I promise not to make this talk to
technical so don’t worry a friend of
mine once asked me what’s the closest
thing to my heart well for some of you
might be money it might be fame but for
me it’s my home
I come from Sarawak a state that’s
blessed with nice greeneries but
unfortunately the rise of
industrialization modernization brought
pollution along with it do you know that
80% of people who are exposed to
pollution are actually living in urban
areas that’s like you and me and in fact
every day 2 million tons of sewage and
waste have been dumped into the world’s
water that is the weight of all the
humans in the world now unless this guy
successfully bring all of us to Mars
earth is the only home that we have so
today I will be giving a short talk on
how a tiny solution could save the
planet well when you talk about saving
the planet people who think about super
hero or something like this so well
that’s what I hope to be but real life
tends to be a bit different this is how
I look like every day I work with the
South Hampton nano fabrication Center so
a lot of my family members used to ask
me like boy you work with nano
technology what do you do it so this is
what I tell them every day I go to lab
wait I’m I’m like a baker actually so we
call this thing a wafer right you know
to grow nano films we bring this we put
it into a certain equipment set the
temperature set the pressure and then
close it and we wait sometimes I even
play phones but any
I specialize in using carbon-based
nanomaterials for environmental sensing
this means that I use carbon nano dots
nano crystalline graphene and nano
crystalline graphite for environmental
sensing I’ll come down to that in more
details later on but before this do any
one of you actually know what is
nanotechnology no I’ll take a look at
this
this thing’s which ones you think
actually incorporates nanotechnology
well actually this there they used
various degree of nanotechnology but I
can tell you one thing this thing here
definitely do not have nanotechnology
and things like this if you see nano
bioenergy cart that’s supposed to make
you healthier by having it in your
wallet it’s definitely not
nanotechnology okay it’s a scam so what
is nanotechnology nanotechnology
involves the manipulation of materials
on a scale of 10 to the power of
negative 9 oh that’s if that’s too
technical let me put it into perspective
now if I am one nano meters tall okay
then the width of your hair the
thickness of your hair would be
equivalent to going from edct all the
way to mount austin is where I stay and
back back here to a new city again
imagine walking that distance by foot
that is a scale we’re talking about
so nanotechnology involves manipulation
of material from say 10 20 nanometers
all the way to sub micron there’s about
100 nanometers across one of the most
common use of nanotechnology is often
the ones that we overlook this thing
this is a 14 nanometer dye that is found
in your processor your Intel processor
now you notice that the section here
looks quite bright in color it looks
like it’s made of rainbow right
you know why no okay let me tell you
this if you were to buy the best optical
microscope and try to look at this
transistor with your eye you will not be
able to see it the problem is not with
your eye
no it’s not with the lens you can buy a
good lens but the problem comes with
light now in the range of
electromagnetic spectrum light
wavelength is from 700 nanometers to 400
nanometers all right so this means that
we’ve lights you can only see things as
small as 200 nanometers because that’s
half the wavelength of the visible light
so in order to see things that are
smaller than the wavelength of light
what can we do we use electron
microscope yes ladies and gentlemen we
use electrons to see this thing is a
scanning electron microscope and what it
does is it shows electron at a sample
one by one and then it detects the way
the electrons scatter that way we can
get some gorgeous pictures like this
ones you see here the one you see here
and my personal favorite to catch you
okay now you might be thinking okay you
can see this Pikachu but how do you make
it how do you make a Pikachu so small
that you cannot see it with your eyes
any idea well it turns out it’s not that
complicated just like building anything
there’s two ways either you can build it
brick by brick layer by layer like a 3d
printer you grow the material or you can
remove the material that you don’t want
so that only the material you want it’s
been left behind so to do this we use
plasmas we use ion beams if you don’t
understand that imagine it’s kind of
like using a light saber to cut away
materials that you don’t one right so
why do we do that you know it’s their
specific purpose
it turns out just by changing the
microstructure you get a lot of
different effects for example if you
look into nature into a peacocks feather
the color doesn’t come from the
chemicals by instead it’s from the
structure of the feather itself now back
to the transistors just now you can see
with your eyes but the repeating
structure of the transistor actually
make a rainbow like structure rainbow
like color that’s very very beautiful
now I actually did something really
interesting as well and also get likes
on Instagram so guess what I made this
rainbow with I actually make this with
graphite which is usually black but by
changing the structure you can make it
into rainbow color now Jeremy did
mention I did some research on quantum
dots before so what are quantum dots
this is quantum dots so in a quantum dot
system you have a small particle you
excited with UV light it gets excited
goes back down it emits a fluorescent
okay and these fluorescent could be
different colors as you can see here now
what’s so interesting about this is that
you can generate all these different
colors using exactly the same material
you do not need to change the chemical
composition okay you just need to change
the size of the particle so if you’re a
big particle imagine it’s a elephant
let’s get excited it put this elephant
poo different shakes you get really long
wavelength that’s like red light if you
throw a mouse into the same swimming
pool the mouse is excited it generates a
shorter wavelength because it’s smaller
so the particle generation blue light so
how does this save the world well it
generates light it’s interesting so
turns out we actually use carbon to
create quantum dots that could sense
specific heavy metal ions in water now
what happens is when there’s a specific
ions of a space
Excise prison in a liquid environment
and you excite these quantum dots it
transfers its energy and it releases
less fluorescent this means that we
could use this to create optical fiber
based sensor that can be used to monitor
the the heavy metal ion concentration in
water this was a project that I did back
when I was studying in Swinburne
University with my supervisors we create
an app we use optical fiber to isolate
the electronics and then we even use
voice control so actually we have we’ve
created this project with won numerous
awards back this was back in the
undergraduate days a lot of you would
have reached this date in two more years
is this the end
is the degree the end of your studies no
for me I allow my curiosity to go even
further so I joined University of
Southampton two years ago to tackle this
project where we used nano crystalline
graphene graphite as a gas sensor now
the theory behind this is simple so in a
nano crystalline system you do not have
a straight crystal instead you have
islands of crystal which are very
conductive so in a very conductive
system you have electrons trying to go
over but they do not have enough energy
to go over now
when an oxidizing gas for example no.2
nitrogen dioxide which is one of the
pollutants in the air is absorbed onto
this crystal they provide a bridge so
this electron can now jump over this
bridge and get over to meet their
girlfriend so this is pretty much how we
how we use this material as an
environmental sensor now this is a
picture of the project that I did and
this is the setup that we used to test
out the sensor now all of you might be
wondering why why why do I do this
you know white created a new sense that
there are sensors out there in the
market but most of them they require
heating in order to work and to heat up
you need power the idea is that by using
this material which could sense at room
temperature we could create senses that
are way smaller than what we have now
and one day it could even be integrated
into your fitness tracker your phone or
your everyday IT devices now it is
predicted that every month 328 million
new things are being connected to the
Internet and by 2030 500 billion new
things would be in the cloud by
connecting all our sensor to the
Internet we can get an unprecedented
amount of data which can which gives us
new insight to the world around us now
the main aim is awareness a research has
been done by research group in the
United States on how people are aware of
pollution so they asked them how serious
do you think pollution is in the world
most of the respondents say yeah we
agree in air pollution is serious oh
it’s gonna kill everyone else we need to
take care of take care of this and
pollution is real global warming is real
but they ask the same question again to
the respondents how severe do you think
air pollution is in your own area guess
what everyone said oh no we’re fine our
area is not that polluted it’s just some
other areas that’s polluted some other
countries is polluted we’re fine
so people are in denial the data are
there it shows that deforestation is
happening
evolution is happening but they just
deny that all this have an effect on
their immediate vicinity so if we were
to be able to make sensors that fit into
everyone’s everyday life
and show them once and for all how
pollution can affect them in their
immediate vicinity I think every one we
want to save themselves so it’s a small
idea we use a small piece of technology
to try and save the planet although I’m
small although I’m just alone but for me
I’m just contributing my tiny part in
our mission to save the world thank you
[Applause]
technical so don’t worry a friend of
mine once asked me what’s the closest
thing to my heart well for some of you
might be money it might be fame but for
me it’s my home
I come from Sarawak a state that’s
blessed with nice greeneries but
unfortunately the rise of
industrialization modernization brought
pollution along with it do you know that
80% of people who are exposed to
pollution are actually living in urban
areas that’s like you and me and in fact
every day 2 million tons of sewage and
waste have been dumped into the world’s
water that is the weight of all the
humans in the world now unless this guy
successfully bring all of us to Mars
earth is the only home that we have so
today I will be giving a short talk on
how a tiny solution could save the
planet well when you talk about saving
the planet people who think about super
hero or something like this so well
that’s what I hope to be but real life
tends to be a bit different this is how
I look like every day I work with the
South Hampton nano fabrication Center so
a lot of my family members used to ask
me like boy you work with nano
technology what do you do it so this is
what I tell them every day I go to lab
wait I’m I’m like a baker actually so we
call this thing a wafer right you know
to grow nano films we bring this we put
it into a certain equipment set the
temperature set the pressure and then
close it and we wait sometimes I even
play phones but any
I specialize in using carbon-based
nanomaterials for environmental sensing
this means that I use carbon nano dots
nano crystalline graphene and nano
crystalline graphite for environmental
sensing I’ll come down to that in more
details later on but before this do any
one of you actually know what is
nanotechnology no I’ll take a look at
this
this thing’s which ones you think
actually incorporates nanotechnology
well actually this there they used
various degree of nanotechnology but I
can tell you one thing this thing here
definitely do not have nanotechnology
and things like this if you see nano
bioenergy cart that’s supposed to make
you healthier by having it in your
wallet it’s definitely not
nanotechnology okay it’s a scam so what
is nanotechnology nanotechnology
involves the manipulation of materials
on a scale of 10 to the power of
negative 9 oh that’s if that’s too
technical let me put it into perspective
now if I am one nano meters tall okay
then the width of your hair the
thickness of your hair would be
equivalent to going from edct all the
way to mount austin is where I stay and
back back here to a new city again
imagine walking that distance by foot
that is a scale we’re talking about
so nanotechnology involves manipulation
of material from say 10 20 nanometers
all the way to sub micron there’s about
100 nanometers across one of the most
common use of nanotechnology is often
the ones that we overlook this thing
this is a 14 nanometer dye that is found
in your processor your Intel processor
now you notice that the section here
looks quite bright in color it looks
like it’s made of rainbow right
you know why no okay let me tell you
this if you were to buy the best optical
microscope and try to look at this
transistor with your eye you will not be
able to see it the problem is not with
your eye
no it’s not with the lens you can buy a
good lens but the problem comes with
light now in the range of
electromagnetic spectrum light
wavelength is from 700 nanometers to 400
nanometers all right so this means that
we’ve lights you can only see things as
small as 200 nanometers because that’s
half the wavelength of the visible light
so in order to see things that are
smaller than the wavelength of light
what can we do we use electron
microscope yes ladies and gentlemen we
use electrons to see this thing is a
scanning electron microscope and what it
does is it shows electron at a sample
one by one and then it detects the way
the electrons scatter that way we can
get some gorgeous pictures like this
ones you see here the one you see here
and my personal favorite to catch you
okay now you might be thinking okay you
can see this Pikachu but how do you make
it how do you make a Pikachu so small
that you cannot see it with your eyes
any idea well it turns out it’s not that
complicated just like building anything
there’s two ways either you can build it
brick by brick layer by layer like a 3d
printer you grow the material or you can
remove the material that you don’t want
so that only the material you want it’s
been left behind so to do this we use
plasmas we use ion beams if you don’t
understand that imagine it’s kind of
like using a light saber to cut away
materials that you don’t one right so
why do we do that you know it’s their
specific purpose
it turns out just by changing the
microstructure you get a lot of
different effects for example if you
look into nature into a peacocks feather
the color doesn’t come from the
chemicals by instead it’s from the
structure of the feather itself now back
to the transistors just now you can see
with your eyes but the repeating
structure of the transistor actually
make a rainbow like structure rainbow
like color that’s very very beautiful
now I actually did something really
interesting as well and also get likes
on Instagram so guess what I made this
rainbow with I actually make this with
graphite which is usually black but by
changing the structure you can make it
into rainbow color now Jeremy did
mention I did some research on quantum
dots before so what are quantum dots
this is quantum dots so in a quantum dot
system you have a small particle you
excited with UV light it gets excited
goes back down it emits a fluorescent
okay and these fluorescent could be
different colors as you can see here now
what’s so interesting about this is that
you can generate all these different
colors using exactly the same material
you do not need to change the chemical
composition okay you just need to change
the size of the particle so if you’re a
big particle imagine it’s a elephant
let’s get excited it put this elephant
poo different shakes you get really long
wavelength that’s like red light if you
throw a mouse into the same swimming
pool the mouse is excited it generates a
shorter wavelength because it’s smaller
so the particle generation blue light so
how does this save the world well it
generates light it’s interesting so
turns out we actually use carbon to
create quantum dots that could sense
specific heavy metal ions in water now
what happens is when there’s a specific
ions of a space
Excise prison in a liquid environment
and you excite these quantum dots it
transfers its energy and it releases
less fluorescent this means that we
could use this to create optical fiber
based sensor that can be used to monitor
the the heavy metal ion concentration in
water this was a project that I did back
when I was studying in Swinburne
University with my supervisors we create
an app we use optical fiber to isolate
the electronics and then we even use
voice control so actually we have we’ve
created this project with won numerous
awards back this was back in the
undergraduate days a lot of you would
have reached this date in two more years
is this the end
is the degree the end of your studies no
for me I allow my curiosity to go even
further so I joined University of
Southampton two years ago to tackle this
project where we used nano crystalline
graphene graphite as a gas sensor now
the theory behind this is simple so in a
nano crystalline system you do not have
a straight crystal instead you have
islands of crystal which are very
conductive so in a very conductive
system you have electrons trying to go
over but they do not have enough energy
to go over now
when an oxidizing gas for example no.2
nitrogen dioxide which is one of the
pollutants in the air is absorbed onto
this crystal they provide a bridge so
this electron can now jump over this
bridge and get over to meet their
girlfriend so this is pretty much how we
how we use this material as an
environmental sensor now this is a
picture of the project that I did and
this is the setup that we used to test
out the sensor now all of you might be
wondering why why why do I do this
you know white created a new sense that
there are sensors out there in the
market but most of them they require
heating in order to work and to heat up
you need power the idea is that by using
this material which could sense at room
temperature we could create senses that
are way smaller than what we have now
and one day it could even be integrated
into your fitness tracker your phone or
your everyday IT devices now it is
predicted that every month 328 million
new things are being connected to the
Internet and by 2030 500 billion new
things would be in the cloud by
connecting all our sensor to the
Internet we can get an unprecedented
amount of data which can which gives us
new insight to the world around us now
the main aim is awareness a research has
been done by research group in the
United States on how people are aware of
pollution so they asked them how serious
do you think pollution is in the world
most of the respondents say yeah we
agree in air pollution is serious oh
it’s gonna kill everyone else we need to
take care of take care of this and
pollution is real global warming is real
but they ask the same question again to
the respondents how severe do you think
air pollution is in your own area guess
what everyone said oh no we’re fine our
area is not that polluted it’s just some
other areas that’s polluted some other
countries is polluted we’re fine
so people are in denial the data are
there it shows that deforestation is
happening
evolution is happening but they just
deny that all this have an effect on
their immediate vicinity so if we were
to be able to make sensors that fit into
everyone’s everyday life
and show them once and for all how
pollution can affect them in their
immediate vicinity I think every one we
want to save themselves so it’s a small
idea we use a small piece of technology
to try and save the planet although I’m
small although I’m just alone but for me
I’m just contributing my tiny part in
our mission to save the world thank you
[Applause]
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