York, NY, July 22-27, 2018.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Theoretical model and design principles of electroadhesive devices, Mechanics of Soft Materials with Multi-physics: From Deformation to Failure, 13th World Congress in Computational Mechanics, New York, NY, July 22-27, 2018.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Changyong Cao. Mechanics and Applications of Soft Materials -from Tunable Surfaces to Emerging Electronics to Medical Devices, 18th US National Congress for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Chicago, IL, June 4-9, 2018.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Changyong Cao. Soft Materials and Soft Machines-from Tunable Surfaces to Emerging Electronics to Medical Devices, The Global Scientist Forum of Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, January 5-7, 2018.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Changyong Cao. Soft Materials and Soft Machines-from Tunable Surfaces to Emerging Electronics to Medical Devices, Fudan-Guanghua International Forum for Young Scholars, Fudan University, Shanghai, China, December 26-28, 2018.