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Graphene in its pristine form is one of the strongest materials, but defects influence its strenth.  Using atomistic calculations, we find that, counter to standard reasoning, graphene sheets with large-angle tilt boundaries that have a high density of defects are as strong as the pristine material and unexpectedly are much stronger than those with low-angle boundaries having fewer defects.  We show that this trend is not explained by continuum fracture models but can be understood by considering the critical bonds in the strained seven-membered carbon rings that lead to failure; the large-

A weeklong materials science workshop series with morning lectures followed by hands-on lab exercises to reinforce concepts for introduction of materials-related content into core science curricula at the home institution Organized and taught by MRSEC faculty investigators Partnership with the Faculty Resource Network at NYU, held during the FRN Network Summer program Content Holographic Video Microscopy Crystals and Light How Stuff Packs Color

Background: The tetrahedral coordination of Fe surrounded by 4 Se(Te) atoms is of crucial importance for the new high TC Fe pnictides superconductors with lattice parameters c and a. To reveal the essential aspects of the tetrahedron, one needs to vary the lattice parameter c and a in opposite manner, without altering the electronic

An isostatic lattice is one at the threshold of mechanical stability. The square and kagome lattices (see Figure 1a-b) in two dimensions are examples of isostatic lattices. A 2D kagome lattice of N sites has of order N1/2 zero-energy bulk modes under periodic boundary conditions. Theoretical study shows that when neighboring triangles are counter rotated through an arbitrary angle α shown in Figure 1c, the bulk modulus vanishes, making the Poisson's ratio equal to -1, and all of the

Design & engineering of modern devices increasingly requires complex nano- and micro-structures. One area of research now showing promise for creating such structures through simple solution techniques

We have designed specialized protein molecules that organize around carbon nanotubes into an atomistically-predefined pattern. Targeted design of such self-organization is a powerful tool for engineering at the nano scale. For example, we have shown that our protein/nanotube hybrid can be used to generate a regularly-spaced array of gold nano-particle. Shown here is an exciting new concept we are currently pursuing. We believe that our nanotube/protein complexes can be used to

The objective of this Seed is to understand cooperative electronic, optical and electromagnetic phenomena emerging from the interactions of nanoscale building blocks. Recent work encompasses synthesis of nanoparticles (figure right) and nanowires, and the investigation of how nanocrystals can drive geometrical rearrangement in polymersome micelles (figure right). A second breakthrough (figure below), developed a ligand exchange process that enables flexible electronic devices (FETs) based on nanocrystal assemblies

Protein assembly at the air-water interface (AWI) occurs naturally in many biological processes, and provides a method for creating ordered biomaterials. However, the factors that control protein self-assembly at the AWI are generally not well understood. Here, we describe the behavior of a model protein, human serum albumin minimally labeled with Texas Red dye (HSA-TR), using a new confocal microscopy technique (Figure 1). Albumin was observed to form well-ordered, mesoscale