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	CALL FOR PAPERS—2016 MRS Fall Meeting & Exhibit                                                                                                          The abstract submission site for the 2016 MRS Fall Meeting & Exhibit is now open! Don’t delay; submit your best work today. Abstract Submission Deadline—June 16, 2016
	FREE WEBINAR—Nucleation in Atomic, Molecular, and Colloidal Systems Wednesday, May 25  |  12:00 – 1:30 pm (ET) Sponsored by Park Systems The presentations in this webinar will complement the articles in the May 2016 issue of MRS Bulletin, which illustrate and describe the many complex nucleation pathways seen across a range of material systems. Attendance for this and all MRS OnDemand Webinars is FREE, but advance registration is required.
	CALL FOR PAPERS—JMR Special Issue for Early Career Scholars in Materials Science Manuscripts for the Second Annual Journal of Materials Research (JMR) Issue to promote outstanding research by future leaders in materials science are now being accepted. The full Call for Papers is available online at www.mrs.org/jmr-early-career-scholars. Submission Deadline—June 1, 2016

MATERIALS NEWS

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Materials in Focus

Energy Focus: Lithium-ion intercalation visualized in situ with new atomic-scale imaging technique
	Intercalation in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries—the process where lithium ions pack themselves in between adjacent two-dimensional layers of an electrode material—is integral to the operation of the batteries. The complete dynamics of this process have not yet been visualized. M. Azhagurajan from Tohoku University, Y.-G. Kim from the California Institute of Technology, and their colleagues have now succeeded in this goal.
Energy Focus: Elastic carbon films for micro-supercapacitors fabricated by wafer-scale process
	What if we could eliminate the need for bulky batteries in wearable electronics? The answer to this question could lie in supercapacitors. A supercapacitor, sometimes referred to as an electrochemical double-layer capacitor, provides both long cycle lifetimes and high power densities for microscale electronic applications. A novel materials processing approach has now enabled wafer-scale, freestanding, and elastic carbide-derived carbon (CDC) thin films to be produced for interdigitated micro-supercapacitors. These CDC thin films exhibit outstanding elasticity, capacitance, and high areal energy density.
Glassy poly(lactide) toughened with diblock copolymer micelles
	Growing environmental concerns are calling for nondegradable petroleum-derived plastics to be replaced with biodegradable, more sustainable options. Poly(L-lactide) (PLLA), a product of polymerization of L,L-lactide and a different form of poly(lactide) (PLA) by virtue of its chirality, is one of the many viable alternatives with high tensile strength and high elastic modulus, but its intrinsically brittle characteristic must be overcome for applications requiring toughness, impact resistance, and optical clarity.
Energy Focus: Carbon nanotubes improve radiation resistance of aluminum
	The limited operating lifetimes of nuclear structural materials is due to embrittlement and porosity that occur in these materials under long-term radiation exposure near a reactor core. Carbon nanotube (CNT)-reinforced aluminum composite materials provide a possible solution to this problem. The addition of small quantities of CNTs to aluminum dramatically improves the material’s irradiation tolerance, suggesting potential applications in nuclear reactors, nuclear waste containers, nuclear batteries, and spacecraft. The dispersion of multiwalled carbon nanotubes in a metal matrix effectively mitigates radiation damage through additional internal interfaces for self-healing of radiation defects, and improves the mechanical properties by inhibiting dislocation propagation.
Graphene nanoribbons with zigzag edges display two independent electron spin channels
	The electronics industry traditionally turns to silicon for its semiconductor needs, but silicon’s properties change when manipulated on a nanoscale level, making it less ideal for use in smaller devices and components. Graphene is a possible substitute, but using it as a semiconductor requires first transforming its structure. Now, an international team of researchers has come one step closer to doing just that. They created graphene nanoribbons with zigzag edges featuring antiferromagnetic coupling, or independent channels of electrons exhibiting opposite direction spin on either edge.
New metal-organic composites could enable low-cost, portable oxygen separation
	Using a novel approach based on highly porous metal-organic frameworks (MOF) materials, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed an efficient way to extract oxygen from air at room temperature. Their findings could enable low-cost, low-energy oxygen separation. It could lead to portable oxygen-generating units for use in hospitals and aboard space vehicles.
Plasma oxidation technique yields precise control over mixed metal oxide composition
	Mixed metal oxide alloys play an important role as substrates and catalysts for many energy conversion and storage applications. But making multi-element solid solutions with precise compositions eludes current synthesis techniques. Now, a research team from the Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research at the University of Louisville in Kentucky has introduced a method that uses a plasma to rapidly oxidize mixed liquid precursors containing appropriate metals. This method allows comprehensive control over composition and structure of the resulting solid solutions, and is an important step toward discovering and testing new materials for energy technologies.

People in Focus

Sir Harry Kroto, Nobel prize-winning chemist, dies at 76
	Sir Harry Kroto is best known for his role in revealing that carbon can exist in the form of a hollow football-like structure. Named “buckminsterfullerene” after the similarly shaped domed buildings produced by the American architect Buckminster Fuller, these structures soon became known as “buckyballs”.
Hideo Hosono awarded Japan Prize
	Hideo Hosono, from the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the scientist behind liquid crystal displays for tablets and organic light-emitting diode displays for TVs, has been recognized for his achievements.

Industry Focus

With Moore’s Law in doubt, eyes turn to quantum computing
The chip industry is giving another sign that Moore’s Law is coming to an end, but IBM is offering a glimpse at what might be computing’s future.

Exxon has a clever way to capture carbon – if it works
Determined to solve one of the biggest challenges in reducing the carbon dioxide emissions from the production of electricity, ExxonMobil says it will partner with fuel-cell developer FuelCell Energy to pursue a novel form of carbon capture—cleansing the carbon dioxide from the exhaust from natural gas- and coal-fired power plants and storing it rather than releasing it into the atmosphere.

Stalled in the U.S., solar thermal power finds a new market in China
Seeing its prospects falter in the United States, solar thermal project developer SolarReserve is teaming up with the world’s largest coal provider to find better prospects for the technology in China.

3D printing goes to war
From the bow to the bunker buster to the hydrogen bomb, new technologies have changed the face of warfare, and 3D printing looks set to be just as revolutionary.

Dresden names itself the 3D printing capital of Europe
We all know that Paris is the City of Lights and Amsterdam is the City of Bikes… but when it comes to 3D printing, where would one go? According to entrepreneurs, researchers and technologists at the Hanover Trade Fair 2016, the answer is Dresden, which is now positioning itself as Europe’s 3D printing capital and a leader in additive manufacturing materials, processes and industrial production.


Policy Focus

US administration makes efforts to increase inclusiveness in STEM industries
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields have a well-recognized diversity issue. The US government has recognized this problem and is trying to create opportunities to increase diversity in STEM-based industries through inclusive entrepreneurship initiatives.

Nuclear security internationalized and strengthened, diplomats say
On Sunday, May 8, 2016 an amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (CPPNM) has entered into force, the IAEA announced. This amendment legally binds states to protect nuclear facilities and nuclear material throughout their life span, criminalize any form of sabotage – be it theft or smuggling of nuclear material – and exchange information in the field through the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

For more science policy news, follow @MaterialsSciPol


OF INTEREST TO THE MATERIALS COMMUNITY


XPrize opens carbon challenge
The NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE challenges the world to reimagine what we can do with CO₂ emissions by incentivizing the development of technologies that can convert them into valuable products.

Smart grids can help electric vehicles tick
Under the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP 2020), India envisages a deployment of 6-7 million Electric Vehicles (EVs) by 2020. Considering the possibility of increased EV penetration in the coming years, it is critical to evaluate its impact on the electricity grid.

Researchers aim to put carbon dioxide back to work
Rather than throwing away or storing CO₂, researchers at laboratories around the world are working on ways to recycle it.


MEETINGS UPDATE

News

Critical Meeting Deadlines

PUBLICATIONS UPDATE

Critical Publications Deadlines

JUST PUBLISHED

Photonic MOS Based on "Optical Property Inversion" Zhaolin Lu, Kaifeng Shi and Peichuan Yin Electroluminescence Enhancement via Grating on a Si-based Plasmonic Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor Tunnel Junction Hasan Goktas and Volker J. Sorger Carbon Nanomaterials in Flames: from 0-D to 1-D and 2-D Chengzhi Luo, Lingmin Liao, Xiang Qi, Yueli Liu, Bing Cao, Jun Zhang, Yupeng Zhang, Qiaoliang Bao and Chunxu Pan

Plasmonics, Photonics, and Metamaterials Papers Efficiency enhancement via metal-coated porous amorphous silicon back reflectors incorporated in amorphous silicon solar cells Shweta Bhandaru, Angelo Bozzola, Marco Liscidini and Sharon M. Weiss An integral equation based domain decomposition method for solving large-size substrate-supported aperiodic plasmonic array platforms Shifei Tao, Jierong Cheng and Hossein Mosallaei Research Letter Empirical relation between Pauling electronegativity and self-energy cutoffs in local-density approximation-1/2 quasi-particle approach applied to the calculation of band gaps of binary compound semiconductors Mauro Ribeiro

Get your free Android App or iOS App for MRS Communications for full mobile access to this journal.

Nucleation is the first step in the formation of many materials. The simple picture of nucleation, inherent in classical nucleation theory, that has prevailed for more than a century does not account for complex multistep nucleation pathways observed in recent years in experiments and simulations. The articles in this issue illustrate and describe the many complex nucleation pathways seen across a range of material systems. The cover image shows an artistic rendition of nucleation from a supersaturated calcium carbonate solution.

Nucleation in atomic, molecular, and colloidal systems
Jim De Yoreo and Stephen Whitelam, Guest Editors

What do crystals nucleate on? What is the microscopic mechanism? How can we model nucleation?
Richard Sear

Nonclassical pathways of crystallization in colloidal systems
John Russo and Hajime Tanaka

Shape change in crystallization of biological macromolecules
Peter G. Vekilov, Sungwook Chung, and Katy N. Olafson

MRS Bulletin will present a free webinar on Nucleation in atomic, molecular, and colloidal systems on Wednesday, May 25.

Advertise in MRS Bulletin.

A selection of papers: Texture mediated grain boundary network design in two dimensions Oliver K. Johnson and Christopher A. Schuh Atomistic investigation of crack growth resistance in a single-crystal Al-nanoplate Xiao Ru Zhuo, Jang Hyun Kim and Hyeon Gyu Beom Processing methods and property evaluation of Al2O3 and SiC reinforced metal matrix composites based on aluminium 2xxx alloys P. Ashwath and M. Anthony Xavior

SCIENCE AS ART

Striped Gyroid Myfanwy E. Evans, TU Berlin High symmetry dense packings of trees and lines in the two-dimensional hyperbolic plane can be projected to triply-periodic minimal surfaces. The resulting three-dimensional structures are space-filling, symmetric and entangled structures composed of multiple networks or filaments. In this case, a dense packing of trees builds a three-dimensional structure using the Gyroid minimal surface as a scaffold. Such a structure is observed in the self assembly of star block-copolymers, which form multiple interwoven chiral labyrinths with hierarchically ordered on two different length scales. A Second Place Winner in the Science as Art competition at the 2015 MRS Fall Meeting. Copyright for all Science as Art images belongs to the Materials Research Society. To request permission to re-use the images, please contact Anita Miller.

EDITOR'S CHOICE VIDEO

NEW PRODUCTS FOCUS

New Generation of Graphene Reinforced Carbon Fibre Prepreg Products
	Haydale Composite Solutions (HCS) has announced the launch of three graphene enhanced carbon fibre pre-impregnated (prepreg) products in collaboration with SHD Composite Materials Ltd. (UK) using epoxy resins from Huntsman Advanced Materials. The products include a structural component carbon fibre prepreg, a prototype “Out-of-Autoclave” curing carbon fibre tooling prepreg capable for fast composite part production in autoclave processing, and a higher operating temperature prepreg for enhanced life and very high accuracy tooling. Key target applications for this new prepreg include aerospace, automotive, and high performance sports goods such as bike frames, fishing rods and racing boats. Contact: [email protected] or 44-1509-21007
New Tool for MOCVD Carrier Characterization
	k-Space Associates, Inc. recently introduced its newest product, the kSA Emissometer. This ex situ tool provides MOCVD fabs with essential wafer carrier characterization, including emissivity uniformity and defect identification. Traditionally MOCVD fabs rely on subjective human tests to inspect the quality of wafer carriers after bakes and between runs. They rely on empirical data to adjust carrier temperatures from growth to growth. The kSA Emissometer puts the science back in carrier evaluation with high resolution carrier emissivity mapping and the detection of defects and microcracks that aren’t visible to the human eye. This tool is designed to be used by operators and engineers and provides full quantitative carrier maps in 10 minutes. Contact: [email protected] or 734-426-7977

To suggest items for inclusion in Industry News and New Products Focus,
please contact Mary Kaufold at 724-779-2755.

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