INS13-1048
2D Materials for Post-AI Era: Smart Fibers, Soft Robotics & Single Atom Catalysts
Topic
S13. Korea-Germany Polymer Symposium 2026: “Pioneering the Future of Polymeric Materials and Bridging Innovation in Sustainable Technologies”
When and Where
Sep 29, 2026
17:05 - 17:30
Room 203
Session Chairs
Kwang-Sup LEE
Svetlana SANTER
Presenter(s)
Sang Ouk Kim (KAIST)
Co-Author(s)
Abstract
A broad-spectrum of 2D materials can address the critical challenges facing in the current technological trend of the 4th industrial revolution. This presentation will introduce three significant emerging application areas of 2D materials: smart fibers, soft robotics, and single atom catalysts (SACs), which hold immense potentials for the academic and technological advancements in the post-artificial intelligence (Post-AI) era. Among many different 2D structures, Graphene Oxide Liquid Crystal (GOLC) is an intriguing 2D carbon based soft material exhibiting nematic type discotic liquid crystallinity in good solvents, such as water. Since our first discovery of GOLC at 2009, this interesting mesophase has been utilized over world-wide for many different application areas, such as liquid crystalline graphene fiber spinning, highly ordered graphene membrane/film production for water treatment, nanoporous graphene assembly for energy/environmental applications and so on. Interestingly, GOLC allow us a valuable opportunity for the highly ordered molecular scale assembly of smart carbon based fibers and soft artificial muscles. Smart fibers showcase the unconventional functionalities including healthcare/environmental monitoring, energy storage/harvesting, and antipathogenic protection in the forms of wearable fibers and textiles. Artificial muscle aligns with the technological trend to overcome the longstanding limitations of the hard-material based mechanics by introducing soft actuators and sensors. Noticeably, our recent development of the human muscle inspired graphene based nanocomposite fiber highlights the all-around superior performance of actuation parameters to attain the interesting demonstration of arbitrary biomimetic movements. Lastly, our early day research effort for the heteroelement-doping of graphene based structures yielded one of the first original works for SACs, which are widely useful in energy storage/conversion and environmental management, principally contributing to the low carbon footprint for the sustainable post-AI era.
