Researchers at Yale University have invented a high-performance material for future generations of transistors and devices. New oxide materials are required to make faster computer chips for the future. These new oxides will replace the oxide that has been the standard for the last 50 years, silicon dioxide. To replace silicon dioxide, these new oxides must perform better by having a large dielectric constant and a small leakage current. The oxide LaAlO3 has a dielectric constant that is six times larger than that of silicon dioxide.

Professor Belcher previously engineered viruses that could build an anode by coating themselves with cobalt oxide and gold and self-assembling to form a nanowire. In the new work, the research team created a cathode to pair with the anode: they genetically engineered viruses that first coat themselves with iron phosphate, then attach to carbon nanotubes to create a highly conductive material.

Block copolymers, with their complex morphologies, are widely used in many applications. A grand challenge associated with these materials is accelerating their design and discovery. UC Santa Barbara MRSEC researchers have developed a versatile and efficient strategy by rapidly building expansive, high-quality, and detailed block copolymer libraries through a combination of controlled polymerization and chromatographic separation. X-ray scattering studies aid in screening block copolymer morphology.

Hydrogels are hydrated three-dimensional networksof hydrophilic polymers that are commonly used in the biomedical industry due to their mechanical and structural tunability, biocompatibility, and similar water content to biological tissues.

Polyurethanes have many properties that qualify them as high performance polymeric materials, but they still suffer from mechanical damage. We report the development of polyurethane networks that exhibit self-repairing characteristics upon exposure to ultraviolet light. The network consists of an oxetane-substituted chitosan precursor incorporated into a two-component polyurethane. Upon mechanical damage of the network, four-member oxetane rings open to create two reactive ends.

A collaboration between the CMU MRSEC and Sandia National Laboratory has permitted the first large scale comparison between experimentally measured grain boundary energies and energies calculated based on atomistic simulations. The techniques for the measurement (at CMU) and the calculations (Sandia) are unique to each institution and largest experimental and theoretical data sets currently available. The favorable comparison validates the methods.

The Ismagilov and Mrksich groups at the University of Chicago MRSEC have recently established that a microfluidic system utilized in conjunction with surface immobilization chemistries can be used to pattern surfaces with well-defined gradients of adhesion molecules for the attachment of cells.

BASF, a major international chemical company headquartered in Germany, has established a major research initiative at Harvard, the BASF Advanced Research Initiative, that will provide up to $4M

The MRSEC Education Directors conducted a workshop at Princeton (September 14-17, 2008), chaired by PCCM's Dr. Dan Steinberg. The group collectively produced one logic model for each of the 6 E/O concentration areas.The MRSEC Education Directors conducted a workshop at Princeton (September 14-17, 2008), chaired by PCCM's Dr.