Composition Gradient Quantum Dots
Fall 2016
nghai W Sha
Greetings from the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech! I am delighted to share with you our Fall 2016 newsletter. The pursuit of academic and research excellence, passion for creativity and innovation, and partnerships with industry and national laboratories continue to thrive. The entrepreneurship and innovations demonstrated by our students through their capstone design and research projects, the recognitions and productivity of our faculty, and the accomplishments of our alumni is what has made MSE, through its various incarnations at Georgia Tech, a unique program. During the past year, we said farewell to retirees Professor Fred Cook and two staff members Karen Mayo and Susan Bowman, who collectively had served Georgia Tech for more than 100 years, leaving behind a lasting legacy of their dedication and care for students. Mary Lynn Realff replaces Cook as the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Programs. James Godard and Dracy Blackwell joined as the staff replacements. We are also pleased to bring on board Professor Natalie Stingelin from Imperial College in London, and Professor Blair Brettmann, who will be joining us in Spring 2017 upon completing her post-doctoral experience at the University of Chicago. Science—the pursuit and understanding of knowledge—and engineering—the application of scientific knowledge for solving societal problems—both converge, perhaps more than in any other discipline, in Materials Science and Engineering. As we seek knowledge and apply it to create and utilize materials for technologies needed to solve societal challenges, there is often a push and pull between the pursuit (Science) and the application (Engineering), which makes MSE a fascinating interdisciplinary program, always full of evolving challenges. It also brings with it the responsibility to create new programs and opportunities for our students while empowering them with skillsets they need to succeed and excel. The diverse expertise of our faculty and the contributions of our accomplished alumni make MSE at Georgia Tech the ideal place to define “The Next” in research and education in Materials Science and Engineering, which is what we will be striving to achieve during the upcoming year. We would like to hear from you, including your thoughts and ideas on defining that Next. Please come by and visit us in Atlanta, and thank you for your continued support of the school, and for everything you do to help us make MSE at Georgia Tech an exceptional program. Naresh Thadhani Professor and Chair, MSE
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Dear Alumni and Friends,
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From the Chair
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Georgia Tech MSE
In this Issue 1
Victory! Campaign Georgia Tech
2 3 4 6
New Faculty & Staff
Retirements Accolades Alumni / Industry News • CoE Alumni Awards • Nobel Lecture and Industry Executive Seminar
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Academics • The MILL - MSE Maker and Measure Space • Graduate and Undergraduate Programs
8 9 10 11
2016 Capstone Design
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MSE Research Scholars Interdisciplinary Research Research Profiles • Eric Vogel • Zhiqun Lin • Meilin Liu Alumni Profiles • Keith Hearon • Marilyn Minus Oh, The Places They Go, Learning Beyond the Classroom
Front cover: Chemical composition gradient quantum dots with suppressed re-absorption, reduced Auger recombination rate, and tunable Stokes shift as a direct consequence of the delocalization of the electron wave function over the entire quantum dots; research by Zhiqun Lin published in Angewandte Chemie, 2016.
Victory! Campaign Georgia Tech Campaign Georgia Tech is over and it was a rousing success. Many people wondered if it was possible for the Institute to reach a $1.5B campaign goal but it was more than achievable, with the Institute raising $1.8B, and MSE raising $19.8M, 131.5% of our $15M goal! It has been an extraordinary experience to be a part of this campaign and one for which I am extremely grateful, not just for the funds we have raised but for the impact those dollars will have on the School. Our primary focus is our students and of that $19.8M, almost $5M was raised in support of scholarships and fellowships. Faculty are the key to providing our students with a top-notch education, and endowed faculty positions help us to attract the very best teachers and researchers. $4.3M was raised for this purpose, as well as an additional $7.1M in support of faculty research, research which focuses on finding solutions to the many challenges we face in our global society. Georgia Tech is truly a special place, and I am grateful for the opportunity it has given me to meet and work with so many of our students, faculty, alumni, and friends. You all have a vision for making our world a better place, and it is campaigns like this that turn those visions into reality. But we cannot rest on our laurels. I dream about the day when our students are all fully funded with scholarships, our facilities and equipment are unrivaled, and our faculty have the funding they need to not only resolve the societal challenges we face today, but to best educate our students to resolve those challenges they will face in their own generations. Mary Z. McEneaney, Director of Development
2016 Faculty Facts
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Faculty
32.4 FTE
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Promise 149 GT Scholars Thanks to the success of Campaign Georgia Tech, 149 students from low income families have been approved for the 2016-2017 GT Promise Program
246 invited seminars presented Professional Society Fellowships
34 Filed 13 Awarded
5 Regents Professors
8
Endowed Chair Professors
PATENTS
540
papers published WWW.MSE.GATECH.EDU
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New Faculty / Staff Dracy Blackwell Dracy Blackwell joined MSE in March 2016 as the new graduate academic advising manager. In her past position, Blackwell served as the academic program manager for the Georgia Tech School of City and Regional Planning. In this role she was the School’s lead staff person, directly overseeing finances, facilities, and personnel. She also supervised the academic advisor and the communication & outreach coordinator. Prior to that she served for six years as academic advisor for the School. Blackwell has proven experience collaborating with senior management and faculty to maintain and increase student enrollment and retention. As a former member of the United States Air Force, she served our country with distinction.
Blair Brettmann Blair Brettmann is joining the MSE faculty at Georgia Tech as an assistant professor in Jan. 2017 following a post-doc with Professor Matt Tirrell at the University of Chicago Institute for Molecular Engineering. Prior to that she worked for two years at Saint-Gobain. Her research interests focus on developing technologies that enable multicomponent, rapidly customizable product designs, with a specific focus on polymeric coatings and films. Substantial challenges in engineering and design, extending from the difficulty in applying scientific principles to multicomponent complex systems, slow material product development. Her research at Georgia Tech will addresses these challenges by focusing on design and studies of new processing and characterization technologies using both experiments and theory for linking molecular to micron scale phenomena in complex systems to product performance.
James Godard James Godard joined MSE in November 2015 as Assistant Director, Administrative Operations. A former captain in the United States Air Force, Godard has over 25 years of management and leadership experience. He has been at Georgia Tech in various positions since 1994, his most recent as Administrative Director in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience where he was responsible for the day-to-day operations, including seed grant administration, budget monitoring, space management, and building issues.
Natalie Stingelin Natalie Stingelin comes to us from Imperial College London where she was a professor in the Department of Materials. Her current research interests encompass the broad field of organic functional materials - including organic electronics; multifunctional inorganic/organic hybrids; smart, advanced optical systems based on organic matter; and bioelectronics. She was the recipient of a €1.2 Million ERC Starting Independent Researcher Award in 2011 and is a Co-I of the newly established EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Large Area Electronics. She is also leading the €4 Million EC Marie-Curie Training Network ‘INFORM’ that involves eleven European partner institutions. She was awarded the 2014 Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining’s Rosenhain Medal and Prize and the 2015 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) President’s International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI) Award for Visiting Scientists. She chaired the 2016 Gordon Conference on Electronic Processes in Organic Materials and is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Materials Chemistry C. 2
SCHOOL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING, GEORGIA TECH
FALL 2016
Retirements Fred Cook Retires Ramblin’ Wreck Style Fred Cook, MSE professor and Associate Chair of Undergraduate Programs, retired after 41 years on the faculty at Georgia Tech. An event in his honor, attended by former faculty, students, and colleagues, was held May 18 in the J. Erskine Love Jr. Building. After graduating from Tech, Cook, TCh ‘71,Ph.D. Chem ‘75, was briefly employed as a research chemist at the E.I. DuPont Experimental Station, Wilmington, Del. He returned to Tech as an assistant professor and worked in the fields of textile and polymer chemistry, later becoming the Fred and Patsy Cook youngest director of the former Schools of Textile Engineering and Polymer Textile and Fiber Engineering. Cook has been described as an embodiment of an educator and leader who has served with courage, dedication, excellence, and passion, and has been a driving force in textile and polymer chemistry research, and an ambassador for textile manufacturing, research and education. Prior to his retirement, Cook was recognized by AATCC, the Association of Textile, Apparel and Materials Professionals, with their highest award, the Olney Medal. Having served as a mentor to generations of students, he leaves a legacy like few others. Cook plans to continue as an Emeritus Faculty in MSE while enjoying retirement on the family farm. Professor Mary Lynn Realff succeeds Cook as MSE Associate Chair of Undergraduate Programs.
Friends and family gather to celebrate Cook’s retirement
Susan Bowman
Fred Cook with former student Nicole Wilson and wife Patsy
Karen Mayo
Longtime MSE employee Susan Bowman retired in April after more than 30 years of dedicated service to Georgia Tech. Bowman began her career at Tech in 1973 and, after a break in service returned to her “home” in MSE in 1991, where she remained until her retirement. After holding several positions, she worked up to the role of academic advising manager. She loved working with the students and was always there for them; whether it was an academic issue or a personal problem, her door was always open, with a box of tissues close by “just in case.” With her efforts and the increase in faculty and funding, graduate student enrollment more than doubled during her tenure. She won several awards at GT, the latest being the Inaugural GT Outstanding Graduate Academic Advising Award in 2015. Susan will be missed by many at GT, but especially by her MSE family.
Karen Mayo retired in November 2015 after a successful career of 32 years at Georgia Tech. Mayo started her journey at Tech in1984. She joined MSE in January 2000 as an Admin Manager II responsible for all of the HR duties and overseeing the academic and administrative staff. She received the GT Outstanding Staff Performance Award in 2005. During the merger of the former PTFE School with MSE, she oversaw the combining of staff from both units to create a unified administrative structure. She was promoted to assistant director of administrative operations in 2011. Mayo worked during the time that MSE saw the biggest growth in the numbers of faculty, staff, post-doctoral researchers, visiting scientists, research affiliates, and graduate and undergraduate students. Her patient demeanor and organization skills were vital in building the MSE family and the collegiality in the school that we enjoy today.
In her retirement, Susan is enjoying travel and spending time with her family, which includes a new granddaughter born in May.
Karen is enjoying her retirement bike-riding through the country and spending time with her grandchildren.
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Accolades Faculty Fred Cook received the Olney Medal, the highest award presented by the Association of Textile, Apparel and Materials Professionals for outstanding achievements in textile or polymer chemistry or other fields of major importance to textile science. Hamid Garmestani was elected Fellow by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for significant contributions in developing relationships between processing and microstructural control in crystalline materials, leading to materials design methodologies that address texture in a range of materials systems.
Z.L. Wang received the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Southeast University Research Association for advancement of collaborative research and education in the Southeast and nation, and was conferred as Advanced Materials Laureate from the International Association of Advanced Materials. Wang was also recognized by Georgia Tech with the Outstanding Achievement in Research Innovation Award for working at the forefront of discovery, application and deployment of technology, with research results that have had a demonstrable and sustained external economic, social, or policy impact.
Student Excellence
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Katherine Adams American Association of Textile, Chemist and Colorists Award
Brandon Piercy National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship
Anise Grant National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
Lisa Savagian National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
Simiao Niu Materials Research Society (MRS) Graduate Student Silver Award
Sara Turmel Woodrow Wilson Georgia Teaching Fellowship
SCHOOL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING, GEORGIA TECH
FALL 2016
Tsukruk Appointed Regents’ Professor Vladimir Tsukruk was appointed as Regents’ Professor by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, which is the highest academic status given by the University System and is granted to outstanding tenured, full professors, based on excellence in research and contributions to their profession and to Georgia Tech. Tsukruk has been on the MSE faculty at Georgia Tech since 2006. “Vlad has truly distinguished himself in nanoscale assembly and incisive quantitative characterization of properties of polymers and biopolymers. These are expected to have a significant impact on materials used for sensing, actuation, and energy conversion applications,” said MSE Professor and Chair Naresh Thadhani. “His research on materials science of soft nanomaterials is at the intersection of biology, chemistry, and physics. This has allowed him to work across disciplines and build pioneering and highly acclaimed research programs involving a total of 50 graduate students, 30 post-docs, and numerous undergraduate students at Georgia Tech.” Tsukruk’s appointment is backed by numerous recognitions and awards based on his scholarly research on surfaces, interfaces, and directed assembly of synthetic and natural polymers and nanostructures, and bioinspired hybrid nanomaterials. He is co-author of the comprehensive textbook entitled Scanning Probe Microscopy of Soft Matter: Fundamentals and Practices, Wiley-VCH, 2012, which summarizes two decades of developments in the field of new microscopic experimental methods. The book is used as a reference in materials characterization classes at institutions around the world. Tsukruk’s reach beyond Georgia Tech is extensive. He serves on the editorial advisory boards of ten professional journals and as Associate Editor of ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. He has co-authored more than 400 refereed articles in archival journals and five books, which have been cited more than 15,000 times, with an H-index of 60. He has organized ten professional symposia and trained more than 80 graduate students and post-docs currently employed in industry, academia, and national labs. At Georgia Tech, he has led 30 research projects as a PI with total funding of more than $30M that has involved 50+ researchers from Georgia Tech and other institutions. Two other Georgia Tech professors, Seymour E. Goodman, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, and Nicholas V. Hud, ChBE, were also appointed Regents’ Professors. “Georgia Tech is incredibly proud to have some of the world’s best and brightest scholars, and we congratulate these faculty members on their new appointments,” said Rafael L. Bras, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs and the K. Harrison Brown Family Chair. “This new distinction is a testament to their continued commitment to excellence in teaching, research, and scholarship.” Tsukruk joins a select group of five other current MSE Regents’ professors that includes Tom Sanders, C.P. Wong, Z.L. Wang, Meilin Liu, and Dave McDowell. The Regents’ Professor distinction is awarded by the Board of Regents, which governs the University System of Georgia, upon the unanimous recommendation of the president, the chief academic officer, the appropriate academic dean, and three other members of the faculty named by the president, and upon the approval of the Chancellor and the Committee on Academic Affairs.
Sungmee Park, MS TE ‘95, Awarded Leadership Excellence Award Congratulations to Sungmee Park, MS TE ‘95. She received the Office of Institute Diversity’s Leadership Excellence Award, an award given to women leaders who have empowered constituencies, strengthened collaboration across units, and inspired innovation. Park is co-creator of the world’s first “Smart Shirt,” and her research laid the foundation for today’s “wearables” revolution. In 2010 she was instrumental in establishing the Kolon Term Professorship at Georgia Tech. Currently Park is a cofounder of Sarvint Technologies and serves as the Chief Technology Officer. WWW.MSE.GATECH.EDU
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Alumni /Industry News 2016 College of Engineering Alumni Awards The annual CoE Alumni Awards honors alumni who have contributed to the profession, progressed in their career, and advanced the lives of others, both personally and professionally.
Tamara Mace, Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni, M.S. Polymers ‘03, Program Leader, Surgical Materials, Ecolab, Inc. Mace is a mentor and coach of both undergraduate and graduate MSE students and has managed co-op programs at her various employers throughout the years.
John T. Corcia, Engineering Alumni Hall of Fame, B.S. CerE ‘67, M.S. CerE ‘69, president and CEO, Gulfstream USA, LLC (retired). Corcia is a past member of the College of Engineering’s advisory board.
Michael L. Fulbright, Engineering Alumni Hall of Fame, B.S. Textile Science ‘72, Chairman and CEO, JPS Industries, Inc. (retired). Fulbright is a member of Georgia Tech’s Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni and serves on the MSE External Advisory Board.
Notable Speakers Visit MSE in 2016 W.E. Moerner Presents Nobel Lecture in MSE W.E. Moerner visited campus on Monday, April 11 to deliver the Nobel Lecture in MSE. Moerner was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his role in developing microscopy techniques to view molecular processes in real time. He discussed his Nobel Prize winning research in his presentation, “The Story of Single Molecules, from Early Spectroscopy in Solids, to Super-resolution Microscopy, which Opens up an Amazing New View Inside Cells.” Moerner is the Harry S. Mosher Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University.
Bernard S. Meyerson, IBM, Presents MSE Industry Executive Seminar The second annual MSE Industry Executive Seminar was presented in March by Bernard S. Meyerson, IBM Fellow and Chief Innovation Officer. In his presentation, “Technology’s Tectonic Shift,” Meyerson discussed various approaches to deal with the post-silicon era and its implications for future directions of IT R&D and societal impacts of that work. 6
SCHOOL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING, GEORGIA TECH
FALL 2016
Academics The MILL - MSE Maker and Measure Space
Graduate and Undergraduate Programs
The School of Materials Science and Engineering will officially open the Materials Innovation and Learning Lab (The MILL) in fall 2016. The MILL will complement the renowned Invention Studio, the student-run makerspace in the Woodruff School of Mechanical “With time we Engineering by being the hope to see The “maker and measure” space MILL turn into a with equipment for analysis, creation, characterization, centerpiece of the and testing of materials to MSE community encourage hands-on and where learning active learning of materials is hands-on and science and engineering concepts by students from inspiring.” across the Institute.
Changes and growth go hand-in-hand, and the MSE graduate program is experiencing both. The 2010 merger of MSE and PTFE created separate sets of core courses for “hard” and “soft” material areas. After much discussion with faculty and students, Preet Singh, Associate Chair and recommendations from the MSE of Graduate External Advisory Board (EAB), this Program separation was deemed unnecessary. To unify the divide, and to provide more flexibility in the program, the MSE faculty revised the core curriculum to fully integrate the two areas. The updated core now consists of “Structure of Materials” and “Thermodynamics,” two newly developed courses. “These courses focus on the fundamental topics essential for all MSE graduate students. All other MSE courses will be offered as electives, allowing students the flexibility to choose courses based on their research needs or interests,” says Preet Singh, Associate Chair of Graduate Program. These changes were approved by the MSE faculty in December 2015, and by the Institute Curriculum Committee and the Institute Senate in April 2016. All other requirements for the Ph.D. degree remain the same.
Based in the J. Erskine Love Jr. Building, The MILL will feature a new benchtop scanning electron microscope (SEM) and other equipment to be acquired with FY2017 Technology Fee Funds. The MILL will be staffed by undergraduate and graduate students, with Profs. Mark Losego and Paul Russo as primary faculty advisors. The MILL student advisory committee is working closely with the MSE External Advisory Board for continued acquisition of tools, safety training, and organizational support. “The MILL aims to connect students at all levels to the tools and resources they need to expand their knowledge and pioneer the next great innovations,” says MILL committee member Justin Eisenberg. “With time we hope to see The MILL turn into a centerpiece of the MSE community where learning is hands-on and inspiring.”
The undergraduate curriculum remains strong with core courses taken during the sophomore and junior years, and concentration-specific courses along with capstone design taken by the students during their senior year. Among the students who have declared Mary Lynn Realff, Associate Chair their concentrations, currently 52% are of Undergraduate pursuing the Structural and Functional Program Materials option, 27% are pursuing the Polymers and Fibers option, and 21% are pursuing the Biomaterials option. We are pleased to see Professor Mary Lynn Realff take charge as the associate chair of the undergraduate program. She brings with her a wealth of expertise and interactions with the undergraduate students through her involvement with the student mentoring program that she founded over 10 years ago.
94% 95%
MSE graduate students are employed upon graduation
95%
MSE freshman retention rate
MSE students gather for the December soft opening of The MILL WWW.MSE.GATECH.EDU
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2016 Capstone Design GTRI, Needleless IV Connector Disinfection Hub Hygiene – Mary Catherine Adams (MSE), Timothy Gassner (BME), Pranav Godbole (ME), You Keun Kim (BME), Bharathwaj Nandagopal (BME), Ruifu Shi (BME) IAP, Optimization of RAM System Team Pow(d)er – Nicole Allison, Kaitlyn Estep, Sierra Glasscock, Anna Janoff, Karla Wagner
MSE Capstone Winner, Team ReCap
3M/Oral Care Team ReCap: Zirconia Recycling – Nick Kane, Henry Liu, Tony Shu, Anna Thomas, Justin Wang, Hayley Zhang Center for Disease Control, Medical Waste Disposal System for Liberia Waste Warriors – Patricia Dunlevy (ME), Justin Eisenberg, (MSE), Jordan Garth (BME), Aparna Iyer (BME), Chelsea Lefand (MSE) Center for Puppetry Arts, Preservation for Puppetry Arts Polymer Puppeteers – Eric Dancu, Aisan Khodaei, Christopher Stephens, Nina Su Georgia Department of Transportation, Analysis of PMA Team GDOT – Kevin Chirackal, Chris Jackson, Kristine Johanning, Gregory Nacey, Alex Yu
GT, Contraceptive Intrauterine Device Infinis – Taylor Armstead (MSE), Emily Davis (BME), Emilie Kundycki (MSE), John Papayanopoulos (ME), Soleil Schatteman (BME) GT, Customized Sports Drink Based on Sweat Analysis Recovr – Khwala Abdulgader (BME), Parker Buntin (MSE), Sean Carroll (MSE), Robert Kiblinger (MSE), Renaid Kim (BME)
Lobe Innovation Management, Carbon Fiber Reclamation reClaim – Blake Cotney, Emily Mikan, Nestor Rodriguez, Rebecca Seasholtz, Sara Turmel Lobe Innovation Management, Kaolin Porcelain Recycling – Jinwon Kim, Younghyun Kim, Luke Maurer, Noor-ur-Rahman Shaikh, Brian Swanson Lockheed Martin Advanced Energy Storage, Design of In-Plane and Through-Plane Permeability Test for Woven Carbon Cloth used in Flow Batteries Rho with the Flow – Alex Dragoo, Zev Greenberg, Colin Holmes, Eric Perdue, Cherry Zhu Novelis, Cantilever Wrap Bend Test Design The Novelis Group – Christopher Batson, Cindy Huang, Kelly Wallace, Qi Yuan Printpack, Polymeric Film with Re-close Functionality Resealable Solutions – Tyler Clenney, Jessica Hong, Keith Johnson, Austin Sanderson
Technetics, Characterizations of Several Aerospace Alloys Aerospace Alloys – Alex Beach, Chunzi Liu, Franco Ortega, Gordon Powell, Ponthus Pyronneau, Wenke Zhang Technical Polymers, Recycled High Performance Carbon Fiber Composites Team Technical Polymers – Kay Adams, Natalie Lindsey, Hayden Price, Katherine Siegel, Nicholas Watson
GT, Center for Compact & Efficient Fluid Power, Excavator Design RainBros – Harrison Carroll (ME), Alex Eaker (ME), Matthew Goldstein (BME), Peter Huddleston (MSE), Vishnu Iyengar (ME), Stephen Snyder (ME) Lockheed Martin Advanced Energy Storage
Need a new eye for a common problem? Become a Capstone Design Project Sponsor! Contact Mary Lynn Realff at 404.894.2496 or marylynn.realff@mse.gatech.edu 8
SCHOOL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING, GEORGIA TECH
FALL 2016
MSE Research Scholars Summer 2016 MSE Research Scholars receive $6000 for a 10-week immersion in summer research following completion of freshman year. They also are given the opportunity to present their research at the Annual MSE Industry Day event in the fall and to participate in the MSE poster competition in the spring. Industry sponsors for summer 2016 include Novelis and Solvay. Alyssa Bronson Finding Aptamers for Adult Stem Cells Yasmine Jalali Design and Fabrication of Cellulose Nano Whiskers Reinforced Bio-degradable Scaffolds via 3-D Printing Arthur Kim Beyond Nanocomposites: Homogeneous OrganicInorganic Hybrid Dielectrics for High Energy Density Capacitors
Kat Adstedt, 2015 Research Scholar, discusses her research with Professor Fred Cook
Daniel Kirtley High Velocity Impact Tests and Micro-structure Analysis of the Magnesium Alloy AZ31 Jordan Lightstone Flexible Functional Bionanocomposites for Bioelectronics Nina Lyow Interaction of Materials, Structures, and Performance of Flexible Textile Structures Jamie Pye Characterization of Organic Photovoltaic Materials Evan Robinson Investigating Intermediary Phases of the In2O3-SnO2 Binary System in Both Bulk Ceramics and Thin Films Trevor Worthy Controlling Ion Transport in Solids for Electrochemical Memory Devices and Energy Storage Michael Xu Improving Sodium-ion Batteries by Understanding Reaction and Degradation Mechanisms Jonathan Yaeger Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Self-powered Sensors
Luke Votaw, 2015 Research Scholar, discusses his research with George Corbin, MSE External Advisory Board Member
Add fresh eyes to your team! Become a MSE Research Scholar Sponsor. Contact Mary Z. McEneaney 404.894.6345 mary.mceneaney@mse.gatech.edu
Lina Zikas Phosphorus Applications in Lithium Ion Batteries WWW.MSE.GATECH.EDU
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Interdisciplinary Research Georgia Tech Interdisciplinary Research Institutes Georgia Tech is home to 12 Interdisciplinary Research Institutes (IRIs) responsible for bringing together a mix of researchers – spanning colleges, schools, and individual laboratories – around a single core research area. The IRIs also connect a large portfolio of basic and applied research programs, provide the support structure for world-class research facilities and laboratories, and create collaborative engagements for Georgia Tech faculty and students with government and industry research partners. The School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) has close relationships with five of these IRIs, in addition to the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), which is the world’s premier university-based applied research and development organization. The relationship with the IRIs extends to promoting the important role of materials critical to technological innovations, developing facilities with state-of-theart equipment for materials processing, characterization, and evaluation of their properties and performance under various environments, and providing leadership in multidisciplinary courses and research partnerships. The Institute of Materials (IMAT) provides the umbrella for developing and nurturing the materials innovation ecosystem by enriching and growing the resource base for materials research and projecting Georgia Tech’s thought leadership in the materials domain. Under the leadership of Dave McDowell, IMAT has become the epicenter of the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) focusing on identifying novel computational, data sciences and informatics, and experimental tools and approaches for accelerating the discovery, design, development, and deployment of materials. The Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI) builds on the century of lignocellulosics research to advance the use of renewable resources by transforming biomaterials into new products for energy, chemicals, advanced materials, and pharmaceuticals. The focus of RBI, with Norman Marsolan as the director, is on bioproducts and bioprocessing related research activities, with the goal of bringing together academics, government, and industry in unique ways to create and strengthen collaborative partnerships and maximize the impact of research in real-world applications. The Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute (GTMI) serves as the hub for research in manufacturing materials, processes, systems, robotics, and even education, management, and public policy. Its goal is to bring together industry leaders, government partners, and researchers and thought leaders from across Georgia Tech to collaborate and find solutions to advance and ensure our global competitiveness and economic and environmental sustainability. Ben Wang serves as the executive director of GTMI and Georgia Tech’s chief manufacturing officer. The Institute of Electronics and Nanotechnologies (IEN) builds on the long-term expertise of faculty specializing in electronics design, nanomaterials, semiconductors, device fabrication and packaging, and biomedicine, and today serves as the intellectual nexus for electronics and nanotechnology related areas. Under the leadership of Oliver Brandt, IEN provides the infrastructure with state-of-the-art facilities for design, fabrication, and characterization of electronic materials, and the engagement of research by faculty and students with industry, government, and other organizations. IEN, along with IMAT, also manages the Materials Characterization Facility with Eric Vogel as its director. The Strategic Energy Institute (SEI) addresses energy technologies, policies, and educational programs by integrating research activities spanning from generation to storage to distribution. With Tim Lieuwen as the director, SEI provides the institutional framework for collaborative and interdisciplinary research in areas including the efficiency of fuel extraction and production, disposal and storage of energy waste byproducts, environmental impacts caused by use of fossil fuels, and making better and cleaner technologies to generate, distribute, and use energy. Teaming with the IRIs, MSE is building strategic collaborations with Department of Energy laboratories, in particular with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). We are also identifying and developing similar strategic collaborations with industry since such partnerships provide critical directions for research, as well as valuable opportunities for engaging students in solving real-world challenges of today and tomorrow. 10
SCHOOL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING, GEORGIA TECH
FALL 2016
Research Profile Eric Vogel Two-dimensional Layered Materials for Future Electronics
T
here are a wide variety of materials that exhibit layered structures. For example, 2D materials such as graphene, hexagonal boron nitride and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), e.g., MoS2 and WSe2 have strong in-plane covalent bonding and weak out-of-plane van der Waals bonding leading to atomic monolayers with unique properties. The last 10 years have shown us that these materials are incredibly interesting for electronic and optoelectronic applications. The Vogel group is performing research related to the synthesis, characterization and application of 2D materials to numerous technologies including novel electronic devices and sensors. Vogel was guest editor of the July 2015 issue of the MRS Bulletin entitled, “2D Layered Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides,” which provides details and background related to this novel class of materials. At Georgia Tech, Vogel’s group has established two chemical vapor deposition systems that permit synthesis of a variety of materials including graphene, MoS2, WSe2, and hexagonal boron nitride. TMDs such as MoS2 are layered semiconducting materials with tunable bandgaps that are promising for next generation electronics. Despite recent progress, the synthesis of high-quality and highly uniform TMDs on a large scale is still a challenge. A synthesis route for TMDs was developed that achieves monolayer thickness uniformity across large area substrates with electrical properties equivalent to
Figure 1. Schematic of a single layer of MoS2.
geological crystals, Advanced Materials, 2015. This is a crucial step towards their eventual large-scale manufacture. Controlled doping of 2D semiconductors is critically required to modify their electrical and optical properties. However, methods established for conventional semiconductors, such as ion implantation, are not easily applicable to 2D materials because of the resulting atomically thin structure. In collaboration with Prof. Seth Marder’s group, surface doping of large area MoS2 using solutions of redox-active molecular dopants was studied, Advanced Materials, 2015. Large changes in carrier density and workfunction were achieved through the choice of dopant, treatment time, and the solution concentration. A fundamental understanding of the surface chemistry and physics responsible for the doping was developed. This solution-based surface doping provides a simple and readily scalable process for tailoring electrical and optical properties of two-dimensional semiconductors. Beyond the fundamental studies of the materials themselves, Vogel's group is also developing a variety of interesting devices based on 2D materials. For example, because of its superior mechanical and electrical properties and better long-term stability compared to organic semiconductors, MoS2 is an ideal candidate for high-performance flexible and transparent electronics. Processing techniques for atomically-thin MoS2 transistors were developed which provide extremely stable electrical properties after bending, Applied Materials and Interfaces, 2015. Gold-coated graphene devices were also recently demonstrated to measure the binding affinity of specific protein-antibody interactions, 2D Materials, 2015. Eric Vogel is a professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering, deputy director of the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, and associate director for Shared Resources of the Institute for Materials at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Vogel’s research interests relate to materials and devices for future electronics. He has authored over 170 refereed publications and given over 85 invited talks. Figure 2. Optical images and electrical characterization of flexible MoS2 devices. WWW.MSE.GATECH.EDU
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Research Profile Zhiqun Lin Crafting Functional Nanomaterials for Energy Conversion and Storage: From Nonlinear Block Copolymers to Monodisperse Nanocrystals with Precisely Controlled Dimensions, Compositions, and Architectures
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evolutionizing the use of nanocrystals for applications in emerging fields, such as lightweight structural materials, optics, optoelectronics, drug delivery, and biotechnology, requires breakthrough strategies for their design and synthesis with different properties and controllable size and shape. Lin and his group have recently pioneered general and robust strategies for crafting an exciting variety of monodisperse nanocrystals, in stark contrast to widely used approaches, e.g., thermolysis of organometallic precursors, hydrothermal reaction, and linear copolymer micelle templating. These nanocrystals are formed with precisely tunable dimensions, rich compositions and properties, and complex architectures, by capitalizing on a class of judiciously designed amphiphilic starlike block copolymers as nanoreactors (Figure 1). The block copolymers are effective and able to produce oil-soluble and water-soluble monodisperse plain nanoparticles (NPs) (e.g., metallic, ferroelectric, magnetic, luminescent, semiconductor NPs), core/ shell NPs (e.g., plasmonic/magnetic, ferroelectric/ ferromagnetic) and hollow NPs (e.g., plasmonic, semiconducting), Nature Nanotechnology, 2013. As shown in Figure 1, within a poly(acrylic acid)block-polystyrene (PAA-b-PS) diblock copolymer, the inner PAA block in the unimolecular micelles is highly hydrophilic and imparts the preferential incorporation of precursors in the space occupied by PAA blocks via a strong coordination bonding between the metal moieties of precursors and functional groups of PAA (i.e., -COOH). As a result, the reaction of the appropriate precursors in the mixed solvents of dimethylformamide (DMF) and benzyl alcohol (BA) forms the desired NPs, while the surface of the NPs is intimately and permanently connected with hydrophobic PS blocks. Recently, Lin has also extended this strategy to rationally design amphiphilic worm-like block copolymers to create very intriguing nanocrystal kebabs periodically assembled on a stretched flexible polymer shish, Science Advances, 2015; highlighted by Science.
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Figure 1. Polymer nanoreactor routes to nanocrystals.
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Such bottom-up crafting of polymer-capped nanocrystals offers new levels of tailorability to nanostructured materials. It also promises new opportunities for achieving exquisite control over the surface chemistry and properties of nanocrystals with engineered functionality for diverse applications in energy conversion and storage, electronics, nanotechnology, and biotechnology. To this end, Lin has recently employed double hydrophilic starlike poly(acrylic acid)-block-poly(ethylene oxide) (PAA-b-PEO) diblock copolymer as a nanoreactor and successfully crafted PEO-capped NaYF4:Yb/Er upconversion NPs. Subsequent incorporation of NaYF4:Yb/Er upconversion NPs as the mesoporous electrode in perovskite solar cells led to a high power conversion efficiency of 17.8%, which was further increased to 18.1% upon near infrared irradiation (Figure 2), Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2016; selected as a Very Important Paper; featured on its cover. Moreover, by rationally designing and exploiting amphiphilic star-like poly(acrylic acid)-block-poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PAA-b-PVDF) diblock copolymers as nanoreactors, Lin produced ferroelectric PVDF-capped BaTiO3 NPs for applications in energy storage, such as high energy capacitors, and characterized their dielectric and ferroelectric properties, Journal of American Chemical Society, 2015. Finally, the use of the amphiphilic star-like poly(acrylic acid)-block-poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (i.e., PAA-b-PEDOT) diblock copolymer allowed Lin to successfully prepare PEDOT-capped PbTe NPs for thermoelectric applications, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2015; featured on its cover. Going beyond zero-dimensional NPs, Lin is currently exploring a family of novel amphiphilic bottlebrush-like block copolymers as nanoreactors to create monodisperse one-dimensional plain and core/shell nanorods and nanotubes, Science, in press. He plans to synthesize Janus NPs (possessing perfect biphasic Janus character: a strict 50:50 distinct coverage in shape, composition, chemistry, polarity, functionality, etc.) using Janus block copolymers as templates. All of these intriguing nanocrystals are envisioned to find promising applications in energy conversion and storage, including solar cells, photodetectors, water splitting, and lithium ion batteries. Zhiqun Lin is a professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research focuses on Nano-structured Functional Materials (NanoFM), including polymer-based nanocomposites, block copolymers, conjugated polymers, functional nanocrystals, organic-inorganic hybrid solar cells, dye sensitized solar cells, perovskite solar cells, lithium ion batteries, hydrogen generation, photocatalysis, hierarchically structured and assembled materials, and surface and interfacial properties.
Figure 2. Perovskite solar cells incorporating dual-function upconversion  nanoparticles, yielding high power conversion efficiency.
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Research Profile
Meilin Liu
Fuel Cells and In-situ / Operando Raman Spectroscopy
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ne goal of Meilin Liu's group is to create fuel cells for distributed power generation, which can serve as the primary power supply to individual houses. If successful, larger systems could replace conventional fossil fuel power plants, offering close to twice the efficiency of current power plants without the pollutants. With funding from ARPA-E, the Liu group is developing fuel cells that will be powered by natural gas at ~500°C to overcome many difficulties associated with existing fuel cell systems and achieve higher power density, longer life, and lower costs. Their focus is on creating nanostructured materials that will dramatically enhance the ionic and electronic conductivity as well as electro-catalytic activities for oxygen reduction and fuel oxidation. Recently, they have successfully prepared hollow nanofibers of cathode materials by electrospinning, and successfully bonded the fiber network on an electrolyte membrane, creating a cathode consisting of unique 3-D hollow fiber networks with high porosity and straight path for efficient charge and mass transfer as shown in Figure 1, Nano Energy, 2016. When tested in a single cell, peak power densities of 0.36, 0.62, and 1.11 Wcm-2 are demonstrated at 450, 500 and 550oC, respectively. As shown in Figure 2a, these are much higher than those of a cell with a cathode derived from slurry of
Figure 1. (a) Schematic of apparatus for electrospinning; (b) Cross-sectional images of a cell with the cathode (PBSC nanofiber with SDC coating), the SDC bonding layer, and the GDC electrolyte which shows good adhesion of the cathode to the electrolyte layer; (c) a closer view of the cathode consisting of intact hollow fibers.
Figure 2. Performance of fuel cells with hollow fiber cathodes: (a) current-voltage (I-V) and current-power (I-P) curves measured at different temperatures, and (b) long-term stability for a single cell operated at 550 oC at 0.6 V. Humidified H2 (with 3 v% H2O) was used as fuel and ambient air as oxidant. 14
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nano-sized powders of similar composition under the same testing conditions. Further, the fibrous architecture also shows excellent stability under the operating conditions. For example, single cells show stable and high power output (0.95 Wcm-2) when operated at a constant cell voltage of 0.6 V at 550oC for more than 260 hours as shown in Figure 2b. This unique electrode architecture is attractive not only for a new generation of intermediate-temperature fuel cells with high performance and excellent stability, but also for other types of energy conversion and storage systems, including batteries, super capacitors, dye-sensitized solar cells, and photocatalysis. Another goal of the Liu group is to probe and map the chemical species and incipient phases on electrode surfaces using in situ/operando Raman spectroscopy, and to unravel the mechanisms of energy storage or charge transport in electrode materials for batteries and supercapacitors. For example, in situ/operando Raman spectroscopic analyses can be used to directly probe the dynamics of vibrational properties of an electrode material in a model cell as a function of the electrochemical operating conditions as shown in Figure 3 (center), allowing direct correlation between the evolution in structural features and/or surface chemistry with the electrochemical performance of the electrode material. Moreover, proper combination with surface-enhancement techniques may dramatically enhance the sensitivity of probing fine surface-bound phenomena associated with energy storage or charge transport, offering information that would be otherwise inaccessible. Relying on these powerful capabilities, the Liu group has gained important insights into the fundamental mechanism associated with energy storage or charge transport in several classes of energy materials. For non-aqueous energy storage systems, a nanostructured SnO2 electrode fabricated by the Liu group has exhibited unprecedented reversible capacity when applied as Li-ion battery anode, Energy & Environmental Science, 2016. The reversible formation of Li2O in a nanostructured SnO2 electrode was unambiguously confirmed by in operando surface-enhancement Raman spectroscopy, as shown in Figure 3 (left). The electrode achieved unprecedented reversible energy storage of nanoSnO2 on the structural level. For an aqueous energy storage system, the layer-structured nickel oxo-hydroxide/ hydroxide family can offer unprecedented theoretical capacitance as supercapacitors, of which the structural details of the charge storage is not resolved. Depending on the in operando Raman spectroscopy, evolution of key features of Raman bands is proven quantitatively consistent with electrochemical charge storage, as shown in Figure 3 (right), unraveling the structural evolution and contribution of different charge storage mechanisms, Advanced Science 2016. These fundamental structural/surface analyses provides important information for the rational design of better energy storage materials. Moreover, the general methodology of in situ/operando Raman spectroscopy that correlates Raman spectroscopic features and material functions as an integral system can be applied to a variety of fields of energy storage, energy conversions, and electrochemical catalysis.
Figure 3. Schematics of in operando Raman spectroscopy (center), its application for nanostructured SnO2 as lithium ion battery anodes (left), and its application for layer-structured NiO2Hx as supercapacitors (right).
Meilin Liu is a Regents’ Professor and Associate Chair in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research focuses on in Operando Raman Spectroscopy and is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy ARPAR-E REBELS Program (DE-AR0000502), DOE SECA CTP (FC-FE0026106), and the U.S. National Science Foundation (DMR-1210792). WWW.MSE.GATECH.EDU
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Alumni Profiles Keith Hearon Keith Hearon, Ph.D. (B.S.’09), left a postdoctoral position in Professor Robert Langer’s group at MIT in April 2016 to begin full time work with Poly6 Technologies, a startup company in the advanced materials sector. He is the co-founder and CEO of Poly6, which is commercializing a number of his materials inventions, including Citrene™, a high-performance family of polymers derived from citrus rind extracts. Citrene™, a coating for high-end furniture and as a 3D printing resin, earned Hearon a Finalist award in the 2014 U.S. Collegiate Inventors Competition. Poly6 has long-term commercialization plans for the citrus plastic in medical technology and flexible electronics applications. The Boston Globe featured Hearon’s Citrene™ invention in a 2015 write-up, and this article was promoted by a number of national and international media outlets. In April 2016 Poly6 won the Infrastructure & Resources contest in the 2016 MIT Clean Energy Prize. Poly6 has been accepted in the Silicon Valley-based FOUNDER.org startup accelerator and the Boston-based MassChallenge startup accelerator. Hearon’s co-founder in Poly6, Matthew Stellmaker, graduated from Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture in 2010. Hearon is a member of the MIT Sloan School of Management MBA Class of 2018. Prior to MIT and Poly6, he obtained a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering in a joint program between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Texas A&M University. As of June 2016 he has 8 patents granted or pending and 17 peer-reviewed publications in materials science and biotechnology fields. His long term ambitions lie in entrepreneurship and venture capital.
Hearon shows Citrene™ invention to Michelle Lee, director of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office during the 2014 U.S. Collegiate Inventors Competition 16
Marilyn Minus Marilyn Minus is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. She is also the director of the Macromolecular Innovation in Nano-materials Utilizing Systems Laboratory, otherwise known as the MINUS lab. She received her B.S. degree in Polymer, Textile, and Fiber Engineering in May 2002, and her Ph.D. in August of 2008, both at Georgia Tech, under the advisement of Professor Satish Kumar. Since joining Northeastern, her research has been focused on addressing sustainability issues with the goal of producing energy efficient lightweight materials. These materials are based on polymer/nano-carbon composites. The goal is to understand fundamental phenomenon associated with polymer/nano-carbon structure development in composites during processing procedures. Her research work expands the scientific and technological base for understanding the manipulation of nano-scale matter during composite fabrication as it pertains to building mechanically superior materials. Her research interests also include structure-property relationships in polymer-based nano-composites, control of interfacial morphology and molecular interactions between the polymer and carbon nano-materials, as well as control of interphase structures and morphology in polymer-based hybrid materials. To date, the MINUS lab has received more than $4 Million in funding from the Department of Defense, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, DARPA, the Army Research Office, and the National Science Foundation. Minus was the recipient of the 2014 NSF CAREER award and selected by the National Academy of Engineering to participate in the 2014 Frontiers of Engineering Education symposium. This year, Minus was selected to be a Northeastern University, College of Engineering Faculty Fellow, which recognizes mid-career faculty who have demonstrated exceptional potential in research, educational and instructional initiatives and performance, and leadership in institutional and professional service activities. Minus has published more than 30 scientific publications and presented over 20 conference papers in the area of polymer-based nano-composites. She is currently a member of American Chemical Society (ACS), Materials Research Society (MRS), Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering, and the Society of Plastics Engineers.
SCHOOL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING, GEORGIA TECH
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MSE External Advisory Board (EAB) G. L. (Roy) Bowen, III, President, Georgia Association of Manufacturers
Michael L. Fulbright, Text ‘72, President and CEO (Retired), JPS Industries, Inc.
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Yancy W. Riddle, M.S. MSE ’98, Ph.D. MSE ‘01, SVP Operations, Nearshore Technology
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George Corbin, MSE EAB Chair, Director of Research, Development, and Technology, Solvay Specialty Polymers Gary Foote, President, Technical Polymers
Bryan Hayes, Ph.D. ChE ‘96, Director Global Enterprise, Global Nonwovens Research & Engineering, Kimberly-Clark Corporation Tom Hodge, Ph.D. ChE ‘96, Director of Materials Research, Michelin Americas Research Co.
Geoffrey P. Morris, PE, CerE ‘82, Materials/3M Oral Care, Scientific Affairs Manager, 3M
Phil Williams, MSE EAB Vice Chair, Text ‘70, Consultant
Jennifer P. Bailey, CerE ’70, M.S. CerE ‘71, BASF (Retired) David Bowden, M.S. Met ’78, Ph.D. Chem ‘82, Technical Fellow, Boeing Company (Retired)
Photo by Gary Meeks. Ultra-thin 120 nm thick free-standing translucent gold sheet exhibiting unusual mechanical properties which are challenging to characterize and require new methods for determining their mechanical performance; research by Chris Muhlstein, TMS Annual Meeting, 2016.
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