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Program Highlights

Fast Ionic Conduction Achieved Through Ceramic Heterointerface Design

Toyota Research Institute of North America, collaborating with MRSEC-supported scientists and facilities have developed a novel [LiCl]/[FeOCl] heterointerface composite material (LFH) that achieves high lithium-ion conductivity from two traditionally non-conductive materials. The unique core-shell structure facilitates interstitial lithium-ion diffusion. 

Experimenta Con PREM: Documenting Two Decades of Impact

An article in the journal MRS Advances documented the outcomes of a summer research program for high school students based at the University of Puerto Rico, in partnership with the Penn MRSEC. Over the past two decades this program has engaged nearly 400 students in hands-on materials science research since 2005, with 84% pursuing STEM undergraduate studies.

REU: New Emphasis on Science Communication

This University of Pennsylvania program immerses students in hands-on materials research while incorporating a recently piloted initiative: training participants to become effective science communicators. While students spend 10 weeks conducting advanced research projects, they simultaneously develop crucial skills in translating complex scientific concepts for broader audiences, particularly younger students. 

Self-Assembling Networks: A New Structured Fluid Architecture Through Phase Separation

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania discovered a unique self-assembling network structure that forms when certain liquid crystal materials separate. These networks spontaneously create intricate patterns of filaments and disc-shaped structures through a series of physical transformations driven by competing forces.

Measuring the Line Tension of Liquid Crystal Defects

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Swarthmore College developed new non-invasive methods to measure the mechanical properties of defects in liquid crystals using magnetic fields and advanced imaging. The study revealed that the line tension of twist disclinations ranges from 75 to 200 piconewtons and increases logarithmically with sample thickness, providing crucial quantitative data for testing theoretical models of these defects.

Enhancing Fracture Toughness in Mechanical Metamaterials through Disorder

MRSEC researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated that introducing geometric disorder in mechanical metamaterials leads to distributed damage during failure, resulting in significantly enhanced fracture toughness with minimal loss of strength. This finding challenges the traditional reliance on periodic unit cell geometries in architected materials.

Building Rigid Networks with Prestress and Selective Pruning

Researchers John Crocker and Andrew Liu at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered that biopolymer networks pruned by tension-inhibited methods remain rigid at much lower coordinations than those pruned randomly. This finding helps explain the evolutionary advantage of tension-inhibited filament-severing proteins in biological systems.

Discovery of Helical Inorganic Crystals as Building Blocks for Chiral and Non-reciprocal Excitations

By understanding the compositional boundaries of the Ga-based tetrahelices in the III-VI-VII class of 1D van der Waals helices, a MRSEC team at the University of California, Irvine demonstrated, for the first time, the discovery of a bulk single crystal that features weakly bound helical chains of GaSI which is characterized by a non-natural helical cross section in a “squircle” geometry (hybrid between a square and a circle).

Neural Network Kinetics: Exploring Diffusion Multiplicity and Chemical Ordering in Compositionally Complex Materials

A MRSEC team at the University of California, Irvine has developed a generic neural network kinetics framework to solve diffusion problems in compositionally complex materials (CCMs)—in the process, addressing a long-standing challenge in modeling diffusion and chemical ordering in CCMs.

 

Large-Area Intercalated Two-Dimensional Pb/Graphene Heterostructure as a Platform for Generating Spin–Orbit Torque

Intercalation of air-stable monolayer Pb into EG/SiC by confinement heteroepitaxy (CHet) enables study of heavy metal films at the extreme limit of thinness with complementary microscopy and spectroscopy. Pb coverages up to 90% can be achieved at elevated temperatures beyond those of conventional ultrahigh vacuum methods.

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