NCMN MEMBERS CELEBRATE RESEARCH BREAKTHROUGHS IN MATERIALS & NANOSCIENCE ! |
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at the Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience |
NCMN Achievements over time - Tab divisions for "TOPICS" referencing
Grants
Nebraska EPSCoR’s FIRST Award program is designed to help early career faculty initiate their research programs and compete more effectively for NSF CAREER grants. Xia Hong, Physics and Astronomy and Yusong Li, Civil Engineering are two of the 2011 Awardees.
DOE grant funds innovative nanotechnology research at UNL. Nanoscientists David Sellmyer, Director, NCMN and George Holmes University Distinguished Professor, Ralph Skomski, Research Associate Professor and Jeff Shield, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UNL have received a prestigious grant to develop new magnetic materials that could help reduce global warming and the nation's dependence on foreign resources.
Nebraska EPSCoR awarded a $3.3 million joint grant with Puerto Rico to create cyberinfrastructure and explore nanomaterials for energy efficiency. Evgeny Tsymbal is the chief scientist at University of Nebraska on this project.
DOE funds Ravi Saraf's work to engineer electronic interface between living cell and nanodevice.
Shireen Adenwalla, NCMN member involved in a newly awarded $3 million, five-year grant from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Dzenis part of $7.5M Army grant to develop fibers for stronger defense materials.Andrzej Rajca received a 2011 NCESR Energy Grant for an Energy Grant for an energy project titled "Novel Supercapacitors Based on Nano-Structured materials."
Professor Xiao Cheng Zeng received a 2011 NCESR Energy Grant for his energy project titled "Nanostructured Design of Catalysts for Converting Glycerol to Value-Added Chemicals."
The Kirill Belashchenko group has been awarded a new DMR-NFS Grant. This award supports computational and theoretical research and education aimed at understanding thermal effects in spin-dependent transport. 2010
NIH GRANT - Anuradha Subramanian has earned a National Institute of Health grant for design and evaluation of Ultrasound stimulation-aided Bioreactor configurations. The long-term goal of her research is to generate engineered articular cartilage tissues.
Bio-nano Hybrid Device Manufacturing - A grant from the National Science Foundation through the ARRA funds Ravi Saraf's research, which explores bio-nano hybrid systems that harness.
Yongfeng Lu, EE and Xinwei Wang, ME have been awarded $3 million to study thin diamond film technology. more... April 2005
Discovery
The Sellmyer Group's nanostructure design figure in print with highlight sentence as a cover image of Magnetic Technology International 2012
New class of materials discovered; could boost computer memory - Dr. Evgeny Tsymbal and international team of scientists have discovered that a new class of materials boasts a very attractive property — ferroelectricity, which may be used to create new types of data storage devices.
Scientists create new form of matter that can dent diamonds - ordered amorphous carbon clusters - Xiao Cheng Zeng and postdoctoral researcher Hui Li
Dr. Alexei Gruverman with his grad student, Haidong Luhas (in collaboration with researchers in Spain and at the Univ. of Wisconsin) discovered a significantly more efficient method of data storage that offers great promise for the future of technology.
Professors Christian Binek and Peter Dowben, theorist Kirill Belashchenko & collaborators' Research Publication documents Spintronics Breakthrough, which paves way to store and process information in novel spin-electronics says NFS Discoveries. The Breakthrough Method controls collective spin states electrically at room temperature.
Xiao Cheng Zeng (Chemistry) and colleagues reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' online edition that they have found evidence of the first free-standing hollow cage structure composed of clusters of pure metal atoms, which they've dubbed golden hollow cages. Illustrations of their discovery can be found on the cover of the May 30, 2006 print edition of PNAS. It's believed to be the first UNL research featured on the journal's cover.
Faculty
Mechanical engineer Gu leads ADVANCE HIRE
Stephen DiMagno and his entrepreneurial team are among the inaugural recipients of NSF's Innovation Corps award, also known as the I-Corps. Winners were announced Oct. 6. Read more about this award on Today@UNL
Patrick Dussault, Charles Bessey professor of chemistry, has been selected the new Dean of Graduate Studies. Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Ellen Weissinger announced the appointment. Dussault will take over duties as graduate dean June 1, pending approval by the Board of Regents.
EPSCoR's annual report features several NCMN member researchers.
Dr. Jinsong Huang received the 2010 Young Investor Program (YIP) award from Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) to study a novel high quantum efficiency mechanism in organic photodetector.
Evgeny Tsymbal’s research was featured in the invited article at AZoM.com under a section "Materials Thought Leaders Series"
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Carbon nano-onion illustration
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Harnessing Laser Power Creates Precise NanostructuresAnnual Reports 2010-2011from the Office of Research & Economic Development Carbon, the ubiquitous element of life, has many special properties. Harnessing it at the atomic level to create nanostructures promises to transform many everyday products, from computer chips to sunglasses. Discovering fast, cost-effective ways to mass produce these nanostructures is key to their practical use. It’s Yongfeng Lu’s specialty. “Carbon nanostructures have very large potential in different applications,” said Lu, Lott University Professor of Electrical Engineering. His UNL team has developed several unique processes that use lasers to make precise carbon nanostructures. They are refining their techniques and exploring new applications for their nanostructures. Since 2003, they have earned more than $14 million in research grants. Their laser-based production techniques can precisely control the length, diameter and properties of carbon nanotubes. Using these highly electrically and thermally conductive nanotubes, Lu’s team developed methods to improve transistors and sensors that may one day speed up computers and other electrical devices, while minimizing energy consumption and heat generation. They also discovered how to control a carbon nanotube’s diameter from one end to the other, which alters its characteristics. Lu envisions variable- diameter nanotubes customized for specific uses. Now they’re studying how to join carbon nanotubes to make smaller, lighter wires that carry large amounts of current for use in electric cars and other products. Another breakthrough process creates carbon nano-onions, spherical nanostructures resembling onion layers that have unique electrical, optical and magnetic properties. Nano-onions can store large amounts of energy on their extensive surface area. Using nano-onions, Lu’s team has developed supercapacitors for high-density energy storage. Nano-onions also have optical limiting properties, absorbing light as it intensifies. Lu’s research could lead to improved eye protection, optical sensors, satellites and other optical-dependent materials. Lu’s team also developed a fast, single-step process using lasers to write graphene patterns on surfaces. A basic building block for other nanostructures, graphene resembles nanoscale chicken wire. Its electrical conductivity and transparency could be used in products such as LCD televisions and solar panels. “Carbon is everywhere, so the future of electronics, photonics and many high-tech industries will not be limited by supplies,” Lu said. |
Student
Jeffrey Lopez a junior studying chemical engineering was awarded the 2011 Goldwater scholarship and has been participating in the Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Experiences program with Ravi Saraf.
Rhitankar Pal, a grad student in the Zeng lab, is one of 4 UNL Ph.D. candidates to win a 2011-12 Presidential Graduate Fellowships
Outreach
'Nano to Nature' is now on display at Pioneers Park Nature Center from NCMN's Outreach / Education (Terese Janovec, Coordinator Education-Outreach).
"Biomaterials for Battlefield Trauma" with Dr. Jody Redepenning at The Mill location: 800 P St., at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15. Dr. Redepenning's night at The Mill imakes front page Daily Nebraskan coverage.
The second annual NanoDays event will be held in Lincoln on March 24, 1:00 – 4:00 pm at the Westfield Gateway Mall. The event is co-hosted by Nebraska EPSCoR, MRSEC and NCMN
NanoDays has been announced in Lincoln Journal Star. Organized by UNL's MRSEC, NCMN and Nebraska EPSCoR, NanoDays is planned for Saturday, April 2, 2011 from 1 p.m. – 4 p.m at Westfield Gateway Shopping Mall.
Nano Science Café at the Red9 on July 22 at 6:30 p.m. offers a relaxed environment for presentiations by Associate Professor of Physics Christian Binek and Physics Post-doctoral Researcher Steve Michalski about exciting discoveries in the nanosciences as reported by Office of Communications and Lincoln Journal Star and organized by NCMN Outreach.
Progress
Rare Earth Solar will be the first solar panel manufacturer in Nebraska. Chin Li "Barry" Cheung, assistant professor of chemistry at UNL and past doctoral student Joseph Brewer developed the patent-pending technologytechnology, which replaces the typical semiconductor materials now used in solar cell manufacture with rare earth elements. NUtech Ventures and Rare Earth Solar announced an exclusive license agreement expected to lead to the development of breakthrough solar panel technology made with rare earth elements. more...
NCMN News
Small is the New Big Columns article
Nebraska Research and Innovation Conference hosted by EPSCoR
The Spring 2012 Science Art Competition titled: "The Art of NanoScience" is sponsored by the Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience.
NCMN welcomes new member: Jinsong Huang, Mechanical Engineering and the following new members since July 2009: Rebecca Y. Lai Chemistry, Shadi Othman Biological Systems Engineering, and Angela K. Pannier Biological Systems Engineering.
NCMN welcomes the following new members: Alexei Gruverman, PHY and Professor Milford Hanna, Biological Systems Engineering, April 2008.
NCMN welcomes the following new members: Eva Franke-Schuber, EE, Kamlakar Rajurkar, Ind. & Mgt. Syst. Eng., Lin Wu, ME, Axel Enders (Physics), Yiqi Yang, Textiles, Clothing & Design, Namas Chandra Engineering, Scott Darveau, UNK Chemistry and Christopher Exstrom, UNK Chemistry, October 2007.
The Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience and the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) hosted the 54th Midwest Solid State Conference on October 6-7, 2007.
NCMN welcomes the following new members: Kirill Belashchenko, Physics, Mathias Schubert, EE, Andrei Sokolov, PHY, Li Tan EM and Brent Wilson, ME., October 2005
Facilities
NCMN ELECTRON MICROSCOPY FACILITY-Research Services and Fee Structure
Research - Interface Magnetoelectric Effects, Ferroelectric Tunnel Junctions, 2DEGs at Oxide Interfaces, Spin-Dependent Tunneling, Magnetic Nanocontacts, and Interlayer Coupling.
The tempory contact for the Crystallography Facility is: Shah Valloppilly phone: (402) 472-3693 or e-mail: svallopp2@unl.edu
Crystallography Central Facility is now operational. You are welcome to bring your single-crystal samples for structure determination. Please go to http://www.unl.edu/ncmn/facilities/crystal.shtml to read the facility policies. You can download the request form at the temporary facility webpage http://www.chem.unl.edu/xray. June 2006
Publications
- Dr. Xiao Zeng group paper is featured in the Cover Art of Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation (IP > 5).
- Chemistryworld - "Carbon clusters score lucky seven" Dr. Xiao Cheng Zeng
- Highlighted in the American Chemical Society Chem. & Eng. News
- One of Top 20 most read articles in the Journal of Chemical Physics
An international team of scientists, including Dr. Xiao Cheng Zeng, has created what is in effect a nanoscale sieve that is very selective in what it will allow to pass through -- and performs in much the same way as the potassium ion channels that are vital components of virtually all living cells. ...UNL, PHY ORG, Science 360, Nano WERK,
The Zeng lab and Professor Zhongfang Chen at the University of Puerto Rico published an article in Nanoscale and it is featured on the cover
Dr. Xiao Cheng Zeng's research on gold clusters as catalysts for fuel cell hydrogen was featured in the latest news on the NSF Science360 websiteon Jan 30 and highlighted on the Nebraska EPSCoR website.
News and Views article “Spintronics: Electric Toggling of Magnets” by Evgeny Tsymbal appeared in Nature Materials.Kirill Belashchenko and postdoc Alex Wysocki's article, "Consistent Model of Magnetism in Ferropnictides" has been published in Nature Physics.
J.D. Burton and Evgeny Tsymbal’s work on electrically controlled spin-valve effect made the front web page of Physical Review Letters with the synopsis of this article being featured by the PRL editor.
Dr. Kirill Belashchenko's "Equilibrium Magnetization at the Boundary of a Magnetoelectric Antiferromagnet" argument was published 10/1/2010 in Physical Review Letters.
Hole-channel conductivity in epitaxial graphene determined by terahertz optical-Hall effect and midinfrared ellipsometry, T. Hofmann, A. Boosalis, P. Kühne, C. M. Herzinger, J. A. Woollam, D. K. Gaskill, J. L. Tedesco, and M. Schubert, Appl. Phys. Lett. 98, 041906 (2011), Vir. J. Nan. Sci. & Tech., Volume 23 , Issue 5 (2011)
Karolina Janicka, Julian P. Velev, and Evgeny Y. Tsymbal's "Quantum Nature of Two-Dimensional Electron Gas Confinement at LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Interfaces"makes the Cover of Physical Review Letters - Volume 102, No. 10
Vortex Ferroelectric Domains , authored by A. Gruverman, D. Wu, H-J. Fan, I. Vrejoiu, M. Alexe, R.J. Harrison and J.F. Scott has been selected as one of the 2008 Top Papers in the Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter
UNL Laser-Assisted Nano-Engineering Lab researchers led by Yongfeng Lu, professor of electrical engineering, uses a laser to create self-aligning carbon nanotubes. Nanotechnology Jan. 14 Cover Story , LaserFocusWorld , Nanowerk and nanotechweb.org
Xiao Cheng Zeng,Chemistry, Journal of the American Chemical Society highlights research in JACS Select website on Self-Assembly of Surfactants and Polymorphic Transition in Nanotubes, Arai, N., Yasuoka, K., Zeng, X.C., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2008, 130 (25), 7916-7920, Publication Date (Web): May 30, 2008 Article, DOI: 10.1021/ja7108739.
A. Sokolov, C. Zhang, E. Y. Tsymbal, J. Redepenning, and B. Doudin’s Nature Nanotechnology paper “Quantized magnetoresistance in atomic-size contacts” was featured in Materials Today, the Economist, by the Institute of Physics PhysicsWeb, and by the American Institute of Physics. February 2007
In "Tunneling Across a Ferroelectric," in the July 14 issue of Science, Evgeny Tsymbal and collaborator Hermann Kohlstedt of the Research Center in Jülich, Germany, highlighted emerging research on ferroelectric tunnel junctions. July 2006
The paper "High-Resolution Thin-Film Device to Sense Texture by Touch" by Vivek Maheshwari and Ravi F. Saraf (Chem. Engr. was published in the June 9 issue of Science. June 2006
Xiao Cheng Zeng (Chemistry) and colleagues reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' online edition that they have found evidence of the first free-standing hollow cage structure composed of clusters of pure metal atoms, which they've dubbed golden hollow cages. Illustrations of their discovery can be found on the cover of the May 30, 2006 print edition of PNAS. It's believed to be the first UNL research featured on the journal's cover.
Hendrik Viljoen,Chem. Engineering, was cited in Nature's Technology Feature on the PCRJet thermocycler, Nature 435, 235-238. May 2005
Gustavo Larsen (Chem. Engineering) and collaborators were cited in Chemical and Engineering News, Chemical Engineering Progress, and Science News for the development of a technique that yields hollow fibers with nanometer-sized interior diameters in just a single step. April 2004
Projects
WoPhy Conference Oct 18-Oct 20
Axel Enders Magnetic Nanoclusters Put in Order – Insights with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy
Stephen DiMagno Rhodium Porphyrin Preferential Oxidation (PROX) Catalysts For Carbon Monoxide Conversion
Jeff Shield Nanocomposite Permanent Magnets
Yuris Dzenis Spinning Continuous Fibers for Nanotechnology
NCMN Achievements over time - Tab divisions for "TOPICS" referencing
Research
Dr. Jinsong Huang's image of Organic Solar Cells is on the cover of a Energy & Environmental Science magazine this month. MME article: MME’s Huang uses nanocomposites to improve photodetectors.
PHYSORG.com reports: "Scientists create one-dimensional ferroelectric ice."The researchers, including Hai-Xia Zhao, Xiang-Jian Kong and La-Sheng Long, along with their coauthors from Xiamen University in Xiamen, China, and Hui Li and Xiao Cheng Zeng see also: PNAS publication
Evgeny Tsymbal and his group members Yong Wang, Karolina Janicka, and Manish Niranjan were involved in research on complex oxide heterostructures that was published in Science and Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences. This research is featured at UNL News Releases and Lincoln Journal Star.
Research To Fight Terrorism - Gerry Harbison, Jody Redepenning, Patrick Dussault, David Hage, Stephen Di'Magno and Ronald Cerny explore how to detect easy-to-make and highly explosive bombs derived from peroxide compounds.
Xiao Cheng Zeng'sResearch Gives Clues for Self-cleaning Materials, Water-striding Robots
Books
Simple Models of Magnetism by Dr. Ralph Skomski, first published in 2008, is now available in paperback format. The book has been welcomed by the scientific community as a "highly readable and thorough account" and of "great use to graduate students and experts in the field alike". More...
Dr. Alexandar Sinitskii has contributed to the chapter on graphene oxide One of the first books on Graphene titled: "Graphene Nanoelectronics" published by Springer.
Handbook of Spin Transport and Materials and Magnetism - CRC Press - Taylor & Francis Group, Editors - Evgeny Y. Tsymbal and Igor ?uti?
Scanning Probe Microscopy of Functional Materials - Springer - by Kalinin, Sergei V., Alexei Gruverman
Simple Models of Magnetism by R. Skomski ,Oxford University Press, 2008
Biomedical Applications of Nanotechnology, edited by V. Labhasetwar and D. L. Leslie-Pelecky, Wiley, New York, 2006
Published by Springer -Berlin 2006: Handbook of Advanced Magnetic Materials, edited by Yi Liu, D. J. Sellmyer, Physics, and Daisuke Shindo Advanced Magnetic Nanostructures, edited by David Sellmyer and Ralph Skomski
Equipment
New MRI machine to monitor biomaterials and engineered tissues. Angela Pannier and Shadi Othman team up.
A new, state of the art, x-ray diffractometer has been added to the NCMN Central Facility for X-Ray Characterization. Click here for details about the Bruker-AXS D8 Discover High-Resolution Diffractometer. Dec. 2004
NEW
Dr Zeng's Research Gives Clues for Self-cleaning Materials, Water-striding Robots
Advance Toward Making Biodegradable Plastics from Waste Chicken Feathers ScienceDaily reports on Yiqi Yang research. Dr. Yang's faculty page hits spiked on April 1st to record-high numbers on NCMN's website. (see more)
Rebecca Lai is feathured in Daily Nebraskan for her spring semester Harry Potter-themed class,"A Muggle's Guide to Harry Potter's Chemistry"Recognition
Dr. David Sellmyer is one of two recent recipients of the Louise Pound-George Howard Distinguished Career Award 2012, which recognizes exceptional contributions through teaching, research, public service, or administration to the university during their careers. more...
Stephen DiMagno is one of four recent recipients of the A&S Outstanding Research and Creative Achievement Award. more..
UNL Today - Awards for science art.
New Outreach / Edu Recognition Page highlights our NCMN Members contributions to events.
The American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists and Yigi Yang announce the Medical/Biomedical/Protective Materials and Devices poster winners - 1st Place - "Citric Acid Crosslinked Electrospun Zein Fibers for Biomedical Applications" by Qiuran Jiang & Wei Li and - 2nd Place - "Fabrication of Hollow Nanoparticles from Corn Storage Protein Zein for Potential Biomedical Applications" by Helan Xu & Yue Zhang of UNL.
Industrial and Management Systems Engineering's - Kudos to Rajurkar earns Hideo Hanafusa Outstanding Investigator Award - At the 2010 International Symposium on Flexible Automation, Kamlakar Rajurkar was honored for his “seminal contributions in the areas of non-traditional machining processes and equipment in particular process modeling, surface integrity and monitoring and control of macro and micro Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM), Electro Chemical Machining (ECM) and Ultra-Sonic Machining (USM).”
Timothy J. Gay has joined the select list of Outstanding Referees of the Physical Review and Physical Review Letters journals, as chosen by the journal editors for 2009!
Vortex Ferroelectric Domains , authored by A. Gruverman, D. Wu, H-J. Fan, I. Vrejoiu, M. Alexe, R.J. Harrison and J.F. Scott has been selected as one of the 2008 Top Papers in the Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter
David Berkowitz was awarded a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship for 2008-09.
Xiao Cheng Zeng is named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (October 2007).
Peter Dowben is named a fellow of the American Vacuum Society (October 2007).
Sigma Xi Announces 2007 Award Winners (April 2007) Yuris Dzenis, (Department of Engineering Mechanics) has been selected for the Outstanding Scientist Award and Christian Binek, (Physics) has been selected for the Outstanding Young Scientist Award.
Ravi Saraf's Research Among Discover's Top 100 Science Stories in Discover Magazine 2006.
Mathias M. Schubert (Electr. Eng.) received the 2006 Ludwig-Genzel-Prize for his contributions to generalized infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry and application to numerous problems in solid state science. The Ludwig-Genzel-Prize is awarded every two years to a young scientist for exceptional contributions to the field of condensed-matter spectroscopy. August 2006
David Sellmyer received the Sigma Xi Outstanding Scientist Award 2006 for "his international distinction in the study of magnetic properties". April 2006
Christian Binek (Physics) received a NSF Career Award for his project: "Education and Research on Nanoscale Spintronic Systems and Heterostructures". December 2005
Peter A. Dowben (Physics) and Xiao Cheng Zeng (Chemistry) were selected Fellow of the American Physical Society. Dowben was cited "for his significant experimental contributions to surface magnetism, spin polarization in complex magnetic systems, and metal-to-nonmetal transitions in reduced dimensionality" and Zeng "for his original contributions to the study of vapor-liquid nucleation and discoveries of novel nanostructures of two-dimensional silicon clusters and single-walled silicon nanotubes". Peter Dowben was also elected to Fellowship in the Institute of Physics ,U.K.
Chemistry professor Xiao Cheng Zeng has been named the 2011 recipient of the Midwest Award from the American Chemical Society's St. Louis section. The annual honor recognizes a scientist who has made contributions to the advancement of chemistry. He will receive the award in October. more...Elected
Professor David Sellmyer elected to the Executive Committee of the American Physical Society's Division of Materials Physics
Building
Lincoln Journal Star "New building boosts UNL nanoscience research
The Daily Nebraskan .com news article on the Nano Building Dedication
The New Physics Building to be called Theodore Jorgensen Hall after University of Nebraska Physics graduate and professor. He worked on the Manhattan Project and studied golf for 30 years before writing “The Physics of Golf.” Jorgensen was chair of Physics and Astronomy from 1949 to 1953. He retired April 11, 1975, and was 100 years old when he died April 4, 2006.
Building Dedication is set for October 29, at 4pm, in T. Jorgensen Hall, 855 N. 16th St., UNL City Campus, Lincoln, NE
A Nebraska Daily News article titled "Grant aids in funding of new building for nanoscience technologies" reports on the Nanoscience Metrology Facility construction progress: completion expected in December and opening scheduled for late spring of 2012.Upgrades
Ruqiang Feng Inelastic Deformation and Failure of Polycrystalline Ceramics under Impact Loading
Miscellaneous
Emeritus
Dr. Sitaram Jaswal, UNL's Professor Emeritus with the Department of Physics and Astronomy, is one of 360 journal reviewers receiving the American Physical Society's Outstanding Referee designation, a lifetime honor, in 2009. The APS has 47,000 physicist members worldwide.
P. Frazer Williams, UNL's Lott Distinguished Professor Emeritus with the Department of Electrical Engineering, is one of 360 journal reviewers receiving the American Physical Society's Outstanding Referee designation, a lifetime honor, in 2009. The APS has 47,000 physicist members worldwide.
Major NCMN-affiliated departments are listed below: