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 […]
Stanford/ IBM ARC/ UC Davis/ UC Berkeley Highlights
November 28, 2007
Closing the Loop on Recycling: Can We Stop the oil-to-Landfill Treadmill? [Research]
July 19, 2007
In Memorium of Marni Goldman [Education]
Highlight from Stanford MRSEC 0213618
Marni Goldman, Education Director of CPIMA, died of natural causes in late February while on vacation with her family. Although she never walked and had only the most limited use of her arms, Marni’s academic and professional accomplishments placed her in elite company, even as her friendships extended far and […]
July 19, 2007
Microfluidic Device for DNA Dynamics in Mixed Flows [Research]
Susan J. Muller, University of California Berkeley, and Eric S.G. Shaqfeh, Stanford
Highlight from Stanford MRSEC 0213618
Lab-on-a-chip devices that are capable of performing microanalytical testing must have the capacity to precisely control the flow of very small volumes of fluid. The typical approach to this involves microfluidic devices in which the flow channels are of […]
July 19, 2007
Verticle Nanopore Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells [Research]
Mike McGehee, Stanford University, Robert D. Miller, IBM Almaden Research Center, Joe DeSimone, University of North Carolina
Highlight from Stanford MRSEC 0213618
A major effort in CPIMA has been to control and characterize interfacial charge transport in directed nanoassemblies. Such research is motivated by basic issues that relate to the performance of organic electronic devices, including […]
December 20, 2006
Patterning of Large Arrays of Organic Semiconductor Single Crystals [Research]
Field-effect transistors made of single organic crystals are ideal for studying the charge transport characteristics of organic semiconductor materials. Their outstanding device performance, relative to that of transistors made of organic thin films, makes them also attractive candidates for electronic applications such as active matrix displays and sensor arrays. The only approach currently available for […]
November 29, 2006
Chemical Imaging of Lipid Domains by High-Resolution Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (HR-SIMS) [Research]
Marjorie Longo, UC Davis; Steve Boxer, Stanford University
Phase separated supported lipid bilayers were chemically imaged by HR-SIMS performed with the NanoSIMS 50 (Cameca Instruments). A focused Cs+ ion beam is rastered across the sample, extensively fragmenting the surface components. Secondary ions of up to 5 different masses are simultaneously detected and a […]
November 29, 2006
Simulations of Polyphenylacetylene (PPA) “Foldamers”. Vijay Pande, Stanford University. [Research]
What are PPA “foldamers”
nonbiological polymers that fold
model systems for self-assembling nano structures
challenge for simulation: long timescale and complex dynamics
New results
longer chains considerably are more complex: multiple traps and remarkable complexity
new methods used to predicted long timescale behavior: Markovian model and Folding@Home grid computing
Folding@Home: a new paradigm of combined research and […]
September 22, 2006
The Key to Making High Mobility Polymer Thin Film Transistors: Nucleation of Crystals Off of the Gate Dielectric [Research]
When conjugated polymer crystals nucleate off of the gate dielectric, the conjugated backbones, shown in red, are all aligned. Charge can easily hop from one grain to another.
Proven strategies for nucleating crystals on the dielectric
* Make the dielectric smooth
* Coat the dielectric with OTS
* Use high boiling point solvent or anneal the film
* […]