2007 Highlights

November 28, 2007
Stanford/ IBM ARC/ UC Davis/ UC Berkeley
Research
Closing the Loop on Recycling: Can We Stop the oil-to-Landfill Treadmill?

Waste PET Processing Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), a widely used engineering thermoplastic for carpet, clothing (fibers), tire cords, soda bottles and other containers, film, automotive, electronics, displays etc., will contribute several billion pounds of waste to landfills this year alone! According to the American Plastics Council, PET packaging was originally used for soft drinks, but packing applications today include other beverages such as water, juice, beer, in addition to other foods such as peanut butter and ketchup and a variety of other household products.

November 13, 2007
University of California at Santa Barbara
Research
Chocolate Finally Understood: UC Santa Barbara and Nestlàƒ’© Uncover the Physics of Self-Aggregating Foods

Computed structure for a model lipid-water structureScientists from UCSB's Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) and the Nestle Research Center (NRC), Lausanne, Switzerland have resolved a long-standing problem in the self-assembly behavior of lipid molecules in water.

October 23, 2007
Northwestern University
Research
Electrical Conductivity of Polymorphic Indium Tin Oxide Nanocrystalline Powders

polymorphicITOFigure.jpg   The article entitled "Synthesis and Electrical Characterization of the Polymorphic Indium Tin Oxide Nanocrystalline Powders"  received the Edward C. Henry Award from the American Ceramic Society for the best Electronics Division paper in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society during 2006.

October 17, 2007
Northwestern University
Research
Polymer Surface Viscoelasticity Affects Organic Thin-Film Transistor Performance
organictransistorFigure.jpg Thin polymer films exhibit glass transition temperatures (Tgs) that are depressed from the bulk material Tg because of increased degrees of chain motion. Using such films as gate dielectrics in organic thin-film transistors provides a sensitive new probe of polymer surface motional characteristics at the buried semiconductor-dielectric interface. Researchers at Northwestern University's Materials Research Science & Engineering Center find that pentacene thin-film transistor mobility depends dramatically on the pentacene growth temperature on the polymer dielectric.
October 16, 2007
University of Nebraska
Education
Fourth Graders Study Optical Properties of Solids

Fourth Graders Study Optical Properties of Solids

MRSEC researchers visited Clinton Elementary School to help students investigate the optical and electrical properties of solids. Twenty-three fourth-grade students did several different hands-on experiments involving electrical measurements, optical reflection and transmission, and observations of the refractive properties of transparent material. The students made and tested electrical circuits to study the conduction of various materials, including aluminum and glass.

October 11, 2007
University of Nebraska
Research
Defect Mediated Properties of Magnetic Tunnel Junctions

Fe/MgO/Fe(001) magnetic tunnel junction

Recent work in collaboration with scientists from National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, Japan have demonstrated, both experimentally and theoretically, that O vacancies in the MgO barrier layer play a significant role in Fe/MgO/Fe(001) Magnetic Tunnel Junctions.

October 11, 2007
University of Nebraska
Research
Nanostructuring for High-Energy Magnets

multilayer structure

Recent work in collaboration with scientists at the International Center for Materials Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, has shown that multilayering a high-coercivity material based on Nd2Fe14B (NFB) with Fe can lead to ideal magnetic coupling. The figure shows the as-deposited multilayer structure with 16 nm of NFB (grey) and 6 nm of Fe (black/white). After heat treatment a fine scale two-phase nanocomposite granular structure is formed with excellent properties.

October 10, 2007
University of Pennsylvania
Research
Brownian Motion of an Ellipsoid

Ellipsoid in WaterBrownian motion, the tiny random movements of small objects suspended in a fluid, has served as a paradigm for concepts of randomness ranging from noise in light detectors to fluctuations in the stock market.

October 10, 2007
University of Pennsylvania
Research
Catalytic Protein Bundles

Protein BundlesBiological (natural) proteins perform this chemistry with optimal efficiency, however, they are not sufficiently robust for use in device applications for hydrogen production. Thus, the catalytic centers of such proteins are being incorporated into protein bundles designed (using state-of-the-art computational techniques) to possess the stability required. Success in combining these designed protein bundles capable of highly efficient oxidative and reductive chemistry with related designed bundles capable of light-induced electric charge separation could provide for cost-effective generation of hydrogen fuel from water, using sunlight as the energy source.

September 7, 2007
University of Southern Mississippi
Research
A new way to keep bacteria at bay

Test tubes_small.jpg Penicillin, long used in medications, is now being studied as a coating, a novel weapon against bacteria that could protect medical implants and the surgical tools used to insert them. The development could potentially save thousands of lives, as many patients contract infections following surgery. The innovation was developed by researchers at the University of Southern Mississippi through the work of polymer science professor Marek Urban and his team of researchers in the School of Polymers and High Performance Materials. To shed light on the possibilities for the new technology, Urban recently discussed the discovery with Behind the Scenes.