NEWS BRIEFS
MOVING FORWARD TOGETHER TOWARDS A CLEANER, SAFER FUTURE The Collaboratory for a Regenerative Economy (CoRE) is a unique research, education and civic entrepreneurship initiative that links materials design with manufacturing technologies in coordination with the needs of industry and front-line communities. Formed in 2017 and led by Krishna Rajan, SUNY Distinguished Professor, Erich Bloch Chair and Empire Innovation Professor in the Department of Materials Design and Innovation, CoRE was renewed at $3 million for a second three years. CoRE’s innovative collaborations and data-driven tools enable business, government, and nonprofit leaders to identify and select inherently safer chemicals and sustainable materials for a healthier renewable energy economy. Partners include Niagara Share, located in Buffalo, and Clean Production Action, located in Boston.
UB RESEARCHERS DEVELOP
NEW MOLECULAR FERROELECTRIC METAMATERIALS 3D-printed molecular ferroelectric metamaterial made of imidazolium perchlorate.
The team, led by Shenqiang Ren, Department of Mechanical and A team of engineers has reported the discovery of a new 3D-printed molecular ferroelectric metamaterial. The new material could benefit
Aerospace Engineering and part of UB’s RENEW Institute, also includes Chi Zhou, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering; Mostafa
everything from acoustic blankets for aircraft soundproofing to shock
Nouh, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; and
absorbers and elastic cloaks that shield sensitive electronic systems from
Jeffrey Grossman, Department of Materials Science and Engineering,
external mechanical disturbances.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The advancement, published in the Proceedings of the National
They devised a plan to 3D print a scaffold-supported ferroelectric
Academy of Sciences, is a step toward making these lab-created materials
crystalline lattice made of imidazolium perchlorate. The unique design
more affordable and adaptable to countless multifunctional technologies.
of the lattice enables it to self-correct any deviations from the design
A metamaterial is any material engineered to have a property that
while the material is still being printed. Also, the material’s stiffness
is not found in naturally occurring materials. Ferroelectricity relates to
— how much it resists deformation — is reprogrammable, which, in
crystalline substances that have spontaneous electric polarization that’s
turn, allows researchers to “tune” the material to filter out different
reversible by an electric field.
subwavelength frequencies.
The new study uses the latest advancements in computing, additive
The work was partially funded by the U.S. Army Research Office.
manufacturing, materials design, acoustics and other fields to produce
The Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, and UB’s
ferroelectric metamaterials that are cost effective and easily adaptable to
New York State Center of Excellence in Materials Informatics provided
electronic and mechanical devices.
additional funding.
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BUFFALO ENGINEER 2021
