UCD School of Mechanical & Materials Engineering
Scoil na hInnealtóireachta Meicniúla agus Ábhar UCD
UCD Engineering and Materials Science Centre
UCD Centre of Micro/Nano Manufacturing Technology
not because they are easy, but because they are hard
Welcome to Nan Zhang Research Group
My research vision is to apply multi-scale manufacturing technologies for mould tools and polymer micro/nano replication technologies to important fundamental and applied problems relevant to design, development and production of novel polymeric micro and nano devices, such as microfluidic devices for diagnostics and drug development, micro/nano-structured functional surfaces of implantable and prosthetic devices, such as polymeric bioresorbable stent.
Plastic Microfluidics
Plastic materials are the most used materials for fabrication of microfluidic devices.
Our group are developing full process chain for fabrication of plastic microfluidics. We aim to bridge laboratry researach with mass production by focusing on critical manufacturing challenges.
We have three main tooling process development in our group:
-
Precision electroforming of nickel tools
-
Multi-scale tooling of bulk metallic glasses
-
Large-area nanostructured tools
We also work on microfluidic applicaitons:
-
Synthesis of nanomedicines
-
Molecular diagnostics
Functional Surface & Medical Device
Micro/nano structures have been proven to be improtant as anti-bacterial surfaces, anti-fogging, anti-reflection, friction reduction surfaces with broad applications in medical and optical devices.
Our team focuses on development functional surfaces for various application in feild of medical devices. This would include:
-
Design-functionality relationship of functional surfaces
-
Fabrication process chain development
-
Multi-sacle tools fabrication
-
Precision replciation
-
Functional validation and test
ACSM: atomic & close to atomic scale manufacturing
Human beings have witnessed unprecedented developments since the 1760s using precision tools and manufacturing methods that have led to ever-increasing precision, from millimeter to micrometer, to single nanometer, and to atomic levels. The modes of manufacturing have also advanced from craft-based manufacturing in the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages to precision- controllable manufacturing using automatic machinery.
Our team is starting to work on atomic and close-to-atomic scale manufacturing since 2019.
Nan Zhang Research Group
VACANCIES
We highly encourage intelligent students and postdocs to apply for Irish Research Council (IRC) postgraduate and postdoc programme to study in our group. We are very welcome CSC PhD students, visiting scholars and internship students.
1. Postgraduate Scholarship:http://research.ie/funding/goipg/
2. Postdoc fellowship: http://research.ie/funding/
3. Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) PhD studentship
4. Visit scholars and internship students
Contact nan.zhang@ucd.ie