CURRICULUM VITA

Wei-Heng Shih
Department of Materials Engineering
Philadelphia, PA 19104
shihwh@drexel.edu, http://ceramicslab.materials.drexel.edu/
PERSONAL
INFORMATION
Date of Birth: February 3,
1954
Citizenship:
President
of Chinese Cultural Association of Greater
Principal
of Main Line Chinese School, 2001-2002
EDUCATION
Ph.D. 1984
Department
of Physics
B.Sc. 1976
Department
of Physics
Professor Dept. of Materials
Science & Engineering 9/1/03-present
Visiting Professor (Sabbatical leave)
Associate Professor Dept. of Materials
Engineering 9/1/96-8/31/03
Visiting Researcher Catalytic Systems
Division 7/1/98-3/31/99
(Sabbatical
leave) Johnson
Matthey,
Visiting
Associate Professor Dept. of
Applied Chem. and Chem.
Visiting
Associate Professor
Assistant Professor Dept. of Materials
Engineering 4/1/91-8/31/96
Visiting
Summer Faculty Naval
Research Scientist Dept. of Materials
Science & Engineering 9/87-3/91
Visiting
Researcher Academia
Sinica,
Postdoctoral
Research Associate Dept. of
Physics,
Postdoctoral
Research Associate Dept. of
Physics,
AWARDS
1.
Voted
the Best Professor of Materials Engineering Department by the graduating class
of 1996
2.
The
American Ceramic society 1999 Edward C. Henry Electronics Division Best Paper
Award for “Electromechanical Behavior of PZT-Brass Unimorphs,” J. Am Ceram. Soc. 82[7], 1733-1740 (1999) by X. Li, W.Y. Shih,
3.
Faculty
Achievement Award for excellence in teaching at Drexel, Feb. 23, 2000
4.
Professor
of the Year,
5.
Winner of Best Senior Design Project in
Department of Materials Engineering,
6.
Winner of Best Senior Design Project in
Department of Materials Engineering,
7.
Best Poster in Drexel Research Day,
Undergraduate category, Robert Luchenta and W.-H. Shih, 2003
8.
Inducted to Drexel 106 Club
9.
Research Achievement Award, Drexel University
2004
10.
Best
Poster in 2004 Drexel Research Day, Graduate category in Emerging Technology,
Hongyu Luo, C. Martorano, W. Y. Shih, and W.-H. Shih
11.
Teaching
Award, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Drexel University 2004
12.
2nd place best poster
at the 4th annual poster contest for graduate students of the Philadelphia
"Liberty Bell" Chapter of ASM International, 2005, Hui Li, W. Y.
Shih, and W.-H. Shih
13.
Best poster award at the 2005
Research Day,
14.
Travel Grant for Hakki O. Yegingil
to attend 2005 MRS Fall Meeting
15.
Koerner Fellowship awarded to Joe
Capobianco, 2007
RESEARCH AREAS
1. Colloidal Coating: A Novel Ceramic Processing
Approach
Aqueous colloidal processing has the
advantages of controlling the interactions between particles and environmental
friendliness. I have developed a colloidal coating method that modifies the
surface of ceramic powders by nanolayering. The nanolayer coating serves
multiple functions. It can enhance the chemical and thermal stability of the
powders, improve the consolidation and rheological properties of slurries, and
lower the sintering temperatures of the green compacts. For example, silicon
nitride and silicon carbide powders were coated by boehmite (AlOOH) via a
sol-gel process. The coated powder suspensions were shown to have a
significantly higher solids loading than the uncoated powder in water.
Viscosity measurements and centrifugation showed that the coating changes the
long-range interaction between the silicon nitride particles. Rheological
studies indicate that the suspensions of coated powders have lower viscosity
and wider linear viscoelastic region than that of uncoated powders.
Furthermore, as the coating thickness increases, the shear modulus of
boehmite-coated SiC gel decreases because the boehmite coating prevents the
close contact of the SiC particles thereby reducing the van der Waals
attraction interaction between the SiC particles. We have extended this part of
research to the biomedical applications of nanometric hydroxyapatite coating
for implant surface modifications. Additionally, we have also synthesized
microporous and mesoporous nanostructured materials that are suitable for
enzyme immobilization and absorbents for environmental wastes.
2. Low-Temperature
Processing of Piezoelectric Ceramics with Enhanced Properties
Based on the nanocoating
approach, a low-temperature, direct sintering
approach for high performance perovskite lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate
(PMN-PT) solid solution ceramics was developed using Mg(OH)2-coated
Nb2O5 particles. The mixtures of Mg(OH)2-coated
Nb2O5, PbO particles, and lead titanate particles are
compacted and sintered to near full density at temperatures lower than 1000ºC
with superior dielectric and piezoelectric properties.
More recently, we developed a
method to fabricate freestanding piezoelectric films with giant
electric-field-enhanced piezoelectric response. The d31
piezoelectric coefficient for PMN-PT layers can be as high as 2000 pm/V, larger
than that of commercial single crystalline PMN-PT bulk, at 10 kV/cm (or 20 V
over the 20-micron film thickness). In contrast to single crystals, the
polycrystalline freestanding films are easy to make and can be made into any
size. They are also easy to be miniaturized. The method can be applied to any
piezoelectric material. The freestanding films can be easily stacked to form
multilayer actuators as well as multilayer capacitors. They are ideal for
miniaturized sensors and actuators applications. (US patent pending)
3. Aqueous
Synthesis of Nanocrystalline Semiconductors: Quantum Dots
We have developed a direct synthetic
method for producing water soluble quantum dots (QDs) that are ready for
bioconjugation. The method can produce aqueous QDs with wavelength varying from
400 nm to 700 nm. Highly luminescent metal sulfide (MS) QDs are produced in an
aqueous synthesis route. MS QDs are
capped with thiol-containing charged molecules in a single step. The resultant
MS QDs exhibit the distinctive excitonic photoluminescence desired of QDs and
can be fabricated to avoid undesirable broadband emissions at higher
wavelengths. This provides a significant improvement over the present complex
and expensive commercial processes for the production of QDs. The aqueous QDs
are stable in biological fluids over a long period of time. In addition,
nontoxic ZnS QDs have been produced with good photoluminescence properties by
refluxing the ZnS QD suspensions over a period of time. (US patent pending)
4. Synthesis of
Dispersed Hydroxyapatite Particles and Gels
Hydroxyapatite, Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2,
was synthesized using a sol-gel method. When sufficient amount of citric acid
or sodium citrate was added to the precursor salts, a translucent suspension
was formed, in contrast to the opaque suspension obtained without the citrate
addition. Particle size analysis found that the size of the HA varied from 2.5 mm
to 4 mm when the citrate concentration is below 0.8 M.
Above 0.8 M of citrate, the particle size was 0.1 mm.
In addition, the Ca/P ratio in the particles made with sodium citrate is higher
than that without sodium citrate. The gelation behavior of the submicron HA
particles was used for the fabrication of coatings on implant surface for
bioactivity study.
5. Piezoelectric
Cantilever Sensor (
The
piezoelectric cantilever sensor consists of a piezoelectric, e.g., PZT layer
bonded to a nonpiezoelectric metal strip. Coating the cantilever surface with
the antibody specific to a target antigen, we were able to detect the small
mass change in the cantilever due to the binding of the target antigen to the
antibody coated on the cantilever surface by monitoring the cantilever
resonance frequency shift. This approach has been extended to directly
detect and quantify biological substances such as cells and proteins in real
time. With suitable receptor on the metal tip, detection of biological
substances such as yeast cells, protein molecules (avidin, and avidin-biotin
binding), bacteria E. coli and salmonella have been demonstrated.
In
addition, a PEC can also
measure a liquid’s viscosity and density over a wide range of viscosity, e.g.,
from less than 1 cp to larger than 4000 cp. A hand-held measuring unit has been built to complete the portable PEC
sensor system. (US patent pending)
6.
Piezoelectric Finger (PEF) for Soft-tissue Stiffness Detection/Imaging
Cancerous
tissues and tumors are stiffer than surrounding tissues. Measurement of tissue
stiffness could aid early tumor/cancer location. Ability to measure tumor
stiffness under shear in the DC mode, which none of the current technology
could achieve, could greatly improve the accuracy of tumor malignancy
diagnosis. The PEF that we developed is an “electronic finger” capable of
accurately and non-destructively measuring both the Young’s modulus and shear
modulus of tissues with gentle touches to the surface. A PEF can measure the
Young’s modulus and shear modulus variations in tissues with less than
one-millimeter spatial resolution to a depth of up to several centimeters,
offering great potential for in-vivo early detection of diseases such as breast
cancer tumor. The ability of a PEF to probe the interfacial properties of hard
inclusions by comparing the DC compression and shear tests stands to greatly
aid tumor malignancy test accuracy. Preliminary results indicated that a PEF is
capable of identifying and locating small malignant tumors (less than 3 mm)
that were missed by mammography, ultrasound and a physician’s palpation. (US
patent pending)
7. High Surface-Area Catalytic Oxides
High surface-area powders are a
critical component in many catalytic systems. The thermal stability of these
ceramic powders is essential to the performance of catalytic systems. We have
been studying the synthesis of oxide nanoparticles such as ZrO2, CeO2,
Al2O3, SiO2, and MnOx with the aim
of maintaining high surface area at elevated temperatures. It was shown that
impurities within the powders are a key factor in determining the thermal
stability of oxide powders. Furthermore, synthesis conditions such as heat
treatment temperature and time, as well as precursor concentration were shown
to be controlling parameters in achieving high surface area. We discovered that
the colloidal coating approach of precipitation an oxide in the presence of the
support oxide can enhance the surface area of the mixed oxides due to
morphological change. Our study provides a basic understanding to the important
industrial processes in obtaining thermally stable, high surface-area ceramic
particles.
8. Size Effect in
Nanoparticles
The crystalline structure of BaTiO3 nanoparticles has been shown by many authors
to depend on the size of the particles. However, the reason for the size
dependence is not clear. We showed that the size effect of crystalline
structure of BaTiO3 is related to the depolarization effect of the
small particles. The large depolarization energy prohibits the small particles
from becoming polarized (the tetragonal structure) and causes the particles to
remain as unpolarized (the cubic structure). The depolarization effect is
demonstrated by coating the BaTiO3 particles with Cu and that the tetragonality
of the powders (c/a lattice constant ratio) is enhanced by the metal coating.
After oxidation of the metal coating, the tetragonality of BaTiO3 powders decreases. In addition, it is shown
that particle clustering can stabilize the tetragonal structure down to a
smaller particle size than individual BaTiO3 particles due to the reduction of
depolarization energy by clustering.
Size also plays an important role in
the coating of particles. We found that nanoparticles were difficult to coat
compare to micron-sized particles due to higher solubility of the small
particle size. Size effect also plays an important role of the emission
spectrum of quantum dots that we synthesized.
9. Conversion of
Coal Wastes into Microporous and Mesoporous Materials
Annually, in the state of
As an extension of our work on
zeolites, the formation of mesoporous molecular sieves that were recently
discovered by researchers at Mobil was investigated. The mesoporous molecular
sieves are composites of organic (surfactant) and inorganic (for example,
silicate) species. After calcination (heat treatment), the organic part is
burned out and the remaining porous materials contain periodic pores of sizes
in the order of 20-100 angstroms. The mesoporous materials have a wide range of
possible applications such as catalysts, molecular sieves, and adsorbents. We
have succeeded in converting fly ashes into mesoporous aluminosilicates.
Furthermore, we synthesized mesoporous nickel silicates using the same
approach. The mesoporous nickel silicates show great promise as energy storage
electrodes in electrochemical cells. Currently our expertise in this area has
been applied to the separation of CO2/N2 gases. In the
DOE funded program, we worked on synthesizing a microporous membrane material
that can effectively separate CO2 from N2 due to
preferential adsorption of CO2.
PUBLICATIONS
Patents
Provisional Patent applications
1.
W.-H.
Shih and D. Stroud, “Theoretical Study of Freezing of Polystyrene Sphere
Suspensions,” J. Chem. Phys., 79, 6254 (1983)
2.
W.-H.
Shih and D. Stroud, “Theoretical Study of Miscibility and Glass-Forming Trends
in Mixtures of Polystyrene Spheres,” J.
Chem. Phys., 80, 4429 (1984)
3.
W.-H.
Shih and D. Stroud, “Thermodynamic Properties of Liquid Si and Ge,” Phys. Rev. B, 31, 3715 (1985)
4.
W.-H.
Shih and D. Stroud, “Theory of Surface Tension of Liquid Metal Alloys,” Phys. Rev. B, 32, 804 (1985)
5.
W.-H.
Shih and D. Stroud, “Two-Component Lattice-Gas Model for Surface Segregation in
Liquid Alloys,” Phys. Rev. B, 33, 8048 (1986)
6.
M.
Schick and W.-H. Shih, “Spin 1 Model of a Microemulsion,” Phys. Rev. B, 34, 1797
(1986)
7.
W.-H.
Shih, C. Ebner, and D. Stroud, “Potts Lattice-Gas Model for the Solid-Liquid
Interfacial Tensions of Simple Fluids,” Phys.
Rev. B, 34, 1811 (1986)
8.
Y.
Gefen, W.-H. Shih, R. B. Laibowitz, and J. M. Viggiano, “Nonlinear Behavior
Near the Percolation Metal-Insulator Transition,” Phys. Rev. Lett., 57,
3097 (1986)
9.
M.
Schick and W.-H. Shih, “Z(N) Model of Grain-Boundary Wetting,” Phys. Rev. B, 35, 5030 (1987)
10.
J. Adler, Y. Gefen, M. Schick,
and W.-H. Shih, “Order Propagation on Dilute Antiferromagnetic Potts Models,” J. Phys. A:
Math. Gen., 20, L227
(1987)
11.
W.-H. Shih, Z. Q. Wang, X. C.
Zeng, and D. Stroud, “Ginzburg-Landau Theory for the Solid-Liquid Interface of
BCC Elements,” Phys. Rev. A, 35, 2611 (1987)
12.
M. Schick and W.-H. Shih, “Simple
Microscopic Model of a Microemulsion,” Phys.
Rev. Lett., 59, 1205 (1987)
13.
H. F. Cheung, Y. Gefen, E.
Riedel, and W.-H. Shih, “Persistent Currents in Small One-Dimensional Metal
Rings,” Phys. Rev. B, 37, 6050 (1988)
14.
W. Y. Shih, W.-H. Shih, and I. A.
Aksay, “Stability of Binary Charged Colloidal
15.
W.-H. Shih, W. Y. Shih, S. I.
Kim, J. Liu, and I. A. Aksay, “Scaling Behavior of Elastic Properties of
Colloidal Gels,” Phys. Rev. A, 42, 4772 (1990)
16.
W. Y. Shih, W.-H. Shih, and I. A.
Aksay, “Semi-Dilute Athermal Polymer Solutions Near a Hard Wall:
17.
W. Y. Shih, J. Liu, W.-H. Shih,
and
18.
A. A. Tseng, W.-H. Shih, C.
Thomas, S. Chen, “Intelligent Processing of Polymer Sheets for Calendering,” Adv. in Poly. Tech., 12, 241 (1993)
19.
W.-H. Shih, W. Y. Shih, and
20.
W.-H. Shih and Q. Lu, “Ultrafine
Titanate Powders Processed via a Precursor-Modified Sol-Gel Method, ”Ferroelectrics, 154, 241-46 (1994)
21.
W. Y. Shih, W.-H. Shih, and
22.
W. Y. Shih, W.-H. Shih, and
23.
W.-H. Shih, D. Kisailus, and Y.
Wei, "Silica Coating of Barium Titanate Particles," Materials Lett., 24, 13-15 (1995)
24.
W.-H. Shih, L.-L. Pwu, A. A.
Tseng, “Boehmite Coating as Consolidation and Sintering Aids in Aqueous Silicon
Nitride Processing,” J. Am. Ceram. Soc., 78[5], 1252-1260 (1995)
25.
W.-H. Shih and L.-L. Pwu,
“Rheology of Aqueous Boehmite-Coated Silicon Nitride Suspensions and Gels,” J. Mat. Res., 10[11], 2808-16, (1995)
26.
W.-H. Shih, D. Kisailus, W. Y.
Shih, Y.-H. Hu, J. Hughes, "Rheology and Consolidation of Colloidal
Alumina-Coated Silicon Nitride Suspensions," J. Am. Ceram. Soc., 79[5],
1155 (1996)
27.
W. Y. Shih, W.-H. Shih, and I. A.
Aksay, "Heteroflocculation in Binary Colloidal Suspensions:
28.
M. Buchta and W.-H. Shih,
"Improved Aqueous Dispersion of Silicon Nitride with Aminosilanes," J. Am. Ceram. Soc., 79[11], 2940-46 (1996)
29.
W.-H. Shih and H.-L. Chang,
"Conversion of Fly Ash into Zeolites for Ion-Exchange Applications," Mat. Lett., 28, 263-68 (1996)
30.
W. Y. Shih, W.-H. Shih, and
31.
X. Liu, W. Y. Shih, and W.-H.
Shih, "Effect of Copper Coating on the Crystalline Structure of Small
BaTiO3 Particles," J. Am. Ceram. Soc., 80[11],
2781-88 (1997)
32.
X. Li and W.-H. Shih, "Size
Effects in BaTiO3 Particles and Clusters," J. Am. Ceram. Soc., 80[11], 2844-52 (1997)
33.
H.-L. Chang and W.-H. Shih,
"A General Method for the Conversion of Fly Ash into Zeolites as Ion
Exchangers for Cesium," Ind.
34. Y. Wei, D. Jin, T. Ding, W.-H.
Shih, X. Liu, S. Z. D. Cheng, and Q. Fu, "
35.
P. C. Y. Lee, J.-D. Yu, X. Li,
and W.-H. Shih, “Piezoelectric Ceramic Disks with Thickness-Graded Material
Properties,” IEEE Trans. Ultrasonics,
Ferro. Freq. Control, 46[1]
205-215 (1999)
36.
C.-Y. Yang and W.-H. Shih,
“Effect of pH on the Boehmite Coating on SiC,” J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 82[2]
436-440 (1999)
37.
W. Y. Shih, W.-H. Shih, and
38.