Volume 15, Issue 19

  In this issue:



ULVAC Technologies Inc.
HELIOT 900 Leak Detector



SPI Supplies
Sample Preparation Equipment and Consumables



Goodfellow
Metals and Materials…
from the Ordinary to the Extraordinary



Ted Pella, Inc.
Microscopy Supplies and
Specimen Preparation Tools



Harrick Plasma, Inc.
Plasma Cleaning and
Surface Activation



HORIBA Scientific
Tip Enhanced Raman Scattering (TERS) /
Nano-Raman



American Elements
Now Invent.™



Rigaku
Barium Ferrite Site
Occupancy Analysis



Shimadzu Scientific Instruments
Precise, High-sensitivity EDXRF Analysis



Lake Shore
Cryotronics Inc.

Precision Measurement in Variable Environments



Angstrom Engineering
Thin Film Deposition Equipment and Materials



Bruker
D8 FABLINE—The X-ray Metrology Solution



MTI Corporation
Find Equipment
by Application



AdValue Technology, LLC
Crucibles, Tubes, Plates, Custom Parts



Janis Research Company, LLC
ARPES to X-Ray;
10mK to 800K



Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
Scanning Atomic and
Electron Microscopy




IN FOCUS

2015 MRS Fall Meeting
Call for Papers—2017 MRS Spring Meeting

2017 MRS Spring Meeting & Exhibit
April 17-21, 2017  |  Phoenix, Arizona

Abstract Submission Site Opens—September 13, 2016
Abstract Submission Deadline—October 13, 2016
awards
ATTENTION INNOVATORS—Demonstrate Your Technology at the 2016 MRS Fall  Meeting

Innovator demonstration applications for iMatSci—Innovation in Materials Science are now being accepted. Present your technology in front of potential sources of venture capital. Visit www.mrs.org/fall-2016-imatsci-submission for more information.

Application Deadline—October 7, 2016

Preregister and Save—International Workshop on Nitride Semiconductors

International Workshop on Nitride Semiconductors (IWN 2016)
October 2-7, 2016  |  Orlando, Florida

Preregistration Deadline—
September 16, 2016

MATERIALS NEWS

Keep up with materials research news through MRS!
Materials360 Online  |  RSS feed  |  Twitter feed

Materials in Focus

New nanodiamonds open up materials studies at terapascal pressures
By creating transparent, microscopic beads of nanocrystalline diamond, researchers have devised a technique to generate pressures of 1 TPa, far higher than any known method. The advance could pave the way for the experimental study of materials at ultrahigh pressures, which until now has only been done theoretically.

Self-destructing Li-ion battery propels promise of transient electronics
Transient electronics—which work for a short period of time and then undergo triggered self-destruction—have a wide range of potential applications, from military and homeland security to biomedical devices. However, transient electronic devices produced thus far have all had external (non-transient) power sources, which ultimately limits their use. Now researchers at Iowa State University and Ames National Laboratory have developed a 2.53-V Li-ion battery that dissolves and disperses in 30 minutes when dropped in water.

Nano Focus: Hexagonal BN converted directly to cubic BN through a new phase
Often outshined by diamond, cubic boron nitride (c-BN) is nevertheless an impressive material. In a handful of important ways, c-BN even has an edge: a wider bandgap, more resistance to oxidation due to a passivating layer of durable boron oxide, and acceptance of both p- and n-type dopants, compared with diamond’s acceptance of only p-type. The promise of exploiting these properties in future electronics makes clear the need for robust processing of BN.

Bio Focus: Ionic liquid gels enable wearable bioelectronics sensors
The age of wearable electronics is here. With devices that can count our steps and track our heartbeat, scientists and engineers have devised increasingly creative, convenient, and even fashionable ways to monitor human health in real time. Despite their convenience, many of these devices may never be as accurate as the bulky transdermal electrodes and instruments used in medical practice—at least not in their current form. A team of researchers in France have developed a way to fabricate small bioelectronic sensors that are both highly sensitive and comfortable to wear and that could one day even help rehabilitate injured muscles.

3D-printing materials with microscale features across seven orders of magnitude
Three-dimensional (3D) materials at the micro- and nanoscale possess unique mechanical, optical, and energy conversion properties. But when scaled up, those qualities inevitably weaken or disappear altogether. Now researchers have devised a 3D printing-based method that allows them to create strong, lightweight, and elastic metallic nanostructures that can be scaled over seven orders of magnitude.

Industry Focus

Fashion’s Fourth Industrial Revolution
A fourth industrial revolution—powered by a constellation of new innovations across the physical, digital and biological worlds, from 3D printing and artificial intelligence to advances in biomaterials—is driving a new wave of change across the economy, with major implications for fashion.

NASA Funds Plan to Turn Used Rocket Fuel Tanks Into Space Habitats
NASA is very good about being on the cutting edge of space exploration, but it’s less good about making non-cutting edge space exploration efficient and cost effective. The next step is for private companies to take over space station construction for (soon) Earth orbit and (eventually) deep space.


Policy Focus

Innovate UK designed to better attract business
The United Kingdom’s "Innovate UK," the country’s biggest source of government backing for research and development (R&D), mixes materials-specific programs with general support for industry sectors.

US National Science Foundation invites input on Strategic Plan
The US National Science Foundation is beginning the process of updating its Strategic Plan. As part of that process, the Foundation invites feedback on the Vision, Core Values, Strategic Goals, and Strategic Objectives described in the current NSF Strategic Plan.

DOE to invest $16 Million in supercomputing materials
The US Department of Energy announced that it will invest $16 million over the next four years to accelerate the design of new materials through use of supercomputers. The two projects will develop software to design fundamentally new functional materials destined to revolutionize applications in alternative and renewable energy, electronics, and a wide range of other fields.

UK government gives Brexit science funding guarantee
British scientists say they’re relieved by a government promise to guarantee them funding for existing EU research projects, even after the country leaves the European Union. But the reassurance only partly allays concerns about Brexit’s effect on UK science.

UK’s pledge on EU science funding “not enough”
British universities and scientists say a UK government statement promising to underwrite funding for approved European Union science projects “applied for before the UK leaves the EU” will only partially address concerns that they are being excluded from EU consortia following the British referendum to leave the EU.

G20 summit to underpin China’s innovation drive
For China, a great deal is riding on the Group of 20 or G20 Economic Summit taking place in Hangzhou. China has set out the main theme of the G20, “towards an innovated, invigorated, interconnected and inclusive world,” but at the heart of it is innovation which Chinese officials have said refers specifically to science and technology.

Nuclear power plants prepare for old age
Sophisticated inspections are helping to pick up defects in ageing nuclear power plants before they cause trouble. In March, ultrasonic tests identified signs of wear and tear in some of the stainless-steel bolts in the reactor core of the Indian Point power plant just north of New York City. Researchers at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in Palo Alto, California, are now analysing more than a dozen of the 5-centimetre-long bolts — which secure plates that help direct water through the radioactive core — to determine why they failed the inspection.


For more science policy news, follow @MaterialsSciPol


OF INTEREST TO THE MATERIALS COMMUNITY


Four ways Oryx and Crake predicted the future
Don’t call the novel Oryx and Crake a work of sci-fi. Author Margaret Atwood prefers the term “speculative fiction”—she says the things she writes about depict a plausible version of the future.

The 15th anniversary Vizzies
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the Vizzies competition, formerly known as The International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. The National Science Foundation and Popular Science are cosponsors of the competition, which runs through Sept. 15, 2016. The Vizzies competition aims to recognize some of the most illustrative and impactful visualizations from the worlds of science and engineering.

MRS ONDEMAND® WEBINAR SERIES


Register for ALL MRS OnDemand Webinars

Hierarchical Materials
Presented by MRS Bulletin
September 21, 2016
12-1:30 p.m. (ET)
Teaching the Role of Materials in Sustainable Development: Crossing Disciplines and Student Engagement
Focus on Sustainability Series
October 4, 2016
12-2:00 p.m. (ET)
Metallic Materials for 3D Printing
Presented by MRS Bulletin
October 26, 2016
12-1:30 p.m. (ET)
Metal-Organic Frameworks for Electronics and Photonics
Presented by MRS Bulletin
November 23, 2016
12-1:30 p.m. (ET)

Learn more about sponsoring an MRS OnDemand Webinar



MEETINGS UPDATE

Impact of Materials on Society (IMOS) Implementation Workshop
IMOS is an introductory level course for undergraduates and community college students. Pioneered at the University of Florida, the course teaches students that engineering shapes and is shaped by social and cultural variables, and that a career in engineering is not only about math and science, but also about social problem-solving. For faculty interested in introducing this course to their institutions, MRS will hold a free IMOS Implementation Workshop on Tuesday, November 29, in parallel with the 2016 MRS Fall Meeting in Boston. To register, please RSVP; space is limited to 30.


Critical Meeting Deadlines

5th International Conference on Metal-Organic Frameworks & Open Framework Compounds
(MOF 2016)

September 11-15, 2016
Long Beach, California

exhibit opportunities available
ON-SITE REGISTRATION
Begins Sunday, September 11 at the Hilton Long Beach.
International Workshop on Nitride Semiconductors
(IWN 2016)

October 2-7, 2016
Orlando, Florida

exhibit opportunities available
PREREGISTRATION
NOW OPEN
Preregistration Deadline— September 16, 2016
2016 MRS Fall Meeting & Exhibit
November 27-December 2, 2016
Boston, Massachusetts

exhibit opportunities available
PREREGISTRATION OPENS MID-SEPTEMBER
2017 MRS Spring Meeting & Exhibit
April 17-21, 2017
Phoenix, Arizona

exhibit opportunities available
CALL FOR PAPERS OPENS September 13, 2016
International Conference on Silicon Carbide and Related Materials (ICSCRM 2017)
September 17-22, 2017
Washington, DC

exhibit opportunities available
SAVE THE DATE

PUBLICATIONS UPDATE

Critical Publications Deadlines

May 2017 Focus Issue – Journal of Materials Research 32(9)
Microstructural Characterization for Emerging Photovoltaic Materials
Submission deadline:
10/1/2016
MRS Advances
2016 MRS Fall Meeting
Submission opens:
10/31/2016


JUST PUBLISHED














Beyond bulk single crystals: A data format for all materials structure–property–processing relationships
  Kyle Michel and Bryce Meredig, MRS Bulletin

Characterization of Stable and Transient Cavitation in a Dual-Frequency Acoustic Field using a Hydrophone
  Mingrui Zhao, Anfal Alobeidli, Xi Chen, Petrie Yam, Claudio Zanelli and Manish Keswani, MRS Advances

Ge-on-Si Photonics for Mid-infrared Sensing Applications
  K. Gallacher, L. Baldassarre, A. Samarelli, R. W. Millar, A. Ballabio, J. Frigerio, G. Isella, A. Bashir, I. MacLaren, V. Giliberti, G. Pellegrini, P. Biagioni, M. Ortolani and D. J. Paul, MRS Advances

Multi-NIR-Emissive Materials based on Heterolanthanide Molecular Assemblies
  Flavia Artizzu, Francesco Quochi, Luciano Marchiò, Michele Saba, Angela Serpe, Andrea Mura, Maria Laura Mercuri, Giovanni Bongiovanni and Paola Deplano, MRS Advances

Multiscale modeling of microstructure–property relations
  M.G.D. Geers and J. Yvonnet, MRS Bulletin

Non-linearity variation of single junctions and its analysis using nano-prober within fine-grained ZnO-based multilayer varistors
  Eiichi Koga and Yoshiko Higashi, MRS Communications

Prediction of residual stress components and their directions from pile-up morphology: an experimental study
  Lei Shen, Yuming He, Dabiao Liu, Meng Wang and Jian Lei, Journal of Materials Research

Residual stress analysis with stress-dependent growth rate and creep deformation during oxidation
  Yaohong Suo, Zhonghua Zhang and Xiaoxiang Yang, Journal of Materials Research

Ultraviolet optoelectronic devices based on AlGaN alloys grown by molecular beam epitaxy
  Theodore D. Moustakas, MRS Communications


Energy Focus

Density functional theory investigation of the electronic structure and defect chemistry of Sr1−x K x FeO3
  Andrew M. Ritzmann, Johannes M. Dieterich and Emily A. Carter, MRS Communications

Electrical energy storage: Materials challenges and prospects
  Arumugam Manthiram, MRS Bulletin

Influence of Chemical Disorder on Energy Dissipation and Defect Evolution in Advanced Alloys
  Yanwen Zhang, Ke Jin, Haizhou Xue, Chenyang Lu, Raina J. Olsen, Laurent K. Beland, Mohammad W. Ullah, Shijun Zhao, Hongbin Bei, Dilpuneet S. Aidhy, German D. Samolyuk, Lumin Wang, Magdalena Caro, Alfredo Caro, G. Malcolm Stocks, Ben C. Larson, Ian M. Robertson, Alfredo A. Correa and William J. Weber, Journal of Materials Research


SCIENCE AS ART


The Crystal Road
David J. Dvorak, Simon Fraser University

Gold droplets on a gallium arsenide substrate struggle beneath a thin coating of silicon dioxide which inhibits crystal growth. An oxide-free corridor leads to a scarlet eruption of gold-tipped gallium arsenide crystals during metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. A colorized SEM image taken at 15k x magnification.

See more from the Science as Art competition at the 2016 MRS Spring 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

Nerve Stimulation Fights Rheumatoid Arthritis
IEEE Spectrum

Surgically implanted bioelectronic devices may one day treat inflammatory conditions with electrical nerve stimulation.

CAREER CENTRAL
f

Partial listing of classified ads from the September 2016 issue of MRS Bulletin

Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Faculty Position, Inorganic Materials

IST Austria
Assistant Professors and Professors, Physics

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lawrence Postdoctoral Fellowship

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine
Jefferson Science Fellowship

San Diego State University
Faculty Position, Multiscale Modeling of Materials

Sandia National Laboratories
Harry S. Truman Fellowship, National Security Science and Engineering

University of California, Santa Barbara
Assistant Professor, Materials Department


NEW PRODUCTS FOCUS

Affordable Benchtop Spectrometer Offers Best Sensitivity in Class

HORIBA Scientific recently announced the release of MacroRAM™, its newest Raman benchtop spectrometer. The new MacroRAM Raman spectrometer brings simplicity to Raman measurements without compromising the ability to handle complex samples. Its compact and robust design, including Class 1 laser safety, means it is safe for use in most environments, from undergraduate teaching labs to industrial QC applications. The MacroRAM is currently only available in North America.  

Contact: [email protected] or 732-494-8660
 
New Atmospheric Plasma Treatment Systems

Henniker recently announced the launch of the CIRRUS and NIMBUS atmospheric plasma treatment systems which solve a number of manufacturing issues associated with poor adhesion. Available as both single and dual nozzle versions ideally suited to surface activation and cleaning of a wide range of materials including polymers, metals, glass and ceramics. Both models are extremely simple to operate via the front panel soft-keypad and can also be interfaced with external control equipment using the rear panel Sub-D connector providing a variety of I/O control inputs and status read-back to ensure seamless operation with production lines or robot cells.

Contact: [email protected] or 44-1925-830-771

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


ABOUT MATERIALS360®

Materials360 is edited by Judy Meiksin, News Editor, and produced by Joe Yzquierdo, Electronic Communications Assistant, Materials Research Society.

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