Wednesday, December 1, 2004Volume 4, Issue 9
Materials Day 2005
Materials Day at Penn State
Kick Off, April 13, 2005
Program, April 14, 2005
HUB-Robeson, Alumni Hall
Please mark your calendars and plan to attend and participate in this campus-wide event
Faculty Spotlight
Dr. Ronald Hedden, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, has a wide range of materials research interests including synthesis and characterization of polymer networks and gels and development of polymers for microelectronics applications. Dr. Hedden's group currently includes two graduate students and three undergraduate researchers. Hedden's group synthesizes well-defined "model" polymers and then characterizes their physical and engineering properties to better understand how molecular architecture and nanometer-scale structure impact properties. Characterization techniques used by Dr. Hedden's group include mechanical testing, neutron scattering (using facilities at the NIST Center for Neutron Research), and x-ray diffraction and reflectivity. Although Dr. Hedden's group focuses on basic principles of polymer physics, their fundamental research is key to identifying potential advancements in biomedical and microelectronic applications.
One current research project in Dr. Hedden's group involves liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs), semi-flexible polymers that can exist in one or more partially ordered states called mesophases. Crosslinked networks of LCPs, called liquid crystalline elastomers (LCE), exhibit unusual mechanical properties due to coupling between mechanical fields and the ordering of the polymer chains in the mesophase. The polymer chains in a LCE may orient spontaneously in response to changes in temperature and/or stress, leading to phase transitions, shape changes, and discontinuous mechanical properties, as illustrated in Figure 1. Three types of LCE are known, differentiated by presence and location of rigid structural units called mesogens. Main-chain LCEs have mesogens embedded in the polymeric backbone; side-chain LCEs have pendent mesogens; and polydi(n-alkyl)siloxanes have no mesogens. In each case, the driving force for spontaneous chain alignment is an orientation-dependent energetic coupling between neighboring chains that exceeds the entropic penalty for alignment, but the molecular basis for this energetic coupling is different in each case. Dr. Hedden's current research involves characterizing the properties of main-chain LCEs with well-defined molecular architecture. An understanding of molecular interaction within liquid crystalline elastomers will encourage development of applications including stress-optical devices, vibration-damping coatings, and membranes for gas separation.
For the full story go to:
http://www.mri.psu.edu/articles/RonaldHedden/
Contracts and Grants
Materials research accounted for more than $4 million in contracts and grants for the month of October. The largest of these contracts and grants (those greater than $150K) are listed below, along with a link to the complete list of contracts and grants. These data are provided by OSPs Strategic Information Management System.
Boehman, Andre L; Evaluation of Ultra Clean Fuels from Natural Gas, Industry
Logan, Bruce E; Mallouk, Thomas E; Improving Power Generation in Microbial Fuel Cells, National Science Foundation
Mench, Matthew M; Distributed Diagnostics and Visualization of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Performance During Freeze-Thaw Cycling, Industry
Pantano, Carlo G; Center for Optical Technologies, Lehigh University
Shrout, Thomas R; Novel Piezo Materials for High Performance Actuators and Transducers, U.S. Department of the Navy
For a complete list of the contracts and grants for October go to:
http://www.mri.psu.edu/awards.asp?awardperiod=0410
Funding Opportunities
- DOE - Fuel Cells - Deadline: 1/10/2005
- DARPA - Visible/Short Wave Infrared-Photon Counting Arrays (PCAR) - Deadline: 2/22/2005
- DARPA - High Operating Temperature Mid-Wave Infrared Focal Plane Arrays (HOT MWIR) - Deadline: 2/16/2005
- NSF - Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Program - pre-proposals due 2/4/05
- NAVY - Polymers and Composites - BAA - Deadline: 9/30/2005
Materials Seminars
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
11:30 AM - 108 Wartik Lab
"Searching for the Critical Nucleus in Phase Separating Polymer Blends"
Nitash Balsara, University of California, Berkeley
Series - Chemical Engineering
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
3:35 PM - 114 EES Bldg
"Plasma-facing Materials for Thermonuclear Fusion"
Ivica Smid, Penn State
Series - Engineering Science & Mechanics
Thursday, December 09, 2004
11:15 AM - 135 Reber Building
"Interfaces in Biomaterials"
Antoni Tomsia, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
Series - MatSE 590 Colloquium
Thursday, March 24, 2005
12:30 PM - 102 Chemistry Building
"ter at Work: Molecular Aspects of Aqueous Processes through Cluster Spectroscopy"
Mark Johnson, Yale University
Series - Chemistry Colloquium
Thursday, April 21, 2005
12:30 PM - 102 Chemistry Building
"Nanoparticle Optics for Surface-Enhanced Sensing and Spectroscopy"
Richard Van Duyne, Northwestern University
Series - Chemistry Colloquium
For a complete list of upcoming materials-related seminars go to:
http://www.mri.psu.edu/seminars.asp
