Complete MVC 14 Gallery
“An Alloy-Flower Bloomed onto Cold Iron in the Fluoride Salts Universe”
Sanghyeok Im, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: Despite that tremendous driving force with high-temperature as like the big bang, the alloys that couldn’t have been mixed into strong iron, finally they were settling on a barren surface as like blunt flowers. Even the flower that bloomed alone in a chaotic universe looks cold and weak, but once again feels the strength of iron. (Help: Even the electric-driven force in molten salts at 800°C was not enough to alloy Fe, and only the reduced Ca-based alloy was accidentally located on the substrate. We know that even that is going to disappear soon, because Ca is a very reactive metal) characters or less.
Scientific Process: In the process of recovering a specific element from molten salts according to a given electrochemical force, the Ca-based alloy was formed as one of the electrolysis products onto the Fe metal electrode from molten LiF-CaF2-NdF3 under constant potential (-2.5 V versus Nd-Sn alloys as a reference electrode) for 12 h at 800°C. The reduction reaction of Ca and Li ions from the molten salt occurred by the given large negative redox potential, but the reduced Ca-based alloy and the Fe electrodes were not formed into an alloy at the operating temperature of 800°C as indicated in the existing phase diagram. Additionally, the irregular black-and-white shading pattern of the background in the image was caused by the non-equilibrium phase separation that may occur during the cooling process of the multicomponent molten salt.
“Moon of Auspicious Clouds”: Etched Silicon/Silicon Oxide-PMMA Interface by Sodium Hydroxide in a 2D Material Wet-Transfer Process”
Mingzu Lui, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: I got this image by accident since we seldom observe the etched wafer surfaces after a transfer process, just because it is no longer needed or used. The image I took on such a surface simple shocked me as I never saw this naturally formed scene with mixed colors.
Scientific Process: The colorful patterns emerge as a silicon/silicon oxide wafer substrate, coated with a polymer named PMMA, is dried up after an wet-transfer etching process using sodium hydroxide. The crystallization of sodium hydroxide and sodium metasilicate, together with the spreading of PMMA, resulted in this beautiful image under a simple optical microscope. The wet-transfer technique is widely applied in 2D materials research.
“A Micro-forest in a Nanofilm”
Rahul Pendurthi, Graduate Student, Engineering Science and Mechanics
Artist’s Perspective: Dark field image of a transferred monolayer MoS2 film on a delaminated PMMA surface. The “roots” are micro-wrinkles in the film, while the forest floor is generated by the undulations on the PMMA surface.
Scientific Process: PMMA assisted wet transfer process is conducted on a MOCVD grown MoS2 film. The target substrate is 50nm Al2O3/Pt/TiN/p++Si substrate with photoresist prespun on the surface. The MoS2 sample is spun coated with PMMA and is delaminated from the growth substrate using NaOH. The target substrate is used to fish out the film, however some delamination of the photoresist film on the target substrate is observed.
“Atomic Arch Bridge: Wisdom in the Quantum Realm”
Leixin Miao, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: I came from Hangzhou, a beautiful city in China with over two thousand years of history. One of the best-known buildings in my hometown is called “Duan Qiao” or “the Broken Bridge” in English. The Broken Bridge is an arch bridge. The arc bridge has abutments at each end and is shaped like an arc, which elegantly transfers the its load into a horizontal force restrained by the abutment at each end. The design of the arc bridge highlights the wisdom of our ancestors. When I examined the high-entropy oxide thin film in the aberration-corrected TEM, I accidentally found a similar scene at the atomic scale, and it reminds me of the Broken Bridge in my hometown. I found a significant lattice mismatch causes the film spontaneously distort into this arc bridge form to accommodate the strain. Is this the wisdom of the quantum world? I don’t really have an answer. Maybe, the atoms share the wisdom of our forefathers in the quantum realm.
Scientific Process: The modern aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopes enabled the imaging at a stunning spatial resolution of around 60 pm (6 × 10-11 meters). The advancement in the instrumentation allowed researchers to directly observe the atomic arrangement at the nanoscale and uncover some of the unique microstructures in the materials. This high angle annular dark-field (HAADF) STEM image exhibits a unique “arch bridge” microstructure in the high-entropy oxide thin film. The composition of this high-entropy oxide thin film is (La0.2Sm0.2Pr0.2Ce0.2Y0.2)O2. Interestingly, a huge lattice mismatch (above 20%!) exists between the film and the substrate and causes the thin film to delaminate from the substrate due to the enormous strain. With some part of the thin film detached and the other parts staying fixed, the film bends itself into an atomic bridge to accommodate the strain!
“Forest fire in two-dimensional (2D) materials”
Saiphaneendra Bachu, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: Atomic edge sites in two-dimensional (2D) materials are energetically different from the rest of the material because of the absence of bonding with some of the neighboring atoms. We call them dangling bonds. And, these act as nucleation centers when a second 2D material is grown subsequently to form heterostructures. Here, we see a zigzag line in the middle of the image which signifies the interface between two 2D materials: MoS2 on the left and ReS2 on the right. This is a result of growth of ReS2 from the edge of MoS2. False coloring of the image highlights the morphology difference between MoS2 and ReS2. While MoS2 is continuous, ReS2 is defective. These defects in ReS2 show up as green patches and hence make the image look like a forest fire that is advancing. The interface between the two materials is showing up as the edge of the forest.
Scientific Process: The image shows the interface between MoS2 and ReS2 in the heterostructures formed by them. The heterostructures are prepared using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique. While the growth conditions allowed for defect free growth of MoS2, as-grown ReS2 is defective. This structure is characterized using a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) in high angle annular dark field (HAADF) mode. This method replies on atomic number difference Mo and Re to create contrast between MoS2 and ReS2. FEI Titan TEM instrument at MCL was used to acquire this image.
“Islands of Microvoid Coalescence”
Ian Wietecha-Reiman, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: 1,000 characters or reInvestigating a fracture surface is best likened to reading a book. In the minute details that can be captured, there is an entire story of what happened to the component. Revealing that complex narrative of crack initiation, propagation, and final failure is one of my favorite aspects of my work. In a specimen exhibiting such severe porosity as this, such a rapid failure would only qualify as a short story, but one in which I keep finding more beauty and nuance. The image was captured using secondary-electron imaging, and then adjusted for visual preference through brightness and contrast control. Finally, an unsharp mask was applied to accentuate the texture of the solidified melt pools. These image processing steps highlight the dynamic narrative of rapid, localized failure.
Scientific Process: The impact of porosity present in laser-powder bed fusion Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy can be evaluated by altering processing parameters. In one such specimen, the melt pools did not spread or penetrate with each other, resulting in an interconnected, three-dimensional pore network. Under a uniaxial tensile test, the small cross-section of joints between melt pool passes fractured rapidly to produce shallow dimples less than a micrometer in diameter. Un-melted powder particles are observed sintered to the main melt pool structure. Ripples on the solidified melt pools are partially from the complex fluid dynamics, but also from slip lines from deformation.
“Making the Inert Boron Nitride into the Reactive Surface”
Yu Lei, Postdoctoral Scholar, Physics
Artist’s Perspective: When the boron and nitrogen atoms are bonded alternating in these hexagon lattices, they constitute the most inert two-dimensional materials. However, the defects can lower the shield and make it a reactive surface. Light can be emitted from the vacancies, and metals can be deposited near the vacancies. Eventually, the vacancies enriched the life of the inert boron nitride.
Scientific Process: Hexagonal boron nitride(hBN) has long been considered chemically inert due to its wide bandgap and robust covalent bonds. Its inertness hinders hBN from functionalization for energy conversion applications. A question arising is whether it is possible to make hBN chemically reactive. Here, we report cryomilling in liquid N2, as an effective strategy to activate the chemical reactivity of hBN by engineering different vacancies to produce defective-BN(d-BN). The local reactivity of the vacancies is probed by photoluminescence(PL) emissions and electron spin resonance spectroscopy(ESR). Due to the vacancy induced free radicals and Fermi level shifts, d-BN can be controllably functionalized with single metal atoms by the spontaneous reduction of metal cations; mono-metallic or bi-metallic clusters can also be effectively reduced.
“Nanotulip”
Yangyang Chen, Postdoctoral Scholar, Physics
Artist’s Perspective: When we characterized the two-dimensionality of this newly discovered and grown layered material, we found this sample looks tulip! Wish everyone would reap the surprises of experiments and discover the beauty of life while doing scientific research.
Scientific Process: This is an atomic force image of two-dimensional ferromagnetic material. Different color means different thickness. The petals are only 0.7nm difference in thickness.
“Cuneiform Script’ at Micro-World”
Yuchen Hou, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: Cuneiform is one of ancient languages consists of hieroglyphic script to describe the early understanding of human being on nature. It is a primitive description of the world seen by our ancestor. Here we observed analogous ‘script’ with which we can understand the nature of the material (e.g., grain feature, lattice orientation, preferable growth, etc.) It is a language spoken by the material to show us the information of the micro-world.
Scientific Process: This figure is captured from the surface of a solution-processed new halide perovskite film for solar cell application in our lab. As a new lead-free material, we firstly realized highly crystallized film and aims at the next-generation perovskite solar module with attributes of high stability and low toxicity, with a good potential to push forward the technical transition of perovskite photovoltaics.
“Circular defect on a 2D-InN/graphene surface”
Zachary Trdinich, Undergraduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: Walking past MVC images in Steidle during my campus tour prior to my freshman year, I never thought I would be able to produce such a thing. However, after getting involved in undergraduate research my sophomore year, that narrative has changed. After only being able to submit a lousy AFM image in 2021, I have finally acquired the SEM skills ready to take down this competition!
Scientific Process: This sample was produced via nitridation of a 2D-In sample that was synthesized using the confinement heteroepitaxy (CHet) method. This is done by annealing epitaxial graphene grown on SiC directly above a crucible containing In powder. At 800ºC, the In intercalates through the graphene layers to form 2D-In metal. From there, the sample is annealed in ammonia to crack the nitrogen and intercalate it into the sample as well–forming InN. When fully realized, this material could help construct devices capable of producing communication networks above 5G.
“Fracture”
Aubrey Fry, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: One of the many fascinating qualities of glass is how it interacts with light. My research allows me to see glass in many forms: molten, pristine, polished, fractured, and powdered. Each form serves a unique purpose and interacts with light differently. The beauty of glass changes during its lifetime, and glass can live forever. Glass starts molten like magma, then is cooled to solid shapes, and we call it pristine. Then I touch the glass and cut and grind it down to make it fit my needs, and it is no longer pristine. This glass is very strong and hard but with increasing pressure cracks begin to form. They emanate from walls and corners, seemingly random to me. But the glass knows exactly where it needs to break, I just don’t know glass as well as I think. I don’t know when or how a glass may come apart, but I know that whatever form it takes, it will still play with the light. When the usefulness of the glass ends, I return it to the furnace to become molten again and it produces its own light. Glass does not need to be pristine to be beautiful.
Scientific Process: This glass sample was made from melting batch materials at 1700°C for 3hrs and quenching on a steal plate. The glass was then annealed for 5hrs around 600°C before being cut and ground and polished. Finely polished samples then go through a series of mechanical tests, including Vickers microindentation, which produces imprints like this. Indentation pushes a diamond pyramid into the glass, and the cracks begin to form with increasing indentation force. Various characteristics of a glass can be determined using microindentation, including hardness, crack resistance, crack type evolution, and indentation toughness. This glass, and its sibling compositions, were designed to test mechanical performance as a function composition, specifically designed to have high hardness and high crack resistance. Testing these novel compositions is adding to our collective knowledge of how to create next-generation, intrinsically damage resistant glasses.
“‘The Adherens Junctions’: The key ‘artists’ behind epithelial cell-cell contacts”
Chinmay Sankhe, Graduate Student, Engineering/Chemical Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: Sometimes, I wish, I was a painter. I remember performing microscopy experiments for the very first time and just getting amazed and awe-struck at how these cells look under the microscope. Fluorescence-based assays further enhance your visualization power as you can characterize the localization of target proteins inside the cellular body, and that too, with the help of colors. I always like to perform fluorescence staining assays as I get a chance to see such colorful patterns these cells make during microscopy.
Scientific Process: Epithelial cells are cells that line most of the organs and blood vessels in our body. They are tightly held together and form continuous sheets. Epithelial cells form cell-cell contacts by connecting the cytoskeletal filaments of one cell with the neighboring cells via adherens junction proteins such E-cadherin. Here, the image shows mouse mammary epithelial cells seeded on polyacrylamide polymer hydrogel substrates for 72 hours. Immunofluorescence staining was performed to visualize the localization of E-cadherin proteins in cells using primary antibody targeting against E-cadherin. The image is captured using an epifluorescence microscope with a 20x objective with the nuclei of the cells stained using Hoechst nuclei acid stain dye (blue color) and E-cadherin stained with Alexa Fluor 594 dye (red color).
“Mo2C Crystals Floating on Water”
Furkan Turker, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: The fact that carbides are stiff seems like based on a fairy tale. “Do we really look stiff at all?” says the wise fairy made of molybdenum carbide. “On the contrary!” says the lotus lying down on a lily pad and adds “you could even float on water if you let it go”. Amid competitive research environment, as human beings we all feel stiff and rough, even though ultimate relaxation is in our hands with “let it go” mentality.
Scientific Process: The image is an optical micrograph of α-Mo2C crystals on copper grown via chemical vapor deposition. Except blue background, which represents copper substrate, all the features are vertically grown α-Mo2C crystals. Although the primary goal is to achieve atomically thin crystals, α-Mo2C prefers 3D growth due to its non-layered nature.
“Concrete for the Future – Lunar Regolith Simulant within an Ordinary Portland Cement Matrix”
Peter Collins, Graduate Student, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: With plans to maintain a human presence on the lunar surface on the horizon, data is needed on how the in-situ lunar resources can be used for construction materials. The environment on the lunar surface poses multiple challenges that must be understood and overcome. The Microgravity Investigation of Cement Solidification (MICS) project is advancing the understanding of how gravity influences the solidification of concrete materials. Scanning electron microscopes can take beautiful images that have not only allowed for a deeper scientific understanding of the concrete materials in the MICS project but also a creative way to highlight the research results. The addition of color to the lunar simulant particles highlights the importance of utilizing in-situ lunar resources and a promising start to the next era of human space exploration.
Scientific Process: Concrete materials are a promising option to build infrastructure on the lunar surface but the environment poses numerous challenges. This image captures the lunar regolith simulant, JSC-1A (orange particles), within an ordinary portland cement matrix that was mixed and cured on the International Space Station. After the astronaut had mixed the sample, it was placed within a centrifuge to mimic the gravity level of the Moon. The image was taken of a fractured surface upon the sample’s return to Earth using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The use of an SEM has been an essential aspect in identifying differences that gravity can have on the solidification and microstructural formation of concrete materials.
“Truffula Trees”
Katy Gerace, Graduate Student
Artist’s Perspective: A classic fable from my childhood was Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax. Like all Dr. Seuss stories, I fell in love with the colorful illustrations, whimsical language, and fictitious but captivating creatures that existed within the book pages. But The Lorax was different. As a child, I sensed a sadness permeating the story, but I didn’t fully comprehend why. Even though it’s a children’s book, The Lorax’s message on environmental preservation relates to people of all ages and backgrounds. Today, it’s message resonates strongly amidst the global challenges we face with a changing climate. It seems only fitting that the Lorax’s warning words are inspired by Truffula Trees hidden among the threads of fungal mycelium. A material celebrated for its biodegradable properties, mycelium-based materials are explored for their applications in sustainable design and environmental remediation. Fungi may be small, but they move through the world with surprising strength and adaptability as they grown on items from landfills, absorb heavy metals, and bind and support organic matter, only to return it to the natural soil. There is much work that needs to be done to create an environment where Truffula Trees can grow. Mycelium represents but one way to heal and preserve our world, so that maybe one day, the Lorax and his friends will come back.
Scientific Process: Taken with an electron microscope, this image demonstrates the morphological variety found in mycelium from the species Pleurotus ostreatus, or more commonly known as oyster mushrooms. Mycelium is the vegetative growth state of a fungus that feeds on organic matter before forming a fruiting body. Mycelium is composed of hypha, which are the individual threads that grow and intertwine to form a web-like structure called mycelium. The “bulb-on-stem” structures protruding from hypha strands are conidiospores for asexual fungal reproduction. While P. ostreatus is a popular specialty mushroom to grow for human consumption, the mycelium of this fungus is widely studied for its structural properties in biodegradable composite mycelium materials (CMM’s) and pure mycelium materials (PMM’s) due to its ability to grow rapidly on a variety or organic materials and substrates. CMMs are used as biodegradable packaging alternatives and building blocks for sustainable architectures, whereas PMM’s are most notably found in the fashion industry as vegan leather. Elucidating structure-property relationships of mycelium is a burgeoning research area, and this image illustrates the morphology of P. ostreatus after two weeks of growth in potato dextrose agar. The mycelium was air dried for 12 hours, coated with 5 nm of gold, and imaged using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The web-like structure of mycelium is well documented, but less illustrated in literature is the formation of conidiophores, contributing insight into the development and growth of P. ostreatus.
“Walking in a Wolfram Wonderland”
Alex Sredenschek, Graduate Student, Physics
Artist’s Perspective: When autumn turns to winter and the months grow colder, there is always something I look forward to: snow! Every time it snows, I catch a few snowflakes in my hand and stare at the crystals as long as I can before they melt; I also take a moment to gaze at the ice on my car windows while the engine warms up. Snowflakes remind me of the beautiful structures we can find in nature, from the honeycomb lattice of graphene to a night sky full of stars. As an experimentalist who spends much time synthesizing and characterizing materials, I marvel at how complex chemical reactions can produce beautiful yet similar structures in such different systems. Viewing these tungsten carbide crystals under the scanning electron microscope immediately reminded me of the snowflakes I have been catching in my hands since I was a child. Applying the cold colors helped me recreate a wintry scene that we are familiar with in State College!
Scientific Process: Transition metal carbides (TMCs) compose a large material family and exhibit high melting points, corrosion resistance, and catalytic activity. These materials have been well-studied in their bulk forms. Recently, advances in chemical vapor deposition (CVD) have led to the production of single-crystal, ultrathin (<100 nm) TMCs, and current research focuses on understanding confinement effects on ultrathin TMC properties. In the Terrones group, we synthesize tungsten carbide nanoplatelets via CVD for structural characterization and transport measurements. This scanning electron microscope (SEM) image, taken at a tilt angle of 45° with respect to the sample stage normal, shows a perspective view of the step edges and dendritic growth in the tungsten carbide crystals, transferred onto SiO2/Si, that resemble snowflakes with fractal-like patterns and quasi six-fold symmetry. This image was taken on the Apreo field emission SEM with an immersion lens at a magnification of 6500x.
“Array of spin torque devices”
Wilson Yanez, Graduate Student, Physics
Artist’s Perspective: As materials scientists we spend most of our time thinking about the basic characteristics of matter, usually considering materials that are a few atoms thick or electrons in an infinite periodic lattice. Modern lithography techniques allow us to break the barrier between these incredible useful microscopic abstractions and the macroscopic things that we can see, feel, touch and measure. Here we see how using gold wire that is thinner than a human hair we connect these two seemly disconnected worlds and in the case of this experiment, measure the spin of the electrons in a heavy metal.
Scientific Process: This is a microscopy picture of an array of micrometer size devices used for spin torque characterization made on a heavy metal/ferromagnet heterostructure. At these small scales the spin of the electrons in the heavy metal can interact with the magnetization of the ferromagnet in a way that can be measured experimentally. We see one of these devices being contacted to the waveguide beneath it using gold wire.
“Steely Silver Linings”
Derek Shaffer, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: I enjoy this image because the fractal-like nature of the grain structure is very appealing to the eye. Combining that with the texture in the martensite developed through etching as well as the bright outlines around the delta-ferrite presents a multi-dimensional piece that speak to both the rough and tough nature of steel as well as the intricate complexities the metallurgy of steel processing presents. My hope for the viewer is that you get lost as I do tracing the outlines, which I think of as the “Steely Silver Linings”, of the grains presented brightly due to the polarized light and that one gets almost hypnotized by the seemingly simple yet chaotic and complex nature of the stainless steel microstructure.
Scientific Process: 17-4 PH stainless steel is a very common high strength stainless steel alloy. Recent developments in additive manufacturing have brought this alloy into the spotlight for many industrial applications. To fully understand as-deposited microstructures and properties, this thermally induced microstructure made up of martensite and delta-ferrite was created to compare the BCC morphologies in these alloys both in additively manufactured material and in traditional wrought material. This image was taken under polarizing light in an inverted optical metallographic microscope. The sample was prepared using an electrolytic NaOH etchant applying 3 volts for 30 seconds.
“Steely Silver Linings”
Kelly Matuszewski, Undergraduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: The striking colors of this image brought out by the polarized light on the semi-crystalline surface is what stood out the most to me. The unassuming glass substrate was transformed into beautifully colored artwork by the spherulites and crystalline domains of the polyethylene oxide blocks of the polymer. The contrast seen between the two regions of spherulites adds depth to the image. Overall, the way the polymer interacts with polarized light creates an array of beautiful jewel-like colors.
Scientific Process: The triblock copolymer seen here, polystyrene-b-polyethylene oxide-b-polystyrene (SOS), contains a crystalline region of polyethylene oxide (PEO) which can form visible spherulites. Images were created using the drop cast method, the polymer was dissolved in THF, dropped onto a substrate, and vacuum dried. The substrate was then observed through polarized optical microscopy to analyze the crystal microstructure. The image here shows the crystallization of the PEO sites to be able to gather more information about SOS which is used in current research to create fibers which are capable of actuation.
“Love Starts at the Cellular Level”
Luis D Rivas Baguer, Graduate Student, Engineering Science and Mechanics
Artist’s Perspective: As researchers we sacrifice many things in our lives for our work, be it: sleep, meals, social events, family time, hobbies and in extreme cases even our lives. But why do we do it? We do it for the love of research and the prospect of progress for humankind. After many failed attempts and bad results, I was able to obtain this sample. This image that I was able to capture may look like a heart, but what I see is different. When I look at it, I see that all my sacrifices and hard work are being recompensated. After pouring my heart and soul into the project and giving it love, the project finally loved me back. No matter how defeated you may feel remember that one day your projects will love you back.
Scientific Process: Image of human lung fibroblast cells that were stained with fluorescent solution for a live-dead study. These cells were aggregated by Acoustic Levitation at 40kHz using ultrasonic transducers; unexpectedly expressing the shape of a heart. Image was taken using a Zeiss fluorescent microscope and edited (color) using ImageJ FIJI software.
“The Happiest Connection of Cell Dimensions”
Nazmiye Celik, Graduate Student, Engineering Science and Mechanics
Artist’s Perspective: Think about it, when was the last time you did something to touch others’ life? Probably, you always tried to make something that made only you feel amazing but didn’t make others feel the same as well. Whenever I witness new connections and dimensions under the microscope, I feel like how we lost all these bridges in this world. Here, two different dimensions of cells as 3D and 2D were physically represented by using a confocal microscope. They are trying to set a connection between dimensions and touch each others’ lives at the cellular level. I called it “the happiest connection of cell dimensions.” I can’t see, touch, hear or smell their happiness but can only feel it deeply.
Scientific Process: The 3D cell spheroid formed by using Rat Muscle-derived progenitor cells (MPCs) are communicating with 2D Rat Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs). The Potential of Heterotypic differentiation was evaluated for Bone formation in a tissue model. Cytoskeleton (green)- and cell nuclei (blue)- and RUNX2 bone marker (red)-stained samples were imaged by using a Zeiss LSM 880 Airyscan confocal microscope via ZEN 2.3 SP1 software as 3D z-stack.
“Engineering Exotic Textures in Lead-Free Ferroelectric Heterostructures”
Jacob Zorn, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: Exotic topological textures require exotic colors and methods to standout. Here we transport the viewer into a kaleidoscope of colors and features to help emphasize the novel, exotic, and unusual properties of topological textures within ferroelectric domain states, as the light nittany blue rotates into the yellow goldenrod and back again throughout the vortex tubes that form in the heterostructure.
Scientific Process: Exotic polar states, such as skyrmions and vortices, are of great interest to the materials community, but to current have only been realized in lead-based systems. Using phase-field simulations we are able to determine the appropriate boundary conditions and architectures for the design and creation of not only polar vortices, but all skyrmions inside of lead-free heterostructures. Here we demonstrate the coexistence of these states via boundary condition engineering to yield novel textures.
“Graphene nano-tablets”
Rinu Abraham Maniyara, Postdoctoral Scholar
Artist’s Perspective: I was always fascinated to use microscopes in my childhood. We used to see a different world under the microscope. But we were seeing something that is already existing. When I become a scientist, now I am able to create my own world in the nano level. Yes, I am a nano civil engineer! I can create pillars, bridges, trenches, buildings everything in nano meter scale. I was very much excited to see this sample that I prepared under the scanning electron microscope. In the first look, I felt I am seeing some stripes of nano tablets. Most of us are using different types of tablets in our everyday life. I am always happy to relate my work with daily life so thought of giving its name as “graphene nano-tablets”.
Scientific Process: Scanning electron microscope image of epitaxial graphene grown on Silicon carbide (SiC)nano pillars. The SiC substrate is patterned using maskless aligner and etched using dry-etching. The diameter of the pillars are 4um and the depth is around 600nm. Graphene is epitaxially grown on this patterned SiC wafer leading to the formation of graphene nano-tablets. These graphene coated substrates can further utilized to intercalate two dimensional metals using confinement hetero-epitaxy. This patterned substrates with 2D metals open new doors to study and understand the field confinement, and propagation of plasmons and phonon polaritons in 2D materials.
“Stars in the dark”
Na Zhang, Postdoctoral Scholar, Physics
Artist’s Perspective: While optical microscopy usually gives you a colorful and multifarious microcosmic world, fluorescence microscopy exhibits something pure and intrinsic. I was surprised the first time I found out that the normally triangular two-dimensional WS2 flakes were star-shaped lights standing out in the void. The fluorescence stands out with a beautiful shape and clear texture which reflects the inner atomic scale structure. The image was captured without color, but I adjusted it to return the true color of the fluorescence centered at 522 nm which can be seen by eye under the microscope.
Scientific Process: The star-shaped WS2 was synthesized by artificially adding trace amounts of Mo to the W precursor with a liquid-phase precursor-assisted CVD approach. The center of the star shows weak fluorescence and is ascribed to the WxMo1-xS2 alloy, which stretches out to the vertex along the acute bisectors of the hexagram, while the edges of the star have strong fluorescence due to grain boundaries. The fluorescence image also shows bright lines from center to the edge revealed by DF-TEM as gaps between two grains.
“Crystals in a Haystack”
Justin Reiss, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: Many research programs aim to find the needle in a haystack, or a diamond in the rough. I was fortunate enough that through investigating a degraded surface of a single crystal, I was able to find this small cluster of crystals in a haystack of precipitates. These samples highlighted that every failed experiment can sometime have a silver lining.
Scientific Process: This is a surface SEM image of a metal-halide perovskite single crystal grown through solution processing at near room temperature. Residual solvent dried onto the surface, resulting in the growth of small orthorhombic perovskite single crystals imbedded into a matrix of highly oriented straw-like lead bromide precipitates.
“Molly’s Comet: Orthorhombic Molybdenum Trioxide Crystals from Outer Space”
Ryan Spangler, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: Immediately bringing to mind images of glowing shooting stars, this image holds a striking similarity to some of the more fascinating denizens of the night sky. The green-and-purple coloration of the “comet tail” is brought about by a polarizing lens attached to the optical microscope paired with differing orientations of the oxide. The backdrop of the image, at first appearing devoid of interest, adds intrigue upon closer inspection as imperfections in the sapphire substrate enhance the cosmic overtone of the piece.
Scientific Process: Using chemical vapor transport (CVT), crystals of α-MoO3 can be grown on various substrates. In this image, cooperative gradients reactant supersaturation and temperature above a sapphire substrate created a limited geometric shape where nuclei were thermodynamically stable and kinetically allowed. Elsewhere on the substrate, adatoms either re-evaporated faster than they could nucleate, or diffused to locations where growth was more stable. This image was collected using an optical microscope, and the individual crystals were given their color using a polarizing lens which takes advantage of the anisotropy of the orthorhombic crystal structure.
“Jupiter Unwrapped”
Sergei Stepanoff, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: Massive space bodies can take several forms, from starry plasma to cold and lonely rocks. Even our own solar system hosts a range gas giants and terrestrial planets, and many on Earth can recognize the looks and characteristics of each planet. Many would undoubtedly recognize the features manifested in this thermal spray coating as having a passing resemblance to our very own Jupiter. The chaotic, high pressure environment which conceived this coating is a well-fitting analogy for the harsh environment of Jupiter’s atmosphere.
Scientific Process: Thermal spray coatings can be tailored for use as a thermal barrier coating in high temperature gas-turbine engines, where the ceramic top coat acts as a robust insulating layer that protects underlying metallic components. This cross-sectional view of a thermal spray coating shows how heated, high speed ceramic particles will deform upon impact to create a lamellar morphology that reduces the thermal flux through the layers.
“Engineered hierarchical porosity of microgels for accelerate tissue ingrowth”
Alexander Kedzierski, Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: The use of fluorescent microscopy often involves the use of a singular color. For this reason, 3D models may be difficult to visualize on a 2D plane. To address this issue, a depth gradient was used, allowing the viewer to see the natural spherical shape of the microgel. The resulting image was captivating to look at, even accounting for artist’s bias stemming from the hours of microscopy that it took to capture and model the final depiction.
Scientific Process: Granular scaffolds fabricated from the assembly of microgels have innate porous properties. However, due to the packing limitations of spherical micro-objects, the void fraction of such systems rarely exceeds 20-30%. As cells cannot proliferate inside of microgels, this space is the extent of what is available for tissue growth. By creating a temperature gradient following the production of microgels from a solution containing gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) and a variable concentration of poly-ethylene oxide (PEO), an interconnected porous network with hierarchical pore size within microgel building blocks of granular scaffolds may be engineered. This submission is a 3D rendering of the tiff stack resulting from the fluorescent imaging of such microgel soaked in FITC-Dextran dye. By showing that the dye is able to diffuse throughout the whole bead, these images demonstrate interconnectivity of the porous network within the microgel. Additionally, these images allow the viewer to see the size and geometry of the channels formed within the porous microgels, which may be controlled via tuning polymer concentration.
“Crashing Waves of a Rising Tide”
Christopher DeSalle, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: The movement of crashing waves on a seashore and the effects of a rising tide, closely resembles the kinetics and thermodynamics of atomic movement. Just as waves are made up of molecules bobbing and weaving to and from in the oceans current, such is the case of vibrating atoms that traverse the anharmonicity of a potential energy well. While ocean particles are driven by the ocean current, the driving force for atomic motion is derived from the superposition of the repulsive and attractive forces two atoms may induce and/or exhibit with one another. The volume expansion and bond stretching within a material due to delamination, defect density, or thermal expansion results in a stretching and contracting nature of atomic bonds similar to the drifting of an ocean wave to and from the seashore.
Scientific Process: Magnetron sputtering, a physical vapor deposition technique, was utilized to grow a thin film multilayered coating under high vacuum. Oxidation of the substrate prior to deposition alters the number of surface sites available for chemisorption and physisorption, thus effecting the free energy governing the thermodynamics, kinetics, and atomic structure needed for bonding at the substrate coating interface. When exposed to atmosphere, coating spallation and delamination around defect sites propagates through the coating leading to a blistering effect. When quick enough, and image such as this can be taken prior to full coating exfoliation revealing an astounding surface morphology and optical properties.
“Radioactive Squid Synergy”
Robert Slapikas, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: The figure is called radioactive squid energy because the ubiquitous radioactive sign may be seen in the image, which is unusual since hydrogen evolution reactions are a clean, sustainable source of energy. Another image that comes to mind is the image of three squid heads coming together, which may be thought of as the heads and the key scientific pillars that drive materials science and crystal chemistry.
Scientific Process: In this simulation the minimum energy path is calculated for hydrogen atoms on a platinum (Pt) Wulff construction nanoparticle. Coloring the atoms based on the magnitude of their effective charge, it is possible to see the effects of crystal chemistry where the three fold rotation on the Pt (111) facet is seen as a result of preferred orientation and energy minimization. Thermodynamics and kinetics govern the adsorption and surface migration of hydrogen atoms across the Pt nanoparticle. Through the manipulation of the Pt nanoparticle, the hydrogen atoms may diffuse, reabsorb, and/or cause atomistic reconstruction aiding in increasing the magnitude of a hydrogen evolution reaction. Visualization of the hydrogen atom movement in such simulations can aid in the modeling and development of hydrogen fuel cells critical for renewable energy resources.
“A Micrograph of Fire and Ice”
Pete Lauer, Undergraduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: While I navigated across the grayscale surface of a cross-section, a tear in the Kevlar aramid nanofibers caught my eye. In this gorge, there were masses of fibers reminiscent of eldritch horrors and coniferous forests. However, to me, the most eye-catching feature was the two nanofibrous strands seemingly reaching out to one another. The duality of these fibers was the ultimate inspiration for my color palette. I colored the micrograph’s bottom half red as the wispier microstructure reminded me of fire. In contrast, the top half of the micrograph was a bit denser and more blockish like ice, inspiring me to color it blue.
Scientific Process: One method for producing a Kevlar aramid nanofiber matrix is through spin coating, and this micrograph captures one such sample. However, in this sample, a tear formed in its center creating a large volume of negative space sparsely filled with nanofibers that were once joined. This image was taken using a scanning electron microscope with back-scattered electrons.
“Order Among Disorder: Stained Glass Windows of Molybdenum Trioxide on a Mica Substrate”
Ryan Spangler, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: The patterns and coloration that appear in this image are reminiscent of the stained glass windows that have been prevalent in churches and other religious buildings for a thousand years. However, this may not come as an instantaneous realization to all viewers; at first glance, the image may appear pretty, but messy and without any structure or order. Nevertheless, the highly regular orientations and angles that form the dark “frames” for our stained glass panes distinguish the image from a purely random collection of colors. In addition to reminding us of the previously mentioned art medium, the juxtaposition of uninhibited color and rigid order may give us cause to reflect on how much uniqueness and vibrancy can exist within the constraints of any given situation.
Scientific Process: Molybdenum trioxide, a material of interest for its strongly anisotropic properties, possesses a high vapor pressure which can be taken advantage of by using chemical vapor transport to grow crystals of this wide-bandgap semiconductor. Mica is an apt substrate for this process owing to its smooth surfaces and absence of dangling bonds. By growing molybdenum trioxide using this technique, a complex microstructure is sometimes observed; in this case, microribbons grow at specific directions defined by the substrate and plate-like crystals fill in much of the space in between. The resulting structure has a fascinating appearance when viewed through an optical microscope, where the microribbons appear dark while the varying thicknesses of the platelets produce fantastic coloration.
“Liquid Crystal Thin Film Relaxing”
Pamela Mc Knight, Undergraduate Student, College of Eberly Science
Artist’s Perspective: In this particular picture, we were first setting up our color camera and happened to take a few pictures before the needle began to oscillate. Here the liquid crystal thin film is relaxing from when we centered the needle. I was able to watch the film slowly unwind for the first time in color.
Scientific Process: In our lab, we spread a thin film of 11% by weight cromolyn disodium salt hydrate, dissolved in water, across a hole in a metal slide. We then suspended a magnetic rod within the film. Using a changing magnetic field, we were able to move the rod back and forth and shear the liquid crystal thin film. This movement changes the orientations of the stacks of molecules, causing what looks like beautiful ripples and pools when the film is placed between crossed polarizers.
“A Kaleidoscope of Hidden Easter Eggs”
Robert Slapikas, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: Despite the fact that Pt is considered the ideal material for fuel cell generation from a catalytic viewpoint, it is not a realistic material from a cost standpoint. This picture depicts oxidized Pt nanoparticles in an aqueous solution for oxygen reduction reactions (ORR). Since developing new materials for renewable energy sources means adopting a new way of thinking. Kaleidoscopes are used to view optical images from different perspectives, and Easter eggs are considered new and unique features or surprises in games and movies. Hence, this image has been dubbed a “Kaleidoscope of Hidden Easter Eggs.” Thus, by taking a fresh look into ORR reactions and the interactions surrounding them, scientists may be able to discover and unlock new surprises and features for fuel cell technology.
Scientific Process: The oxygen adsorption and reconstruction of the nanoparticle facets show the stability of Pt nanoparticles and the dissolution of Pt atoms in an aqueous environment in the image. The positive shift in charge on the dissociated Pt atoms is related to their +2 oxidation state and may be observed in tests by coloring the atoms according to the magnitude of their effective charge.
“Universe of Boron Stars”
Patrick Rondomanski, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: Imagine being surrounded by endless stars. As far as your eye can see there are only the ripples of these majestic boron stars, all with their own unique shape and personality. Some are big, some are small, and some have curious “eyes” that catch you in their eternal gaze. This image allows us to bring the microscopic into the macroscopic and do just that. There’s nothing more awe-inspiring than the vast expanse of space filled with countless balls of hot gas and rock. Here, we’ve created a universe of single elemental stars that can be held in the palm of your hand. What if these boron stars had planets of their own? A universe inside another universe.
Scientific Process: This is a scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of boron deposition on the surface of multiple-layer epitaxial graphene while attempting to intercalate the material into the buffer layer region between the graphene and silicon carbide substrate. The boron was deposited at high temperature and, upon cooling, the variance in the thermal expansion of boron with temperature caused the surface boron film to bunch into the forms shown. A closer inspection of the film would reveal it is made up of nano-sized spheres of boron. The ability to have easily removed the boron film from the surface is further evidence that the film is indeed bunching up as opposed to having large mounds of boron deposition in that pattern. Boron is notably difficult to remove from graphene and prohibits meaningful analysis of the buffer layer region. This heating/cooling of the film technique allows for easier removal of surface depositions for further studies.
“Fireworks in Disneyland: diffraction pattern of organic thin-film grew on graphene”
Zixuan Guo, Graduate Student
Artist’s Perspective: Walt Disney once said, “Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.” Now, imagination has introduced Disneyland to the nanoworld. The Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD) diffraction pattern of organic thin-film grew on graphene reminds me of the stunning fireworks that light up the night sky at Disneyland. Here, GIXD allows us to determine the crystallinity, crystal packing, and orientations of radiation-sensitive organic soft materials. Such rapid revolution in instrumentation at synchrotron facilities brings magic to the organic thin film study, and we can discover more that we could not before.
Scientific Process: This image is a Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD) 2D diffraction pattern of ZnPc thin film (an organic semiconducting small molecule) grew on the graphene-coated substrate via vertical physical vapor transport. The blue diffraction spots (“fireworks”) on the images reveal the single-crystallinity nature of ZnPc thin film, and the index of them can help us construct the ZnPc’s triclinic lattice structure and determine the face-on packing motif. This gives us a chance to understand them better and explore their possible future applications in flexible organic electronics. The data were collected at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Light source (SSRL) on beamline 11-3 with a photon energy of 12.73 Kev. The incidence angle of the incident beam was set to 0.14°.
“MoS2aic Tessellation: Nanoscale Tetris with Chemical Vapor Deposition”
Riccardo Torsi, Graduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: Looking back to previous MVC editions, I noticed that atomic force microscopy (AFM) is rarely featured. With this false-colored micrograph, I wanted to display that in addition to being a really powerful surface metrology technique, AFM can produce beautiful images. From nuclei developing into sharp hexagonal crystals, to spiral-like growth, the image displays some of the magic behind the curtains of chemical vapor deposition chambers. What I find especially captivating about the image is that the viewer can clearly see the tessellation of hexagonal MoS2 grains into larger crystals which happens during growth.
Scientific Process: The highly oriented hexagons imaged by atomic force microscopy (AFM) are MoS2 crystals. What is remarkable about them is that they are atomically smooth and only 7 angstroms in thickness! The crystals are grown with a vapor-phase method called metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). MOCVD allows us to control how MoS2 crystals nucleate, laterally grow, and eventually coalesce into large area films. The films pictured here are grown on sapphire substrates and they are nominally three layers in thickness. The different colors in the AFM micrograph accentuate the different MoS2 layers. For MoS2 growers it is important to “direct” the individual grains in a particular orientation so that they can all fit nicely together when they coalesce – much like in a game of Tetris played at the nanoscale. Having this tessellation-type growth can prevent the formation of randomly oriented grain boundaries which are known to impair electrical transport in materials.
“Microscopic Meteor Shower”
Lucas Erich, Undergraduate Student, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: Sometimes a scanning electron micrograph (SEM) in its purest black-and-white form is simple enough to inspire through the eyes of the observer. Having always been fascinated with outer space, I saw the immediate parallelism between the scene in this image and those scenes of the extraordinary world. Only limited by my imagination, I’m sure this depiction is strikingly similar to one far away from here, some cosmic instance in time and space. Instead of space rock spiraling toward a planetary body, this image captures the agglomeration of macroparticles during cathodic arc physical vapor deposition (PVD) of a thin-film Cr coating onto a Zr substrate. I guess it’s only fitting to find a microcosm in a microscope.
Scientific Process: This scanning electron micrograph (SEM) depicts the agglomeration of macroparticles during cathodic arc deposition of a thin-film Cr coating onto a Zr substrate, a materials system used as an accident tolerant fuel (ATF) in the nuclear power industry. This high-vacuum physical vapor deposition (PVD) technique is notorious for producing particles that transcend the microscopic scale. As high-energy chromium atoms bombard the surface of the substrate, they often migrate. The extent to which they do is governed by a phenomenon known as adatom mobility. Energetics often lead to the clustering of these atomic species and the formation of large particles, which also can collect into large masses. Macroparticles and their agglomerates are important from an application standpoint because they can impart local stresses in the coating and also provide an entryway for corrosive substances to penetrate through to the substrate.
“Passage of Cracks”
Selda Nayir, Postdoctoral Scholar, Materials Science and Engineering
Artist’s Perspective: How striking are the similarities between what we call inanimate objects like metals and the human body! On one hand, when the metal fails to carry the burdened load, it forms cracks to release the imposed energy through opened passages. On the other hand, if the host is a living being, we call these passages veins which carry blood, through all the possible parts of the body to give life to its host. As the saying goes, life has a way of working itself out, and probably it is by either flooding blood through to the veins or opening cracks to let the intangible energies pass.
Scientific Process: Ti-6Al-4V alloy is fabricated via the powder bed fusion process. The test specimen was later uniaxially tensile tested and microstructurally examined to investigate crack formation around fabrication defects. The scanning electron microscope images were taken in Apreo SEM (Thermo Scientific) using the T1 backscattered detector which enables the resolution based on atomic Z-contrast. The longest crack is around 60μm and decorated with small cracks branching out of it.
