MVC 8 Awards Gallery
BEST OF SHOW
“VORTEX NANODOMAIN ARRAYS MECHANICALLY WRITTEN BY ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPE TIP IN 5 NM BATIO3 FERROELECTRIC ULTRATHIN FILM”
Bo Wang, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Scientific Process: The polarization vector field in 5 nm BaTiO3 ferroelectric film under atomic force microscope tip pressing is simulated by phase-field modeling. The tip-induced nanodomains exhibit vortex character in either clockwise (red in multistate storage capability.
SCIENTIFIC CATEGORY
FIRST PLACE
“BACK SCATTERED CROSS SECTIONAL SEM IMAGE OF A MICROLAYER THERMAL BARRIER COATING FOR ENHANCED GAS TURBINE EFFICIENCY“
Michael Schmitt, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Scientific Process: Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) are ceramic coatings used to thermally insulate the metallic components of gas turbine engines from the combustion environment. Higher efficiencies require higher temperature operation and materials capable of withstanding these conditions. The newest TBC materials such as Gd2Zr2O7 exhibit very low thermal conductivity and suitable phase stability to protect the underlying component at temperatures beyond 1500 °C, however, their mechanical durability is poor. This layering concept utilizes a ferroelastic toughening layer (dark phase) to improve the durability of the thermally stable and low thermal conductivity Gd2Zr2O7 (bright phase) containing coating. In addition, the columnar structure provides strain tolerance while the porous nature provide further reductions in thermal conductivity. Image 93 µm x 109 µm.
SECOND PLACE
“CELL ON ELECTROSPUN FIBER NETWORK“
Pouria Fattahi and Brittany Banik, Graduate Students, Materials Science and Engineering
Scientific Process: This FESEM image illustrates cellular uptake of fluorescent polystyrene nanoparticles (NPs) by a pre-osteoblast cell (MC3T3) spread on a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) electrospun
nanofiber network. The polymeric nanofibers provide a scaffold structure, which mimics the extracellular matrix (ECM) and allows the cells to adhere and spread on the surface topography the fibers provide.
Cellular uptake of fluorescent NPs by cells on fibrous substrates are lower in comparison with the uptake by cells grown on flat surfaces. Studying the effect of various surface topographies on NP uptake provides
valuable insight for mechanobiology-related diseases, cancer research, and pharmaceutical delivery
THIRD PLACE
“HELE-SHAW CELL MORPHOLOGY“
Zahra Niroobakhsh, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Scientific Process: This reactive micellar fingering pattern is formed when a surfactant solution (cetylpyridinium chloride, 425 mM) is injected into a Hele-Shaw cell initially filled with a liquid fatty acid, oleic acid. It is known that micellar
medium is formed at the interface of these two solutions, which controls the fingering pattern. The cell consists of two parallel glass plates with a 100 micrometer spacing, which models flow in porous media. One half of the cell is shown.
VISUAL CATEGORY
FIRST PLACE
“CHERRY BLOSSOMS BLOOM IN A FLASK“
Du Sun, Graduate Student, Chemistry
Scientific Process: The near-monodisperse particles shown in the image are colloidally synthesized free-standing hierarchical structures that are comprised of crystalline, few-layer MoSe2 nanosheets. Each particle is about
250 nm in diameter. The as-prepared sample can be dispersed into polar solvent like ethanol to form a stable colloidal suspension with a dark purple color. Therefore, both the shape and color resemble the elegant cherry
blossoms. This image is a collage of two scanning electron microscopy images taken with the FEI Nova NanoSEM 630 and one transmission electron microscopy image taken with the JOEL 2010 LaB6 at the Materials
Characterization Lab of the Penn State Materials Research Institute.
SECOND PLACE
“‘YOLK-SHELL’ STRUCTURED MICROCAPSULES
WITH ORGANIC-INORGANIC HYBRID SHELL“
Qi Li, Post Doc, Materials Science and Engineering
Scientific Process: We synthesized polymer-based microcapsules using a microemulsion method. Titanium oxide nanoparticles are incorporated in the polymer precursor
to give rise to a hybrid shell structure. In this SEM image, a smaller microcapsule is sitting inside a cracked microcapsule with larger size, which yields an interesting “yolk-shell”
architecture.
THIRD PLACE
“ORGANIC ADDITIVE MEDIATED NaCl CRYSTAL GROWTH“
Nuerxida Pulati, Post Doc, Materials Science and Engineering
Scientific Process: Additives affect on the growth and morphology of NaCl crystals.
COMPUTATIONAL CATEGORY
FIRST PLACE
“WATER POLARIZATION CHARGE OVER TiO2“
Quinn Campbell, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Scientific Process: New solvation techniques allow us to model how a semiconductor surface interacts with a solvent interface from first principles. This image shows the
charge density of polarization within water responding to a TiO2 surface. The blue and red isosurfaces represent areas of positive and negative charge density, respectively
SECOND PLACE
“PSEUDOCAPACITOR UNDER VOLTAGE“
Nathan Keilbart, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Scientific Process: This reactive micellar fingering pattern is formed when a surfactant solution (cetylpyridinium chloride, 425 mM) is injected into a Hele-Shaw cell initially filled with a liquid fatty acid, oleic acid. It is known that micellar
medium is formed at the interface of these two solutions, which controls the fingering pattern. The cell consists of two parallel glass plates with a 100 micrometer spacing, which models flow in porous media. One half of the cell is shown.
THIRD PLACE
“PHOTOSENSITIVE P3HT MOLECULE“
Jason Munro, Graduate, Materials Science and Engineering
Scientific Process: The behavior of charge carriers is of vital importance to the design of organic photovoltaic devices. Ideally, their loss through recombination should be minimized in order to maximize device efficiency. Through knowledge of how the electronic orbitals in potentially viable device materials are spatially oriented with respect to one another, information about how charge carriers recombine or separate can be obtained. This picture illustrates one of many calculated orbitals for research into a specific P3HT based block copolymer. The calculation was done using an electronic structure method. The blue and orange portions of the picture correspond to orbital isosurfaces which show its spatial orientation.
