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A fully automated robot arm pours molten glass into the sample mold. Credit: Knud Dobberke; Fraunhofer ISC.

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Instant-on computers may be possible with modified materials

Researchers from three NSF-supported Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers at Penn State and Cornell recently added ferroelectric capability to materials used in common computer transistors–a feat that scientists have tried to achieve for more than half a century. Ferroelectric materials—found in subway, ATM, fuel and other “smart cards”—may eliminate time-consuming booting and rebooting of computer operating systems by providing an “instant-on” capability. Besides reducing the waiting time for everyday computer users, the discovery could pave the way for memory devices that are lower power, higher speed, and more convenient to use. The materials may also help prevent losses from power outages.

A super-absorbent solar material

A new nanostructured material that absorbs a broad spectrum of light from any angle could lead to the most efficient thin-film solar cells ever. Researchers at Caltech are applying the design to semiconductor materials to make solar cells that they hope will save money on materials costs while still offering high power-conversion efficiency. Initial tests with silicon suggest that this kind of patterning can lead to a fivefold enhancement in absorbance.

Robot speeds up glass development

Model by model, the electronics in a car are being moved closer to the engine block. This is why the materials used for the electronics must resist increasing heat - so the glass solder being used as glue must be continually optimized. For the first time ever, a robot takes on the task of developing new types of glass and examining their characteristics. Researchers will introduce this robot at the “productronica” trade fair to be held in Munich, Germany, from November 15 - 18, 2011

Better batteries

A team of engineers at Northwestern University has created an electrode for lithium-ion batteries — rechargeable batteries such as those found in cellphones and iPods — that allows the batteries to hold a charge up to 10 times greater than current technology. Batteries with the new electrode also can charge 10 times faster than current batteries. The researchers combined two chemical engineering approaches to address two major battery limitations — energy capacity and charge rate — in one fell swoop. In addition to better batteries for cellphones and iPods, the technology could pave the way for more efficient, smaller batteries for electric cars.

New journal on disruptive science and technology launching in 2012

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is launching a new journal, the Journal of Disruptive Science and Technology, a highly innovative, bimonthly peer-reviewed journal that seeks to publish game-changing research that has the potential to significantly improve human health, well-being, and productivity. The Journal will present new and innovative results, essential data, cutting-edge discoveries, thorough syntheses and analyses, and publish out-of-the-box concepts that will improve the way we live.

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Professor Zhu of Queensland University of Technology shows jars of sodium titanate nanofibers and nanotubes that pull radioactive cesium and iodine isotopes from contaminated water by ion exchange. Credit: QUT

The release of radioactive materials after the recent tsunami destruction of the Fukshima-Dai nuclear power plant has reignited public awareness to the problem of capturing nuclear waste on a grand scale. Less dramatically, but more common and just as important to control, are small scale leaks from nuclear power plants and radioactive waste generated by medical tests and research. Capturing and containing radioactive stuff is no small challenge, but a new study shows that small—nanoscale small—may be the way to go.

Researchers at Queensland University of Technology in Australia, in collaboration with a group at Penn State University, may have found a cheap, effective, nonreversible way of capturing radioactive cesium and iodine wastes using titanate-base nanofibers and nanotubes.

A multi-institution, international team led by QUT professor, Huaiyong Zhu, has published a paper demonstrating that Na₂Ti₃O₇ nanofibers and nanotubes can effectively capture and store Cs⁺ and I^- ions. Sodium titanate has the advantage of being easy and economical to synthesize through hydrothermal processes.

Cesium isotopes can be captured by inorganic cation exchange with materials like silico-titanates, zeolites, clay minerals, layered zirconium phosphates and layered sulfides. These materials are able to withstand high radiation levels and high temperatures, and they are blessed with a high ion-exchange capacity. Unfortunately, the ion-exchange process is reversible, which means radioactive ions can be released back into solution when exposed to water.

Sodium titanate has a layered structure where TiO₆ octahedra form the basic structural units, with Na⁺ ion between the layers, and the radioactive ¹³⁷Cs⁺ isotope is captured in a simple ion exchange.

The team compared the chemisorption properties of two forms of sodium titanate: nanofibers and nanotubes. The nanotubes had a greater absorptive capacity and were able to remove to remove about 80 percent of the ions from solutions compared to only about 36 percent ion removal by the nanofibers.

During uptake, the nanofiber morphology is maintained, but if enough Cs⁺ ions are absorbed, the titanate layers deform. When a large concentration of Cs⁺ ions is absorbed, a phase transformation occurs and creates microporous tunnels in the layered structure. The diameter of the tunnels is narrower than the diameter of the cesium ion, thus immobilizing the ion and rendering the exchange irreversible.

In contrast, Cs⁺ uptake by nanotubes results a significant change in the aspect ratio: They become more squat and wide. The layered structure of the tubes remains (there is no mention of a phase change), but the interlayer space expands, which may swell the nanotubes.

Nanofibers and nanotubes absorb iodine through a different mechanism. Because I^- is an anion, a direct ion exchange with sodium is impossible. By coating sodium titanate nanofibers and nanotubes with nanoparticles of silver oxide (Ag₂O), iodine ions can be stuffed into the nanofibers or nanotubes by means of several chemical reactions involving intermediate compounds, hydration and dehydration. The chemistries and crystallographies involved combine to provide excellent absorption properties. Follow-up tests showed that the leaching rate of iodine back into solution was very low. Thus, Ag₂O-coated titanate nanofibers and nanotubes also show promise as effective candidates for capturing radioactive iodine.

In a press release from QUT, paper co-author Zhu says, “One gram of the nanofibers can effectively purify at least one ton of polluted water.” If so, the material should be an easy and cost-effective addition to the toolkits at facilities working with or managing radioactive wastes that contain cesium and iodine isotopes.

(The paper does not address disposal of the nanofibers/nanotubes after the ion-exchange capture is completed.)

In the US, Zhu collaborated with ACerS member Sridhar Komarneni, a professor at Penn State University.

The paper is “Capture of Radioactive Cesium and Iodide Ions from Water Using Titanate Nanofibers and Nanotubes,” Angewandte Chemie International Edition (doi: 10.1002/anie201103286).

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The Game
University of Illinois at Pennsylvania State University
Oct. 29, 3:30 p.m., ET

I went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an undergrad because it met my three criteria: I was accepted, it was affordable and it was far enough from home. Much later, I realized I had stumbled and bumbled my way into one of the best engineering schools in the country.

I decided on engineering out of stubbornness. None of the girls in my high school class were considering STEM careers, but most of the boys were. So, that was that. (My journey to ceramic engineering was thought through a little more sensibly.)

In my first job, I had the good fortune to work with a couple of great recent graduates of Penn State. Penn State had just clinched its first national championship by defeating Georgia at the 1983 Sugar Bowl, and there was plenty of football chatter to go around. One of those guys, Jeff Swab, distinguished himself by being first in line for tickets to the Sugar Bowl. Jeff has since distinguished himself in many other ways and is a leading expert on ceramic armor and a frequent contributor to ACerS meetings and publications.

Penn State became the 11th of the 12 teams that comprise the Big Ten Conference in 1990. Illinois is a charter member of the conference, which dates back to 1896.

Saturday is the 19th meeting of these two teams, and Penn State holds a dominating 14-4 record. But, last year the Illini handed the Nittany Lions a searing 33-13 loss, the first Illinois victory at Beaver Stadium. Both teams are strong in the Big Ten, but Illinois is hungrier as it looks for a rebound Saturday after losing the last two games.

My pick? Victory, Illinois! Varsity! (From “Hail to the Orange,” Illinois’ Alma Mater song. “We love no other”)

The home team

Penn State students demonstrate lab safety best practices in an up-tempo YouTube video (see link in story). Credit: Penn State University.

Pennsylvania State University, Materials Science and Engineering

Joe Paterno, the “80-is-the-new-50″ head coach of the Penn State football, doesn’t tolerate end zone celebration shenanigans when the team scores a touchdown. He says, “Act like you’ve been there before.”

He makes a good point, and one that is generally relevant. If you prepare well, work hard and have a clear goal, why should success be surprising? It’s a philosophy the department of materials science and engineering is embracing as they grow and adapt.

The materials science and engineering program at Penn State is arguably one of the best in the country, and it is especially strong in ceramic materials. Over the last ten years, the undergraduate enrollment has grown from 95 to 175. This is an impressive accomplishment considering that the department has plenty of competition from the other 20 or so engineering programs at Penn State, and considering that the department is not housed in the College of Engineering, but in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.

Prof. Allen Kimel says the placement of the department in CEMS is a challenge, but “the college is a really unique blend of engineering and physical sciences, and that strengthens us.”

It does mean, though, that the department has to work a little harder to get the attention of prospective students, but once it does, Kimel says students will respond with “Oh my, there’s materials science!” Students hear about the program through word-of-mouth, introductory courses and open houses. Nearly 40 percent of the students that graduate with BS MSE degrees start in another program. Kimel says ASM’s Materials Camp is proving to be a great way to get high schoolers thinking about materials, too.

Another unique attribute of Penn State is that is has 19 Commonwealth campuses and as much as 27 percent of the student body transfers to the main campus after two years elsewhere. The department maintains close connections to the six regional campuses whose programs lead to materials science.

It was an open house that drew in senior Erica Marden, “I went to an open house and was fascinated with the biomaterial and noninvasive drug delivery research projects in the department.” She continues, “I went into MatSE because of an interest in biomaterials, and I have continued to pursue that interest by doing research involving polymers for biological applications.”

Marden’s journey illustrates an emerging trend among undergraduates. Today’s students are motivated by the kind of problems they want to work on, often with grand-scale impacts like energy or biomedicine, or by the technologies they want to learn more about like nanotechnology. Kimel says, “Students don’t come in saying ‘Wow - ceramics!’ but ‘How are materials applied to the problems I care about?’”

Recognizing this, the department is in the process of overhauling the curriculum. The new curriculum will continue to provide depth for which it’s known, while increasing versatility and flexibility. Parts of the new curriculum are in place now, and full rollout is expected in the next academic year.

Penn State’s long standing tradition of the senior thesis will continue, and there are several pathways open to getting the research done. The most direct pathway is to work in a faculty research group, typically for two semesters. Marden has been an active student researcher for four years and says, “The best part of Penn State’s program is the quality of research and renowned faculty paired with the amazing staff and small size of the department.”

The new curriculum opens an option for students to work on engineering team-based projects in the College of Engineering’s Learning Factory, which is expected to appeal to the 50 percent of students that go to work in industry after graduation.

Adventurous students may choose to go abroad for a research experience. The department has exchange partnerships with 14 institutions in 10 countries. The focus is research - no coursework - and about a dozen students per year are involved, half from Penn State going abroad and half coming to Penn State from abroad.

No doubt, Paterno would be pleased to know that the MSE undergrads know how to handle themselves in their arena: the lab. This video clip on lab safety tells the story!

The department has sprouted a few athletes over the years including Big 10 triple-jump champion, Clarence Smith, who now works at Boeing, and the men’s volleyball head coach, Mark Pavlik. One suspects they would have agreed with Marden, though, “Penn State football is so much fun, especially during White Out games. I’m hoping that we go out with a bang for my senior year!”

Faculty engaged in ceramic research include Paul Brown (Fellow), David Green (Fellow and editor of JACerS), John Hellmann (Fellow), Kimel, Gary Messing (ACerS past-president and Fellow), Carlo Pantano (Fellow), Clive Randall (Fellow and 2011 Friedberg lecturer) and Susan Trolier-McKinstry (ACerS’ Ceramic Education Council 2011 Outstanding Educator awardee).

The visitors
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Materials Science & Engineering

Undergrads at a department picnic earlier this year. The red Material Advantage T-shirts say “Defense Against the Liberal Arts.” Credit: University of Illinois.

“Without materials, there is no engineering,” senior Xiaolin Zhang said in an email. It’s an idea that seems to resonate among undergraduates at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Just under 400 students are enrolled in the MatSE department at Illinois, making it the largest department in the country for undergraduate materials education. (GA Tech is the largest based on number of faculty - 57 to Illinois’ 26 - but draws 100 fewer students.)

The department is “on its game,” when it comes to recruiting. It starts reaching out to high school students in their junior year, sending brochures to prospective students with strong ACT scores and sponsoring open houses for candidates and their families in the fall. This year, the prospective student open house attracted 79 students and, with their familial entourages along, 230 people went on undergrad-led tours of the buildings and labs, saw demonstrations, talked to professors and enjoyed the hospitality of the department.

Also important to getting the word out is the long-standing Engineering Open House tradition. Held every March, all College of Engineering departments throw open the doors and strut their stuff. Cindy Brya, an administrator in the department, says the “hallways are jam packed with student projects and visitors.”

EOH was Zhang’s introduction to materials science. Then a freshman, she said the EOH “exhibits from the Materials Science department interested me a lot with a broad range of applications. Considering my interests and strengths in math, chemistry and physics, I though materials science would be ideal for me.”

The first three years of the curriculum are uniform, and in the fourth year students take coursework in an area of concentration. There are five: biomaterials, ceramics, electronic materials, metals and polymers. However, students can explore interests long before the fourth year by participating in undergraduate research. Zhang, for example, has been working on 3D polymeric scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. Describing the value of the experience, she says it “further strengthens my research ability and critical thinking skills, which prepare me to become a better researcher in graduate school.”

Brya says abut 40 percent of graduates go to professional or graduate school. Zhang points out that joining a research group can help students discern their next steps. “Many students join a research group sometime during their four-year study and will either find their research interest or decide a better niche for them would be in industry. The resources are always available and are to the student’s benefit.”

Research opportunities can have spillover effects, though. Last year and this year, the Illinois contingent to MS&T has been mixing things up at the annual Mug Drop contest with mugs made of geopolymers. See how in this video segment from MS&T 2011.

Handcrafted ceramic pigs from ceramic engineering Pig Roasts of the 80s. Credit: E. De Guire

Like many MatSE departments, the Illinois department is the result of a marriage between metallurgical engineering and ceramic engineering. The ceramic engineering heritage lives on in the “ceramic pig” tradition. “Back in the day,” the Cer. E. department used to celebrate the end of the year with a pig roast. This evolved into the “Pig Roast” event of the 1970-1980s era, where students put on good-natured skits to commemorate the year’s events and rib the professors. Everyone looked forward to bringing home a handmade ceramic pig. Today, students make ceramic pigs, which are given as mementos to deserving faculty and staff at the annual awards banquet.

Of this weekend’s game, Zhang says, “I am expecting an exciting game this week against Penn State.”

Me, too. Go Illini!

Faculty that focus on ceramic materials are Shen Dillon, Trudy Kriven (Fellow), Jennifer Lewis (Fellow), Lane Martin and Jian-Min Zuo.

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Missouri University of Science & Technology’s Keramos chapter won the Most Outstanding Chapter Award. The chapter’s representatives, front row, from left are William Meier, Megan Gilbert, Catie Mohrmann, Andrea Els and Stephen Edgar. Back row, Keramos executive committee members Robert Schwartz, Greg Hilmas, William Hammetter, Brian Gilmore and Kevin Fox.

Keramos, the national professional ceramic engineering fraternity, meets concurrently with the annual meeting of The American Ceramic Society. The group held its Student Convocation this morning at which all fraternity business is reviewed, chapter reports were given, student representation was elected and recognition of chapters and individuals receiving awards were made.

A career development presentation was given by Corning’s Matt Djenka as part of the Convocation.

Keramos’ Executive Board also gave out awards for Outstanding Chapter (above), Most Improved Chapter, Diamond Award (for exemplary performance and leadership) and Sapphire Award (notable performance). Here are some other photos from the Convocation.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Keramos chapter won the Most Improved Chapter Award. The chapter's representatives, front row, from left are Xiaolin Zhang and Divija Alluri. Back row, Keramos executive committee members Hammetter, Hilmas, Gilmore, Fox and Schwartz.

Two chapters, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Missouri University of Science & Technology, tied for the Diamond Award for exceptional achievement Keramos chapter and shared this year's award.

Chih-Hsuan Wu accepts the nameplate for the Sapphire Award for high achievement on behalf of Penn State's Keramos chapter.

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Art Friedberg. The Friedberg Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Clive Randall on Tuesday at MS&T. Credit: ACerS

Much of the joy in my adult life can be traced back directly to Art Friedberg.

The clock was ticking in the second semester of my sophomore year at Illinois, and the deadline for declaring a major was looming. A friend suggested ceramic engineering, and, armed with a 20-year old’s chutzpah, I called the department and asked for a meeting with the head—Art Friedberg.

As I recall, Art spent a fair amount of time talking to me about what ceramic engineering is, what a ceramic engineer does and how a latecomer like myself would step into the program. He must have done a good job describing the profession—my parents raised no objections, although they are still trying to figure out what I do!

The next fall I was the only new kid in the ceramic engineering courses and quickly realized I’d found a home, figuratively and literally. A few years later I graduated with a BS, MS and a husband. An interesting career, a happy marriage and four children later, I am grateful to Art for opening the world of ceramic engineering for me.

Many others thought highly of Art, too, and created an annual special lecture that honors his memory.

For 2011, Penn State professor, Clive Randall, will deliver the ACerS/NICE Arthur L. Friedberg Memorial Lecture at MS&T next week. He’ll be talking about sintering of dielectric oxides for cofired multilayer capacitors, and in a perfect set-up for the lecture, a new paper by his group was just published in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society and is available via the Early View feature.

You can read it and formulate some hard questions for him, or just read my summary.

I hope to see you at the lecture on Tuesday, Oct. 18, at 8:00 a.m., Greater Columbus Convention Center, Room C113/114.

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