MVC 12 Awards Gallery

“Iridescent webs: Hydrogel networks formed by the phase separation of triblock copolymers“

Elisabeth Lloyd, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering ​

Artist’s Perspective: My inspiration for this submission came from the way light interacts with oil on water, like spilled gasoline on wet pavement. Just like oil, polystyrene doesn’t mix with water. I like to envision the hydrogel network as forming from a mesh of millions of tiny iridescent bubbles strung together to form a multicolored web.

Scientific Process: The network shown is formed as a result of the phase separation of polymer chains composed of two end segments of polystyrene and one middle segment of polyethylene oxide. Polystyrene will not dissolve in water, so when the polymer is exposed to water the polystyrene ends of the molecules will cluster closely together. The only thing keeping the polystyrene from precipitating out of the water is the polyethylene oxide segments bridging the polystyrene clusters. The polystyrene clusters group together to form a mesh, resulting in the beautiful network microstructure of the hydrogel shown in the image.

FIRST PLACE

“NETWORK OF DISLOCATIONS IN A TWO-DIMENSIONAL MATERIAL“

Saiphaneendra Bachu, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering ​

Artist’s Perspective: Defects in materials are fascinating for their structural features and they tremendously affect the material properties. Even though there are many ways to study defects in materials, directly visualizing them in their native form is very powerful to understand their complex structures. To that end, this image is taken from an electron microscope which is powerful enough to resolve features at nanometer length scales. This enables us to look at the defects present in materials and understand their origin (dislocations in 2D material in this particular example).

Scientific Process: The picture is a dark field transmission electron microscope (DF-TEM) image taken from a two-dimensional (2D) material. It shows a network of dislocations present in the sample highlighting the presence of strain in the sample presumably to accommodate the epitaxy with substrate. Furthermore, the dislocations appear to form triangle shapes in some areas which could be related to the hexagonal symmetry that is a characteristic of 2D materials. The spacings between the dislocations seen are in the range of 5-10 nm thus underlining the power of TEM in resolving features at nanometer length scales. The image was taken using FEI Talos TEM at MCL.

SECOND PLACE

“MICROSTRUCTURE OF A DUPLEX STAINLESS STEEL ALLOY FABRICATED USING ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING“

Andrew Iams, Graduate Student, ​Materials Science and Engineering ​

Artist’s Perspective: The microstructure inspires imagery of looking through a single snowflake falling through the sky, where the sun light is refracted by the ice crystal and the seven colors of the visual light spectrum manifest within the voids.

Scientific Process: The image shows the microstructure of a 2209 duplex stainless steel alloy fabricated using a laser-based directed energy deposition additive manufacturing process. Duplex stainless steel alloys obtain their high strength and corrosion resistance from a dual ferrite/austenite microstructure. In this image the austenite phase is white, while the ferrite phase appears as the seven colors of the visual light spectrum. The sample was prepared using standard metallographic techniques and etched using a KOH electrolytic etch. The image was taken using optical microscopy at 500x magnification.

THIRD PLACE

“HYDROGEL FIBER AFTER RESUBMERGED INTO WATER“

Kelly Matuszewski, ​Undergraduate Student, ​Materials Science and Engineering

Artist’s Perspective: The image as seen has come directly from my microscope image and has not been retouched at all. When focusing the microscope on the hydrogel fiber, I was surprised to see the incongruence in the fiber’s diameter. I had not been able to focus on a resubmerged fiber so well before, and it has taken many trial and errors to figure out the best way to get good images for our research. Getting this very sharp image is great so that we can see and compare this recovered hydrogel to others to advance our research and what we know. We know that there is uniformity in hydrogels that have not been previously strained, so the bumps on the edges are most likely from plastic deformation from straining the hydrogel. Further research is being done to study this observable phenomena.

Scientific Process: I am studying the mechanical properties of hydrogel fibers created through a rapid injection process. They are made from ABA triblock copolymers, with hydrophobic (A blocks) ends and a hydrophilic (B block) center. This feature causes the hydrogel to form when injected into a B selective solvent such as water. After they are created, we strain the fibers to various lengths and let them dry. Then, to study their recovery properties, they are placed back in water. The diameter and length are measured before and after submerging. The optical microscope is used to measure the diameter, as well as get a closer look at what is happening to the fibers during the process. The fiber seen in the image had been strained to 5x its original length, and then placed back into water. When placed back into water, the fiber never goes back to its original length and diameter due to plastic deformation, as seen by the incongruency in the fiber.

FIRST PLACE

“RHENIUM AT THE BEACH: ELECTRON-BEAM EVAPORATION OF RHENIUM ON SAPPHIRE“

Alex Molina, Graduate Student, ​Materials Science and Engineering ​

Artist’s Perspective: Growing up in Long Island—fifteen minutes from the ocean—I found myself daydreaming about the beach every moment of the school day. If I was not at school, I was by the ocean, walking the boardwalk, listening to the waves crash, or taking in the breeze coming off the watery front.  It seems that I may never shake this feeling because after imaging my rhenium samples I found myself thinking of the beach once more. Using a Nikon L200ND optical microscope at 10X, Rhenium films deposited on a sapphire substrate were imaged. The sapphire substrate represents the ocean, while the rhenium films represent the sand.

Scientific Process: Thin-film deposition of rhenium can be achieved by using electron-beam evaporation. However, given the rapid rate of deposition and film thickness of 100 nanometers, the film underwent stress that gave way to this unique image that resembles a sandbank. Thin layers of rhenium peeled back onto itself while some remained adhered to the sapphire substrate. Image was captured using an optical microscope.

SECOND PLACE

“IRIDESCENT WEBS: HYDROGEL NETWORKS FORMED BY THE PHASE SEPARATION OF TRIBLOCK COPOLYMERS“

Elisabeth Lloyd, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering

Artist’s Perspective: My inspiration for this submission came from the way light interacts with oil on water, like spilled gasoline on wet pavement. Just like oil, polystyrene doesn’t mix with water. I like to envision the hydrogel network as forming from a mesh of millions of tiny iridescent bubbles strung together to form a multicolored web.

Scientific Process: The network shown is formed as a result of the phase separation of polymer chains composed of two end segments of polystyrene and one middle segment of polyethylene oxide. Polystyrene will not dissolve in water, so when the polymer is exposed to water the polystyrene ends of the molecules will cluster closely together. The only thing keeping the polystyrene from precipitating out of the water is the polyethylene oxide segments bridging the polystyrene clusters. The polystyrene clusters group together to form a mesh, resulting in the beautiful network microstructure of the hydrogel shown in the image.

THIRD PLACE

“HIERARCHICAL TWINNING NANODOMAINS ON THE SURFACE OF A (111)-ORIENTED LEAD TITANATE THIN FILM“

Bo Wang, Graduate Student, ​Materials Science and Engineering ​

Artist’s Perspective: Saying goodbye to the deep blue ocean and the golden sunflowers, summer by the sea finally gives way to autumn by the mountain, embracing the amber leaves and purple sunset. They will finally be buried by the icy and snowy winter.  Day after day, season following season, I maintain a well-ordered life in a world full of disorders while craving for subtle changes within the repetitions.

Scientific Process: The hierarchical ferroelectric domain structure consisting of twinning nanodomains form spontaneously on the surface of a (111)-oriented lead titanate thin film under a partially screened condition, which is predicted by phase-field simulations. The domain pattern exhibits a quasi-6-fold symmetry, illustrating the six degenerate states variants with polarization pointing toward one of the six directions of a tetragonal unit cell, e.g., [±100], [0±10], and [00±1].

FIRST PLACE

“HIERARCHICAL TWINNING NANODOMAINS ON THE SURFACE OF A (111)-ORIENTED LEAD TITANATE THIN FILM“

Bo Wang, Graduate Student, ​Materials Science and Engineering ​

Artist’s Perspective: Saying goodbye to the deep blue ocean and the golden sunflowers, summer by the sea finally gives way to autumn by the mountain, embracing the amber leaves and purple sunset. They will finally be buried by the icy and snowy winter.  Day after day, season following season, I maintain a well-ordered life in a world full of disorders while craving for subtle changes within the repetitions.

Scientific Process: The hierarchical ferroelectric domain structure consisting of twinning nanodomains form spontaneously on the surface of a (111)-oriented lead titanate thin film under a partially screened condition, which is predicted by phase-field simulations. The domain pattern exhibits a quasi-6-fold symmetry, illustrating the six degenerate states variants with polarization pointing toward one of the six directions of a tetragonal unit cell, e.g., [±100], [0±10], and [00±1].

Saiphaneendra Bachu, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering ​

Artist’s Perspective: Defects in materials are fascinating for their structural features and they tremendously affect the material properties. Even though there are many ways to study defects in materials, directly visualizing them in their native form is very powerful to understand their complex structures. To that end, this image is taken from an electron microscope which is powerful enough to resolve features at nanometer length scales. This enables us to look at the defects present in materials and understand their origin (dislocations in 2D material in this particular example).

Scientific Process: The picture is a dark field transmission electron microscope (DF-TEM) image taken from a two-dimensional (2D) material. It shows a network of dislocations present in the sample highlighting the presence of strain in the sample presumably to accommodate the epitaxy with substrate. Furthermore, the dislocations appear to form triangle shapes in some areas which could be related to the hexagonal symmetry that is a characteristic of 2D materials. The spacings between the dislocations seen are in the range of 5-10 nm thus underlining the power of TEM in resolving features at nanometer length scales. The image was taken using FEI Talos TEM at MCL.