Research Snapshots

Snapshots are brief summaries of significant materials-related breakthroughs by MRI researchers.

2011 Snapshots

people working on a beach to clean up an oil spill

A New Materials Invention for Oil Spill Clean-up
Bitumen and Toulen

A New Process Cleanly Extracts Oil from Tar Sands and Fouled Beaches
Localized etching of a silicon wafer

A Misunderstanding Leads to Method for Making Nanowells
Localized etching of a silicon wafer

Quantum Dot Solar Cell Achieves Record
silicon wires

First Electronic Optical Fibers with Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon are Developed
A lattice composed of two repeating squares that represent molecular structures

A New Type of Symmetry is Discovered
False color SEM image of a graphene transistor

A Hydrogenation Technique Triples Transistor Performance in Epitaxial Graphene
MREC in the lab

Energy in the Stream
nano olives

Removing Impurities from Nanoparticles
Dr. Suman Datta in the lab

Quantum Tunneling Results in Record Transistor Performance
figure of merit fo PMN-PT film with other reported piezoelectric values

Giant Piezoelectric Effect to Improve MEMS Devices

2010 Snapshots

cylindrical glass resonators designed to hide a metal cylinder of 15 micrometers in diameter

An Invisibility Cloak Made of Glass
sebaceous fingermark deposited on a glass slide

Coating Approach Clears Up Fingerprints
sebaceous fingermark deposited on a glass slide

MRI Researchers Hope to Improve Solar Cell Efficiency Using Fly Eyes
Graduate student Jen Rygel in the XPS Lab

A Ray of Hope for Better UV Blocking
energy of the electrons emitted during their removal from the atoms' outer shells

Taking Superatoms to a New Level
A 100mm graphene wafer containing approximately 75,000 devices and test structures

Key Milestone Reached on Road to Graphene-based Electronic Devices

2009 Snapshots

Light is directed by streams of fluid

Fluidic Lenses on a Chip
Flexible glass for energy storage

High Density Glass for Portable Power
aluminum clusters reacting with water to produce hydrogen

Aluminum Clusters Split Water
fluorescent nanoparticles accumulate in tumors of live mice models

Early Detection of Breast Cancer through Near Infrared Nanoparticles
The eye of a fruit fly is captured in glass

Biomimetic Coatings Capture Nature in Glass
nanowire assembly on chip diagram

Bottom-Up Assembly of Nanowires for Chip-based Sensing
aluminum clusters reacting with water to produce hydrogen

Polymer Microcapsules for Off-the-shelf Drug Deliver

Biomedical Materials Brochure Snapshots

Amra Tabakovic examines fluorescent dyes encapsulated in nanoparticles

Biomedical Materials at Penn State
surgical implant device

A New Approach to Metal Implants
accoustic tweezers

Acoustic Tweezers
model cell developed in the lab of Christine Keating at Penn State uses as the cytoplasm a solution of two different polymers, PEG and dextran

A Simple Model Cell Reveals Complexity of Cellular Function
nanowire array positioned on a silicon chip

An Early Detection Sensor for Cancer
microsurgical instrument

Microsurgical Tools for Self-Healing Incisions
accoustic tweezers

Engineering the Brain
Chris Siedlecki in his laboratory

A Materials Answer to Deadly Blood Clots
Mary Beth Williams in her laboratory

Creating Systems that Mimic Nature
Nadine Barrie Smith shows off an ultrasound device

Treating Chronic Disease with Ultrasound
calcium phosphate nanoparticles

Tracking and Treating Cancer Using Nanoparticles
Coray Colina in fromt of a modeled protein on her computer

Modeling Deadly Viruses
Genevieve Brown watches cancer cells attack bone in a molecular microscope

Following Breast Cancer into the Bone