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Ion transport is fundamental to nearly every process involving the transfer or conversion of chemical to electrical energy. Ion-transport membranes underpin many biological systems and are crucial to a diverse array of energy-related applications including: fuel cells, electrolyzers, batteries, electrochromics, chemical separators, membrane reactors, and sensors.The vision of this interdisciplinary research group posits that, “Fundamental understanding of ionic transport in novel, nanostructured systems can drive dramatic improvement in energy conversion efficiencies.” Center research in this area emphasizes intelligent microstructural design of composite membranes with improved stability, operational range, impurity tolerance, and transport efficiency and selectivity.

Yogesh Surendranath, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

Li-O₂ batteries are poised to transform the consumer electronic and electric vehicle markets because they possess a theoretical energy density of 3,213 W h/kg, three fold larger than the current state of the art. This dramatic boost in energy density is provided by the carbon-based Li-O₂ cathode, at which O₂ is reduced to Li₂O₂ upon cell discharge. However, the insoluble Li₂O₂ precipitates indiscriminately on the surface of the carbon cathode, inhibiting subsequent reduction of O₂, leading to diminished capacity, poor rate capability, and poor round-trip efficiency. These challenges could be overcome if the surfaces of carbon cathodes can be modified to discourage the indiscriminate nucleation and growth of Li₂O₂ crystallites. We hypothesize that Li₂O₂ nucleation occurs via Li+ coordination to oxidic surface functionalities including ketones, carboxylic acids, and alcohols, which are known to be prevalent on carbon surfaces. Thus, we will apply well-known oxygen protecting group (PG) chemistries (e.g. silylation, benzylation, alkylation) to carbon electrodes to impede the nucleation of Li₂O₂ crystallites. By reducing the nucleation site density, fewer, larger Li₂O₂ crystallites will be favored, leaving the majority of the electrode surface available to sustain rapid O₂ reduction, thereby, enabling high energy and power densities.

 

 

Meeting world energy needs is one of the most significant challenges we face in the coming century. The Renewable Energy Materials Research Science and Engineering Center is focused on transformative materials advances and educational directions that significantly impact the emerging renewable energy technologies.

 

 

 

The goal of this IRG is to develop new materials and new components for use in 'soft systems,' such as soft robotics, foldable motors, and muscle-like actuators.

 

The Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials seeks to extend the traditional paradigm of materials research beyond the study of behavior in or near equilibrium to encompass the understanding and control of materials over extended temporal and spatial scales. The Center supports research on nanocomposite materials that combine inorganic and organic components, with applications in energy storage and filtration membranes, and on approaches for exploiting light to achieve dynamic, quantum control of materials.

Through the concept of a Materials Community of Practice, the Center integrates interdisciplinary materials research with initiatives in education, outreach, and the promotion of diversity. The Center involves elementary school teachers in materials research to improve teacher efficacy and student engagement with science at a formative age. Outreach to the public via hands-on demonstrations and collaborations between artists and materials researchers brings materials science and technology to new audiences who might not otherwise be engaged. And partnerships with industry and the entrepreneurial community provide participants with experiences and connections to prepare them for success in a broad range of careers.

IRG 1 develops learning metamaterials that adapt to their environment using locally available information. By advancing theory and creating systems like soft robots and microfluidic networks, the team addresses engineering challenges and explores physical learning processes for innovative materials and technologies.

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology supports a broad research program organized through five interdisciplinary research groups. The Center has an extensive educational program, ranging from K-12 through the graduate and postdoctoral level. These activities include a Summer Research Experience for Undergraduate program, which is nationally advertised and highly competitive. The MRSEC has developed an innovative Science and Engineering Day Camp targeted at seventh and eighth grade students from underrepresented minority groups attending nearby public schools. The Center supports well maintained shared experimental facilities which are made available to the broader scientific community. The MRSEC addresses emerging scientific opportunities by supporting a vigorous program of competitively selected seed projects. There are extensive collaborations with other academic institutions, industry, National Laboratories, and other sectors.

The interdisciplinary research group investigating microphotonic materials and structures is seeking to develop a new class of materials which aims to replace electrons with light as the chief carrier of information in optical devices. These materials, called photonic crystals, will allow the control of the propagation of light in very small dimensions. The group uses theoretical and experimental techniques to develop and test novel approaches. A second group is investigating nanostructured polymers to determine how electronically active polymers organize and behave at the molecular level. The objective of the group is to develop the chemistry and processing needed to achieve the materials properties desired for novel optical and electrical applications. A third group is focusing on mesoscopic semiconductor systems. These systems, involving perhaps a few hundred or thousand atoms, are models for the electronic semiconductor devices of the future. The group seeks to understand the fundamental physical principles which underlie the electronic transport through and between such nanostructures. A fourth group is investigating the microstructure and mechanical properties of polymeric materials. The goal of the group is to achieve large improvements in mechanical properties by tailoring the microstructure of structural polymeric materials. Fundamental physical phenomena are investigated by a fifth group, which focuses on substances called Mott insulators. These materials include high temperature superconductors. These materials hold significant, but yet unrealized, technological promise but also are extremely important from a basic scientific viewpoint. The group seeks to study the effect of doping these solids with other constituents, which will increase the fundamental understanding of these materials and the ability to develop them for technological applications.

IRG 2 explores new properties in atomically thin and molecular materials by engineering symmetries and patterns. These innovations enable advances in electronics, photonics, and quantum systems, addressing challenges in topology, light-matter coupling, and correlated quantum phases within van der Waals heterostructures.

Two dimensional electronic systems offer rich possibilities for new phenomena and phases. Single atom thick materials composed of group IV atoms other than carbon offer exceptional  tunability of electronic materials. The atomic sheets readily bond atoms covalently, allowing controllable changes in the electronic structure of the sheet that lead to a rich variety of electronic characteristics. IRG-2 brings together diverse experience in materials development, 2D electronic properties, patterning, optical and transport characterization together with theory and modeling to bring these materials to fruition and study their rich physical properties.

 

Synthesis and Study on the Spin-Charge Interaction in Topological Semimetal/Ferromagnet Heterostructures
Senior Investigator: Luqiao Liu, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

The main focus of the proposed work will be to (1) develop the synthesis process which can seamlessly integrate topological semimetal thin film with ferromagnet electrode, and (2) study the mutual interaction between charge and spin at the topological semimetal/ferromagnet interface. For the first part of the proposed efforts, various growth techniques such as sputtering and molecular beam epitaxy will be employed and the obtained film stacks will be characterized. For the second part, nanoscale devices will be fabricated for the magneto-electrical transport measurement. It is expected that the successful implementation of the proposed topological semimetal/ferromagnet heterostructure could be used to reduce the energy consumption (by more than a factor of 100x) of magnetic random access memories (MRAM), which has been extensively studied as a promising beyond CMOS technology for replacing existing electronic memory and logic devices. In the meantime, through the proposed study, deeper understanding will be gained on the spin and charge transport properties at the topological material/ferromagnet interface, which can lay a solid physical ground for the future development of electronic systems such as topological quantum computer, where the mutual interaction between topological ordering and magnetic ordering plays important roles.