Boxin Zhao

Boxin Zhao is a professor in the department of Chemical Engineering and member of the Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology, Institute for Polymer Research, Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology at the University of Waterloo.
His research focuses on surface science and bionanomaterials, including smart polymers, biopolymers, sustainable polymers, antimicrobial coatings and composites, hydrogels, bionanomaterials, soft materials and interface, biomimetic adhesion, soft robotic devices, advanced manufacturing, etc. He has 100+ peer-refereed papers in top journals, including Macromolecules, Advanced Materials, Nature Materials and Progress in Polymer Sciences.
Professor Zhao is interested in the smart polymers that can change shape and colour and even conduct electrical current and heat. Due to their long-chain structure, polymers are highly flexible and can be readily filled with components such as nanoparticles and nanowires, enabling many innovative applications (e.g. flexible electronics, smart windows and soft robotic fingers).
One particular interest is in the adhesion phenomena at the micro and nano scales. Effective adhesion between similar or dissimilar material components has become one of the most critical prerequisites for advanced manufacturing at ever-smaller scales. As a result, Professor Zhao concentrates on the optimization of polymer adhesive materials.
Professor Zhao studies biomimicry, which involves biological systems such as lotus leaves, gecko adhesive pads, mussel adhesive plaque and biofilms. He has been studying reversible adhesive properties of gecko footpads. He has conducted theoretical and experimental investigation into the adhesion and friction forces that characterize the gecko’s foot hairs and developed a Johnson-Kendall-Roberts friction model to interpret the dynamic behaviour. This biomimetic research has applications in biomedicine, as the adhesive can be used as an alternative to stitches, as well as a reconstructive material to reduce scarring when treating burn and cancer patients.
Professor Zhao develops advanced polymer composites and coatings as self-cleaning surfaces. One development is a superhydrophobic self-cleaning surface that can prevent the deposition and adhesion of liquid droplets. This includes the tiny respiratory droplets, expelled when talking and sneezing, that might contain infectious virus. Another development is antimicrobial coatings that can actively kill bacterial, fungi and virus.

• Surface science and bionanomaterials
• Adhesives and coatings
• Biomimetic micro and nano fabrication
• Nanotechnology
• Biomechanics
• Biolubrication
• Polymer Science
• Hydrogels
• Interfacial Phenomena
• Colloids & Porous Media
• Micro- and nano-tribology
• Bionanomaterials
• Soft Interfaces
• Biomimetic Adhesion
• Bio-integrated Devices
• Nanoparticles synthesis
• Interfacial materials engineering
• Biomimicry
• Biomimetic materials and devices
• Multifunctional polymers and nanocomposites
• Biopolymer and healthcare materials
• Advanced coating and adhesive bonding technology
• Additive Manufacturing
• Nanotechnology
• Nanotechnology, Soft Materials and Interface
• Polymers and soft robotics

A major thread in my research has been the exploration of the adhesion and associated micro-mechanical properties of such soft materials as (synthetic and biological) polymers, sticky fluids, and biological tissues, in particular, under micro- and nanometer confinements. In contrast to the interfacial behavior of pure liquids and solids, which have been extensively studied in the past century and are well described by the classic thermodynamics and contact mechanics theories, these soft materials have highly complex behavior and are not well understood, but they play essential roles in both conventional industries (e.g., polymers, adhesives and papermaking) and new micro- and nano-technology and biomedical engineering. Since I started my academic career at the University of Waterloo in September, 2008, I have been developing a research group working at the frontier of surface and interfacial science and engineering, which can generate new knowledge at the small (micro-, nano-, and molecular) scales which have technological implications for chemicals and materials, and biomedical applications, and provide a much needed multi-disciplinary training to highly qualified personnel that will improve the competitiveness of our Canadian economy and benefit mankind as well. For this, I have been exploring internal and external funding and collaboration opportunities; for instance, I submitted proposals to apply for the NSERC Discovery and RTI grants in October, 2008, and became a member of Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology in November. In addition, I was involved in organizing a research workshop on nanoscience and nanotechnology with Nanoengineering 3B undergraduate students in December, 2008. At the national and international levels, I have been actively participating in such professional activities as annual meetings of Canadian and American Chemical Engineering Societies, American Adhesion Society and Materials Research Society; and, I have collaborated with Prof. Jacob Israelachvili's Interfacial Science Laboratory in the University of California, Santa Barbara, on the fundamentals of surface and intermolecular forces. I have contributed 21 peer-reviewed journal papers and delivered 18 oral presentations, and served as a manuscript reviewer for the Journal of Adhesion, Langmuir and PNAS.

(1)Participation of panel discussion and had individual discussion with Xerox visitors through the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, November, 2008. (2) Participation of collaborative research with Proctor & Gamble (Cincinnati, USA) on Fabric Enhancer Stability, 2007 - 2008 (2) Technical consultation on paper surface strength measurements in the Australia Pulp and Paper Institute, Melbourne, Australia, 2005 March - April (3) Visiting and delivering technical presentations to the KCL paper research institute (Helsinki, Finland)and UPM Raflatac (Tampere, Finland), 2003 September (4) Working on a 3M-funded project to understand the paper/adhesives interactions and developing a new peeling-based paper surface strength measurement, 2000-2004 (5) Participation in two team projects with North China Pharmaceutical Corporation (ShijiaZhuang, China) to develop new products: a new flocculant to remove water-soluble proteins from Penicillin fermentation froths and an intelligent polymeric gel for water adsorption, 1996-1999

• 2004, Doctorate Chemical Engineering, McMaster University, Canada
• 1999, Master's Institute of Chemical Metallurgy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
• 1996, Bachelor's Mineral Engineering, Central South University, China

• 1996 IET (International Engineering Technology Inc., USA) Scholarship (20 out 10000) from the Central South University, China
• 1999 Master's Thesis Award for best dissertations from Chinese Academy of Sciences
• 2001 Clifton W. Sherman Graduate Scholarship
• 2002 Clifton W. Sherman Graduate Scholarship
• 2005 NSERC (National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada) Postdoctoral Fellowship
• 2007 IMMS (the Institute for Multiscale Materials Studies) Research Fellow, an honorary position held jointly at the University of California at Santa Barbara and the Los Alamos National Research Laboratory

• CHE 100 - Chemical Engineering Concepts 1
  • Taught in 2019
• CHE 313 - Applications of Heat and Mass Transfer
  • Taught in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024
• CHE 612 - Interfacial Phenomena
  • Taught in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Yang, Fut (Kuo) and Cholewinski, Aleksander and Yu, Li and Rivers, Geoffrey and Zhao, Boxin, A Hybrid Material That Reversibly Switches Between Two Stable Solid States, Nature Materials, 874, 0000
• Zhang, Wei and Feng, Pan and Chen, Jian and Sun, Zhengming and Zhao, Boxin, Flexible Energy Storage Systems Based on Electrically Conductive Hydrogels, Progress in Polymer Science, 220, 0000
• Yu, Li and Shahsavan, Hamed and Rivers, Geoffrey and Zhang, Che and Si,Pengxiang and Zhao, Boxin, Programmable 3D Shape Changes in Liquid Crystal Polymer Networks of Uniaxial Orientation, Advanced Functional Materials, , 0000
• Zhang, Che and Yu, Li and Ferdosian, Fatemeh and Vijayaraghavan, Sucharita and Mesnager, Julien and Jollet, Veronique and Zhao, Boxin*, Behavior of Water/pMDI Emulsion Adhesive on Bonding Wood Substrates with Varied Surface Properties, Industrial Engineering Chemistry Research, 1631, 0000
• Si, Pengxiang and Chen, Li and Yu, Li and Zhao, Boxin, Dual Colorimetric and Conductometric Responses of Silver-Decorated Polypyrrole Nanowires for Sensing Organic Solvents of Varied Polarities, ACS Appiled Material Interface, 2922, 0000
• Shahsavan, Hamed and Salili, Seyyed Muhammad and Jákli, Antal and Zhao, Boxin, Thermally Active Liquid Crystal Network Gripper Mimicking the Self-Peeling of Gecko Toe Pads, Advanced Materials, , 2017
• Rivers, Geoffrey and Lee-Sullivan, Pearl and Zhao, Boxin, Vitrification during cure produces anomalies and path-dependence in electrical resistance of conductive composites, Composites Science and Technology, 90, 2017
• d’Eon, Jeffrey and Zhang, Wei and Chen, Li and Berry, Richard M and Zhao, Boxin, Coating cellulose nanocrystals on polypropylene and its film adhesion and mechanical properties, Cellulose, 1877, 2017

• Researchers use 3D imaging to advance microplastic recycling
• Hard or soft? State-shifting new material can be both