IRG-I focuses on the study and development of unique structures based on the ability to harness a newly discovered nonlinear fiber fluid instability to generate regularly sized nanospheres in fibers. The main objectives are to introduce a new materials-agnostic fabrication approach for nanospheres of arbitrary geometries and dimensions, and to develop a new paradigm for fundamental fluid-dynamic studies. This new paradigm offers a highly controlled environment for the observation of fluid instabilities involving multiple fluids co-flowing in hitherto unobtainable geometries and scales.

The goal of this IRG is to gain quantitative insight into, and predictive capability of, the molecular mechanisms that govern the unique structure and property combinations of complex biological hydrogels. This fundamental knowledge is used to guide the synthesis, fabrication, and evaluation of next generation materials with potentially wide engineering implications, such as the design of self-healing filtration systems for water and food purification, new antimicrobial coatings for implants, or cartilage substitutes with high durability and lubrication capacity. This IRG is divided into three interconnected thrusts. The thrust efforts are designed to investigate the molecular chemistry and structure-property relationships of repeat domains, reversible crosslinking and glycosylation, and use the resulting knowledge to synthesize bio-enabled hydrogels that strategically contain all three elements. Thrust 1 uses the well-defined repetitive domains from the nuclear pore complex hydrogel to study their role for the filtration properties of biological hydrogels. Thrust 2 uses tools from chemical engineering to identify how specific dynamics and chemistry of reversible crosslinks relate to key bulk material properties such as viscoelasticity, self-healing and durability. Building on this knowledge, the IRG is adapting prioritized types of crosslinking to generate hydrogels with controlled behavior. Thrust 3 seeks to determine the biological function of polymer-associated glycan chains in regulating the biomechanical and filtration properties, as well as cellular interactions, of hydrogels.

This IRG aims to discover the coupling mechanisms between oxygen defects and the transport of phonons, spin and charge at the interfaces of metal oxides, and to control the extent of this coupling via electric field, strain, and electrochemical potential applied at interfaces. Oxygen defects play a central role in determining many electronic, chemical and phononic properties, with transformative implications for energy and information technologies including thermoelectrics, fuel cells, sensors, and memristive and magnetoelectronic devices. Within the fourth year of our project, the following key contributions were reported:

1) demonstrated a thermodynamic formulation to quantify the point defect formation energetics under high electric fields,

2) 3) 4) assessed effects of biaxial strain on the stability of different types of electronic defects, quantified the proton and oxygen defect effects on high-k oxides for magneto-ionics, demonstrated electrochemical phase control, to induce very large reversible changes in thermal conductivity (electrical heat valve) and electronic conductivity,

5) revealed oxygen vacancy-mediated magnetism and a strain-relieving morphology in perovskite oxides.