Monday, May 23, 2005Volume 5, Issue 3
Penn State's Materials Research Building Receives Funding
Penn State President Graham B. Spanier (left) and Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell (right) announce funding for new Materials Research Building on the University Park campus.
University Park, Pa. -- Materials research at Penn State took another step forward today (May 18) when Gov. Edward G. Rendell released $40 million in state funding for construction of a new Materials Research Building on the University Park campus. The remaining half of the $80 million estimated building cost will come from University funds.
"Penn State is home to one of the largest concentrations of advanced materials scientists in the world," said Carlo G. Pantano, director of Penn State's Materials Research Institute and distinguished professor of materials science and engineering. "The University is by far the number one university in the nation for expenditures in materials research."
However, due to Penn State's long history of activity in materials research the elements of the program are spread across the University in a large variety of different departments and colleges. The buildings in which materials research are conducted range in age from 10 to 64 years. These buildings require constant renovation to accommodate new nanotechnology instruments, micro- and nano-fabrication, and for bio-materials development and testing.
Source: Penn State Live
Materials Day 2005
In its fourth year, Materials Day 2005 was again a huge success, drawing more than 90 industrial and governmental representatives and more than 300 Penn State faculty, staff and students. New for this year, a reception and table-top exhibition, with almost 20 local and national companies represented, was held the evening of April 13th in the atrium of the IST building followed by the keynote presentation entitled "Biomimetics in Product Engineering Design" given by John Pietrzyk of Biomimetic Connections, Inc. On April 14th, seven presentations were given by prestigious industrial and governmental representatives in the auditorium of the Hub-Robeson Center. Between the presentations, 96 posters authored by Penn State faculty, post doctoral fellows and graduate students were displayed in Alumni Hall.
In case you missed Materials Day 2005, or if you attended and want more information, please visit the Materials Day web site at http://www.mri.psu.edu/events/events/materialsday. MRI wishes to thank the industrial and governmental representatives who provided enlightening and engaging presentations and who have graciously provided authorization to post their presentations.
Mark your calendars - Materials Day 2006 will be held April 10th - 11th, 2006 at the Penn State Conference Center Hotel!
Poster Research Awards
Award winners for the best thesis by a Ph.D. candidate/graduate
Shenyang Hu
Advisor: Professor Long-Qing Chen
Department of Materials Science & Engineering
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
Phase-field Models of Microstructure Evolution in System with Elastic Inhomogeneity and Defects
David A. Scrymgeour
Advisor: Venkatraman Gopalan
Intercollegiate Materials
Local Structure and Shaping of Ferroelectric Domain Walls for Photonic Applications
The MRI Student and Post-Doc Awards for outstanding accomplishments are based on a published paper or thesis and are given out during the Materials Day Program held in April. The poster awards are sponsored by industrial participation at Materials Day.
The criteria, eligibility requirements can be found at:
http://www.mri.psu.edu/ematerials/v05i01/Criteria.pdf
New Analytical Equipment
The Materials Characterization Lab (MCL) has recently ordered a number of new analytical tools for use by the materials community. Some highlights are below. Visit our website at www.mri.psu.edu/mcl/news.asp for more information and a listing of contact information for each piece of equipment.
- Fourier transform infrared microscope (FTIR) (Bruker Optics IFS 66/S)
- Model 670 Hyperion infrared microscope with 6 um spatial resolution
- focal plane array (FPA) detector for imaging applications
- MTEC model 300 photoacoustic cell
- brightfield illumination, polarization illumination options
- fluorescence illumination
- grazing angle objective
- attenuated total reflectance crystal
- automated stage
- Temperature Programmed Desorption- Mass Spectrometer (Micromeritics AutoChem II 2920)
- capable of TPD, TPR, TPO, BET and pulse chemisorption
- temperature range of -100- 1,000°C
- Balzers ThermoStar 1-300 amu mass spectrometer
- vapor generator for introduction of vaporized liquids (H2O, etc)
- analysis gases: N2, O2, Ar, Kr, CO, H2
- Micropore and Chemisorption Analyzer (Micromeritics ASAP 2020)
- high performance analyzer for determination of active metal surface area and dispersion by chemisorption
- surface area and pore size distribution from 3.5-5,000°
- Analysis gases: N2, O2, Ar, Kr, CO, H2
- Non-Contact Profilometer (Wyko NT1100)
- Rapid, non-destructive imaging of surface morphology with nm height resolution and um lateral resolution.
- Upgrade of Philips MRD diffractometer with improved thin film optics
- PreFIX x-ray mirror
- Hybrid monochromator (<19 arc seconds for Si (111)
- Parallel plate collimator (angular divergence of 0.27°)
- Automated beam attenuator
- High resolution Rocking curve optics
- Diffracted beam parallel plate collimator (0.09° divergence)
- High resolution Ir/Cr sputter coater for FE-SEM (Emitech K575X)
- Iridium has recently been shown to provide the finest conductive coating for electron microscopy (~0.5 nm).
- Contact Mark Angelone to learn more about this upgrade.
- Ion Mill for TEM sample preparation (Fischione Model 1010)
- Double sided variable milling angle (0-45°)
- Liquid N2 sample cooling
- Oil free turbomolecular pumped vacuum system
- Automatic gas control and programmable milling parameters
- Autotermination system
- Contact Joe Kulik to learn more about this instrument.
- Agilent Technologies 4294A Precision Impedance Analyzer
- Ultraviolet-Visible Spectrophotometer (UV-Vis) (Cary 100 Series II)
- Upgraded pole piece and specialized sample holder for LaB6 JEOL 2010 TEM to permit higher tilt angles and in situ heating.
2005 Nanochallenge International Business Plan Competition
The competition seeks commercially viable business plan entries for innovative start-ups to produce and commercialise products and services in the Nanotechnology industry.
Nanotechnology is defined as the techniques and procedures used to manipulate the matter at the nanoscale level (10-9 m). Examples are: nanoparticles, thin films, self-assembled molecules, DNA arrays, lab-on-a-chip, etc.
By competing you will have the opportunity to get enough seed capital to start-up your company, get guidance from international business professionals as well as receive feedback from illustrious professors.
Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI)
Six MRI faculty were recently awarded a $5,000,000 contract for a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) -supported by the Office of Naval Research. The goal of the MURI is to develop new materials that store large amounts of electrical energy which are essential for diverse applications (medical defibrillators, hybrid electric vehicles and the next generation of navy ships). The research challenge can be distilled into a single figure-of-merit "energy density" which captures the vital materials parameters of relative dielectric permittivity (er) and dielectric breakdown strength (electric field). The research is lead by Principal Investigator, Mike Lanagan (Engineering Science and Mechanics Dept.) and co-PIs Qiming Zhang (Electrical Engineering), Tom Shrout (Materials Research Institute), Clive Randall (Materials Science and Engineering), Qing Wang (Materials Science and Engineering), and Eugene Furman (Materials Research Institute). Penn State has partnered with University of Missouri-Rolla and Northwestern University as MURI team members.
Contracts and Grants
Materials research accounted for more than $11 million in contracts and grants for the months of March and April! The largest of these contracts and grants (those greater than $200K) are listed below, along with a link to the complete list of contracts and grants. These data are provided by OSP's Strategic Information Management System.
Agrawal, Dinesh K; Roy, Rustum; Improved Tubulars for Better Economics in Deep Gas Well Drilling Using Microwave Technology, U.S. Department of Energy
Fonash, Stephen J; Hallacher, Paul M; 2003/2004 Pennsylvania NMT Partnership, COP: Department of Community and Economic Development
Haque, Amanul; Thermo-Mechanical Effects on Electrical Transport in Carbon Nanotubes, National Science Foundation
Lanagan, Michael; Zhang, Qiming; Randall, Clive A; Shrout, Thomas R; Wang, Qing U; Unconventional Dielectric Materials and Structures for Ultra-High Performance Pulsed Power Capacitors, U.S. Department of the Navy
Motta, Arthur T; Advanced Corrosion Resistant Zr Alloys for High Burnup and Generation IV Applications, U.S. Department of Energy
Schobert, Harold; An Industrial Based Consortium to Develop Premium Carbon Products from Coal, U.S. Department of Energy
Siedlecki, Christopher A; Surface Engineering in Contact Activation of Coagulation, Industry
Wang, Chao-Yang; Fabrication, characterization and simulation of catalyst layer for PEM fuel cells, Industry
Wang, Kon-Well; Rahn, Christopher; Zydney, Andrew L; Assmann, Sarah M; Bakis, Charles E; Jonson, Michael L; Fibrillar Network Adaptive Structure with Ion Transport Actuation, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Xi, Xiaoxing; Lattice Dynamical Properties of Ferroelectric Thin Films at the Nanoscale, U.S. Department of Energy
Zhang, Qiming; Wang, Qing U; Development of Novel PVDF Based high dielectric constant polymer think film capacitors for Navy pulse power applications, U.S. Department of the Navy
Funding Opportunities
- MISC - Request for White Papers: Modeling and Simulation of Ultimately Scaled Nanoelectronic Materials and Devices - Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) - Deadline: 6/10/2005
- USAF - High Dynamic Range Photonics - BAA- continuous
- NSF - Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities: Departmental Multi-User Instrumentation - Deadline: 6/27/2005
Materials Seminars
Since we are between semesters, there are no current seminars to list.
