*********************************
There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
*********************************
MSE PhD Proposal - Philip Brooke
Date: Thursday, January 29
Location: MoSE, room 2100F.
Time: 12:00 pm
Committee members:
Dr. Kenneth H. Sandhage, (Advisor) MSE
Dr. Melin Liu, MSE
Dr. Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb, MSE
Dr. Carson Meredith, ChBE
Dr. Joe Perry, Chem
Title: Multifunctional Replicas of Biological Structures in Multicomponent Oxides
Abstract:
The generation of nanostructured microscale assemblies with complex, three-dimensional (3D) morphologies for tailored functionality is of considerable scientific and technological interest. Nature provides highly evolved structures with optical (butterflies) and adhesive (pollen) properties which can be utilized in conjunction with engineering materials to tailor and enhance their functional properties. This research is focused on understanding how to apply conformal inorganic coatings to 3D bio-organic templates, and how to convert such coated templates into inorganic replicas, as a method to generate intricate, hierarchical (macro-to-micro-to-nanoscale) structures with tailorable optical and/or adhesive properties.
The use of multicomponent oxides provides new opportunities for replica functionality, but introduces new complications in controlling phase. Three research thrusts will be presented. First, freestanding fluorescent lanthanide doped oxide replicas of optically active bio-organic templates will be synthesized via layer-by-layer (LbL) wet chemical deposition and subsequent morphology-preserving thermal treatments to create structures with tailorable optical response. Second, freestanding dielectric replicas of bio-organic templates will be synthesized (via LbL coating and thermal treatment) for tailorable electrostatic adhesion and will incorporate knowledge gained in thrust 1 to synthesize replicas with combined tailorable adhesion and tailorable optical response. The final research thrust will investigate the deposition kinetics of the surface sol-gel (SSG) coating process using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) and finite element modeling (FEM) in COMSOL. This work will help guide future research on SSG thin film coatings and replication.
