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Principal Investigators:
Howard Stone (Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering)
Sujit Datta (Chemical and Biological Engineering)
Andrej Košmrlj (Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering)
Clifford Brangwynne (Chemical and Biological Engineering)
Bonnie Bassler (Molecular Biology)

Seed start and end dates: November 1, 2018 - October 31, 2019

An exploratory and promising research project based on a recent discovery — that polymers can regulate the structure and function of biological systems — is generating a new field of “living” soft matter. The researchers discovered that polymers can regulate the structure and function of biological materials, ranging from sub-cellular proteins to extracellular hydrogels to populations of cells, through entropic interactions. These results have generated a new field at the interface of biology, physics, and chemistry whose findings will enable the control and design of novel materials. The project goals are to define the principles underlying structural transition in intra-, extra-, and multi-cellular systems and to use this knowledge to control and design novel bio-inspired soft materials.

The research team is composed of Clifford Brangwynne (CBE), Howard Stone (MAE) and Andrej Košmrlj (MAE) who will focus on confined polymer dynamics and phase transitions. Other team members include Bonnie Bassler, (MolBio) and Sujit Datta (CBE) who will investigate structural transitions in biological and bio-inspired polymer liquids and polymer networks using experiments, theory, and simulations.

Highlights
Harnessing the Rules of Life to Enable Bio-Inspired Soft Materials (PDF)

Alexie M. Kolpak, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Water splitting over semiconductor photocatalysts using solar energy is a promising process for renewable hydrogen production, but an increase in conversion efficiency is required to make it economically viable. Increasing efficiency requires new materials with optimized (i) band alignment; (ii) visible light absorption; (iii) electron-hole separation; (iv) hydrogen and oxygen evolution activity; and (v) photo-corrosion resistance. We propose to use ab initio computations and classical molecular dynamics simulations to design novel core-shell catalysts to optimize these key metrics by taking advantage of interfacial effects. Our previous work showed that Si-oxide interface chemistry can induce a large electric field in an oxide thin film and a quasi-2D electron gas (Q2DEG) at the Si-oxide interface. We propose that in such a system, electrons (holes) will be driven to the Q2DEG (oxide surface), leading to a dramatic decrease in carrier recombination, and the field will also trap holes on the surface, enhancing catalytic activity and further increasing efficiency. The absorption spectrum, redox potentials, catalytic activity, transport properties, and field can be tuned by atomic-scale modifications (e.g., interfacial cation substitution), core diameter, shell thickness, and/or oxide choice. We will examine the coupling between these properties and the atomic structure, develop fundamental models of the interface chemistry, and design new high-efficiency photocatalysts. Both the physical insights and the new tools developed will be directly applicable to the design of tailored materials systems for other catalytic reactions, as well as for a wide variety of other applications in which interfaces play an important role, (e.g., photovoltaics, fuel cells, thermoelectrics).

 

Glasses are ubiquitous across materials types and technological applications but their structure - property - processing relationships and underlying fundamental physics remain poorly understood. IRG 2 uses cross-fertilization of ideas and techniques for organic and inorganic glasses to design ultrastable glassy materials and use them to address these fundamental problems in glass science. These efforts include using physical vapor deposition to synthesize glassy thin films with widely varying stability, systematic coherent electron nanodiffraction to measure glass structure and dynamics, and high thermal ramp-rate calorimetry to investigate polyamorphism. Simulations and materials informatics guide the design of new glasses, and provide molecular-level insight into mechanical properties, thin film growth, and molecular motions. IRG 2 investigates both organic and inorganic glasses, including small molecules, metals, and ceramics, enabling identification of cross-cutting phenomena and mechanisms inherent to the glassy state.

IRG-2 aims to deliver "Materials for AI" by designing hybrid ionic/electronic conductors (HIECs) based on organic materials and inorganic layered materials that mimic biological neuronal behaviors with broad implications for neuromorphic computing, bioelectronics, and energy storage technologies. By undestanding and leveraging spatiotemporal cooperativity of electronic and ionic processes, IRG-2 will realize neuron-inspired phenomena in HIECs such as adaptive synaptogenesis, sensory transduction, tunable potentiation/plasticity, and optogenetic responses.

IRG 1 investigates mobility in glasses and supercooled liquids using nanoscale, time-resolved experiments and machine learning. By understanding viscosity, fragility, and relaxation, the group aims to predict glass properties and design advanced materials, including organic semiconductor films for electronics and stabilized drug molecule glasses for pharmaceuticals.

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) known as the Center for Materials Research (CMR) at Stanford University supports research over a wide area of materials science, with a strong emphasis on providing support through shared facilities for the materials community at and around Stanford University, including industry. The research program is organized in three interdisciplinary research groups. Investigators in the group concerned with superconducting materials seek a broad understanding of the behavior of transition metal oxides, including high temperature superconductors. Researchers aim to extend the selection of such materials for possible electronic application and explore possible new device concepts. The group investigating structure and reactivity of oxide surfaces focuses on materials relevant for heterogeneous catalysis and environmental geochemistry. The magnetics group investigates materials problems related to the use of magnetic thin films in the data storage industry. Its initial goal is to understand the three related phenomena of giant magnetoresistance, magnetic anisotropy in thin films, and optical Kerr rotation in magnetic thin films. The center supports the development, operation and maintenance of shared experimental facilities for materials research. It provides seed funding for exploratory research and fosters research participation by undergraduates. This MRSEC is associated with an educational outreach program with emphasis on attracting and retaining women and underrepresented minorities in materials science and has initiated a summer science outreach program to predominantly minority high school students. The center administers an industrial outreach program. It currently supports about 20 faculty, 5 postdoctoral research associates, 4 technical staff member, 24 graduate students, and 10 undergraduates. This MRSEC is directed by Professor Malcolm R. Beasley.

The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) known as the Center on Polymer Interfaces and Macromolecular Assemblies (CPIMA) at Stanford University is a partnership among research groups at Stanford University, IBM-Almaden, and the University of California Davis. The center supports interactive research through three interdisciplinary research groups. The group investigating macromolecular design for enhanced film properties aims to design and synthesize novel polymers which have unique optical and electronic properties, and then characterize their equilibrium and dynamical behavior when they are constrained by interfaces. Researchers in the group focused on ultrathin films aim to design and synthesize substrate-bound ultrathin organic films that mediate the chemical and physical interactions between the substrate and an adjacent overlayer. Investigators in the group investigating the dynamics of interfacial processing seek to understand the interfacial transport processes that occur during the fabrication of ultrathin films of polymers and polymer-based nanoncomposite materials. The center also supports the development, operation and maintenance of shared experimental facilities for materials research. It provides seed funding for exploratory research, and fosters research participation by undergraduates. The center has educational programs from high school to the graduate level and carries out collaborative research with industry. The center currently supports about 16 senior investigators, 12 postdoctoral research associates, 2 technical staff members, 18 graduate students, and 6 undergraduates. This MRSEC is directed by Professor Curtis W. Frank.

Principal Investigators
Nathalie de Leon (Electrical Engineering)
Stephen Lyon (Electrical Engineering)

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This Seed 5 is working to develope materials engineering and surface processing tools to create and stabilize new color centers with diamonds for a variety of applications in quantum communication and nanoscale sensing.