Defects Key to Growth of 2D Materials
Materials Research Institute
Our integrated research laboratories turn concepts into prototypes
By Walt Mills
Cryogenic-Electron Microscopy (cryo-EM) has been a game changer in the field of medical research, but the substrate used to freeze and view samples under a microscope hasn’t advanced much in decades. Now, thanks to a collaboration between Penn State researchers and the applied science company Protochips, Inc., this is no longer the case.
PoreDesigner, a fully automated computational workflow process for altering the pore size of a bacterial channel protein, is the result of a collaboration between researchers from Penn State and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This process enables assembly of the proteins into artificial membranes for precise sub-nanometer scale separation of solutes of marginal size difference, which can improve water purification and bioseparations.
By Walt Mills
“Frustration” plus a pulse of laser light resulted in a stable “supercrystal” created by a team of researchers led by Penn State and Argonne National Laboratory, together with University of California, Berkeley, and two other national labs.
Calvin Yeager | “Instructions to Harm”
Marlene Carla Ndoun Tangmo | “Biochar as a Filter Media for the Adsorption of Emerging Contaminants”
Laxmicharan Samineni | “Nature-based Pathogen Filters”
On May 21th 40 students competed in the Millennium Café Pitch Competition sponsored by PPG. The competition was fierce as students had <2 minutes to introduce their research in a manner that was understandable and inspiring to our panel of judges. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear the top-3 winners from this year’s competition.
“The Need for Speed: Manufacturing Better Polymer Products”
There is a vast disconnect between the crystallization behavior of polymers under controlled conditions and the highly sheared, rapidly-quenched conditions encountered during manufacturing. I will discuss new techniques to understand and manipulate the flow induced crystallization of polymers under fast cooling conditions, to form intentional microstructure, and optimize property profiles of both neat and composite polymers.
Penn State’s investment in its interdisciplinary research institutes, including the Materials Research Institute (MRI), has created a culture of strong collaborations across disciplines. At Penn State, many researchers have the support of both their academic departments and the university-wide institutes, such as MRI. By encouraging crosscutting research, MRI and its sister institutes open up traditional silos of knowledge to the stimulus of other viewpoints and new ideas. This mingling of disciplines, often called “convergence,” brings together the physical and life sciences with engineering and computation to solve the most complex problems facing society today and in the future.
In the latest issue of Focus on Materials, the boundaries between materials science, engineering, and the life sciences are blurring. We offer a glimpse into the fascinating world of “convergence,” where the future of healthcare lies.
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