Highlights

Fracture energy of plaque/glass interface Gc ≈ 100 J/m2 104 × larger than Eadh of mfp5 (the most adhesive protein)!  

We are building a scanning probe microscope to study spin and charge on the nanoscale. The magnetic sensing element is a nitrogen-vacancy center (NV) in diamond, which should afford single electron spin sensitivity with 10 nm spatial resolution. Schematic of diamond-based scanning probe magnetometer Confocal fluorescence images showing relative locations of NV and Gd-functionalized tip

The industrial consortium coordinated by the Wisconsin MRSEC has grown to 20 to 25 members. The Wisconsin MRSEC has now partnered with the University of Wisconsin business school to develop strategies to expand further our impact on Wisconsin and regional industry. The business school study was conducted by three MBA students, all with industry experience. The MBA students interviewed

The wide range of instrumentation within the University of Wisconsin MRSEC Shared Instrumentation Facilities (UW-MRSEC SIF) can now be accessed by academic and industry users around the nation via the Materials Research Facilities Network (MFRN.org).   A Significant new addition over the past year is a Cameca LEAP 3000 Si ATOM Probe.

Creating aligned arrays of high purity (>99.9%) semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWCNTs) over a large area has been a significant challenge in materials synthesis. Towards this goal, IRG2 have recently developed a novel yet simple method to deposit aligned s-SWCNTs on substrates via dose-controlled, floating evaporative self-assembly.  The diffusion

General Overview: Researchers at the Wisconsin MRSEC are working to develop sensors that can detect toxic substances near a single cell by exploiting the unique properties of liquid crystals (LC).  LCs are materials that combine physical properties of both liquids and solids, and they have been widely used for displays (LCDs) in electronic devices because the LCs reorganize in

General Overview:  The Wisconsin MRSEC is investigating innovative methods to incorporate a greatly expanded diversity of atom types into semiconductors, thus yielding materials with a new range of electronic properties.  Semiconductors are the foundation of modern electronic and photonic devices, and are widely used in technologies such as solar cells, LEDs, and microprocessors.  Incorporating new atom types into semiconductors will expand the range of semiconductor

Members of the UW MRSEC Interdisciplinary Education Group (IEG) collaborated with MRSEC researchers to develop a laboratory method that enables students to synthesize research quality graphene by CVD.  The method uses safe, inexpensive equipment and reagents so the synthesis can be performed in a high school classroom.  To date, the IEG has led the activity with six groups of middle and high school students during field trips at the University of Wisconsin Discovery Center.   A manuscript describing the protocol is

Simulations of a model for microtubule(MT)-based active nematics capture experimentally observed defect dynamics. The image on the right shows three sequential images from experimental system in which +½ and -½ defects are created through a bending stability and subsequently separate. The image on the left shows similar defect behaviors observed in dynamical simulations of a coarse grain model for the MTbased active nematics.

While conventional materials are assembled from inanimate building blocks, we are exploring the behavior of soft materials in which the constituent components consume energy and spontaneously coordinate their microscopic behavior and form novel materials such as active gels, crawling emulsion droplets, and living liquid crystals.