Highlights

Aug 24, 2015

Nanocapillarity-mediated magnetic assembly of nanoparticles into ultraflexible filaments and reconfigurable networks

Bhuvnesh Bharti1, Anne-Laure Fameau2 Michael Rubinstein3 and Orlin D. Velev1 1Deptartment of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh; 2National Institute of French Agricultural Research, Nantes; 3Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

In a paper published in Nature Materials, researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill show that magnetic nanoparticles encased in oily liquid shells can bind together in water, much like sand particles mixed with the right amount of water can form sandcastles.

Aug 20, 2015

UMN Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (2014)

Approaching a Two-Dimensional (2D) Metallic State on the Surface of the Organic Semiconductor Rubrene

Dan Frisbie, Chris Leighton University of Minnesota

Whether metallic behavior can exist in 2D materials is a question that has troubled condensed matter physics for decades. Although originally thought impossible, evidence for such in ultra-clean high-purity doped inorganic semiconductor heterostructures based on materials such as Si and GaAs eventually changed the prevailing view.

Aug 20, 2015

UMN Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (2014)

Research Experiences for Teachers Student Expo

On May 20, 2015, over 250 middle and high school students participated in the inaugural MRSEC Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Student Expo.

Aug 14, 2015

Center for Emergent Materials (2014)

Controlling Heat

Hyungyu Jin, Oscar D. Restrepo, Nikolas Antolin, Stephen R. Boona, Wolfgang Windl, Roberto C. Myers and Joseph P. Heremans, The Ohio State University

Researchers at OSU's Center for Emergent Materials have discovered that in semiconductors, specifically Indium Antimonide (InSb), heat can be controlled magnetically, given a sufficiently large magnetic field.

Aug 14, 2015

Center for Emergent Materials (2014)

Wafer scale integration of 2D Materials

Roland Kawakami, David McComb, Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, The Ohio State University

Researchers at OSU's Center for Emergent Materials have established a novel route for growing precise layers of optoelectronic 2D materials directly onto wafers commonly used by the semiconductor industry. This route combines the epitaxial growth of a crystalling precursor lattice (CaGe2) with its conversion into a layered 2D material (GeH) phase.

Aug 13, 2015

UNL Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (2014)

Nanoscience Vlog – a New Way to Communicate P-SPINS Research

Axel Enders, Krista Adams, and Jocelyn Bosley (Nebraska MRSEC)

During the summer of 2015, Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) participant Courtney Matulka of Millard Public Schools together with Seed Project leader Krista Adams and Professor-Student Pairs participant Sharmin Sikich of Doane College developed a video blog, or “vlog,” to highlight the cutting-edge research happening in the nanosciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). Working with Nebraska MRSEC Education/Outreach Director Axel Enders, Matulka interviewed and filmed Nebraska MRSEC faculty and Professor-Student

Aug 13, 2015

UNL Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (2014)

Nebraska MRSEC Partnership with Universities of Strasbourg and Bordeaux

Axel Enders, Sumit Beniwal, Xin Zhang, and Peter Dowben (Nebraska MRSEC); Bernard Doudin, Lucie Routaboul, and Pierre Braunstein (University of Strasbourg); Guillaume Chastanet, Nathalie Daro, Patrick Rosa, and Jean-François Letard (University of Bordeaux)

Molecules with switchable magnetic moment could become of considerable importance for the emerging field of organic spintronics, where the control of spin degrees of freedom may be performed electrically on the molecular scale. Spin crossover complexes based on magnetic iron (Fe) ions are interesting in this regard because they exhibit a reversible transition between a high-spin and low-spin magnetic state, which can be induced by external stimuli such as temperature, pressure, electric field, and by light.

Aug 7, 2015

MIT Center for Materials Science and Engineering (2014)

Bio-Inspired Gels Show Promise as Self-healing Materials with Properties Controlled by Metal Ions

Jeremiah Johnson and Niels Holten-Andersen

Nature has evolved numerous mechanisms for the self-healing of damaged tissues and structures. MIT MRSEC researchers have shown first successes in establishing a new class of smart polymer materials with controllable network junctions by combining Diels-Alder reactions with bio-inspired metal coordinate crosslinking to generate multi-functional polymers capable of

Aug 7, 2015

MIT Center for Materials Science and Engineering (2014)

Creating crystalline silicon core fibers from aluminum and glass preforms

Yoel Fink and John Joannopoulos

Crystalline silicon is a critically important electronic material in all consumer electronic products. The ability to create fibers from this material would open up exciting vistas for a new generation of fiber-based electronic and optical devices. Traditional fiber-optic drawing involves a thermally mediated geometric scaling where both the fiber materials and their relative positions are identical to those found in the fiber preform. To date, all thermally drawn fibers are limited to the preform composition and geometry.

May 22, 2015

UPENN Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers

Seeded Growth of Highly Crystalline Molybdenum Disulfide Monolayers at Controlled Locations

Ritesh Agarwal, and A.T. Charlie Johnson (Seed 8)

Monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is a 3-atom thick material with a direct band gap, making it of interest for fundamental science as well as applications in optoelectronics and chemical sensing. Our innovation is a scalable method for “seeded growth” of high quality monolayer MoS2 at controlled locations, which is an important advance towards useful applications of the material.