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Program Highlights for year 2017

Discovery of a New Line Defect in a Perovskite Oxide

Defects, essentially locations in a crystal where the perfect arrangement of atoms is disturbed, are inherent in materials, and play a key role in their function.

Solution-Processed Indium Oxide Transistors: Printing Two-Dimensional Metals

Transistors, the building blocks of all computer technologies, are currently based on semi-conductors such as silicon, manufactured using energy-intensive processes.

Spooling Instability of Self-Propelled Flexible Filaments

Cytoskeletal filaments with chemical motors attached are the basic elements in cells that enable biological motion. Computer simulation of model biomotive systems show that even systems with minimal ingredients are able to generate the kind of exotic nonequilibrium behavior observed in cells.

Photoinduced Plasticity In Cross-linked Polymer Networks

Researchers in the Soft Materials Research Center of the University of Colorado Boulder have employed dynamic covalent chemistry to make cross-links that can be controlled optically, enabling materials that can be softened or changed in shape by light.

Inexpensive Polymer Films for Efficient Daytime Radiative Cooling

Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have made a discovery that explores an inexpensive way to eliminate waste heat in buildings, cooling systems, and even cars and trucks.

MRSEC Members Teach the Public about Materials Science during the Wisconsin Science Festival

Over the course of two days, the Wisconsin MRSEC presented exciting hands-on, research-inspired  materials science activities to over 1500 people during the 2016 Wisconsin Science Festival.  The 2016 Wisconsin Science Festival was the largest ever with over 250 events in 20 communities across Wisconsin.

Synthesis of Non-Spherical Particles using Partially-Filled Polymeric Shells

Spherical particles are easy to synthesize because a sphere is a shape that minimizes surface area. Non-spherical particles, however, have properties that can be very different from spherical particles, but they are challenging to fabricate.

Radiation-Hard Graphene Electronic Devices via Hybrid Dielectrics

Solution-processed semiconductor and dielectric materials are attractive for satellite technology due to their light-weight, low-voltage operation, and mechanical robustness, but their response to ionizing radiation environments is not well understood.

Metal-Free Carbon-Based Nanomaterial Coatings Protect Silicon Photoanodes in Solar Water-Splitting

Solar water splitting converts solar energy into chemical fuels that can be easily stored and transported. Silicon is already used on a large scale for photovoltaics, but it is unstable in the electrolytes used for water oxidation.

Parameter Space for Amorphous Oxide Semiconductors (AOSs)

The combined results of controlled synthesis, ab-initio molecular-dynamics liquid-quench simulations, thorough structure and property characterization, and accurate density-functional calculations helped identify four major components that govern the electrical, optical, thermal, and mechanical properties of prototype In-based AOSs: (i) deposition temperature; (ii) oxygen stoichiometry; (iii) c

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