The planar dynamics of a semi-flexible filament anchored at one end and comprised of connected, self-propelled, spheres were predicted using Brownian dynamics simulations and continuum elastic theory theory. For certain parameter ranges the filament undergoes periodic motion. With a clamped anchor, the filament undergoes flagella-like beating (top right), while a pivoting end leads to a steadily rotating coiled conformation (bottom right).
Designing simple, experimentally feasible systems that mimic the periodic beating of eukaryotic cilia and flagella has important implications for controlling fluid flow at the microscale, as well as for understanding biological cilia and flagella.
The ability to design and assemble three-dimensional structures from colloidal particles, such as open structures for photonic band gap applications, is limited by the absence of specific directional bonds.
Metals that are glasses and can be formed like plastics are called bulk metallic glasses (BMG). But not all metals can be glasses and one has to sort through a large number of chemical compositions to find a good BMG. a trial and error processes could take up to a day to decide if a single composition can be molded. Sorting through hundreds of BMGs that are composed of four chemical elements would take up to a year. Now, with CRISP’s new combinatorial deposition system, more than 800 different compositions can be synthesized and characterized in a day. Using this method, an optimized metallic glass former that
can be easily molded has been found.
One avenue to creating new materials with useful electronic properties is to take existing materials and modify their structure at the level of the bonds between the constituent atoms: this is feasible because the distribution of electrons around an atom is sensitive to subtle atomic-scale distortion of its bonds. For this type of approach to succeed, one needs theoretical input on how the atoms should be arranged to achieve some desired electronic distribution. But one also needs to fabricate that structure in an experiment, verify the structure, and check to see if the theory is correct in its predictions.
Most conventional materials are assembled from inanimate building blocks. We have explored the behavior of soft materials in which constituent energy consuming units that are assembled from animate energy consuming components. Thousands of these components spontaneously coordinate their microscopic activity to yield novel gels, liquid crystals and emulsions that crawl, flow, stream, spontaneously fracture and self-heal, thus mimicking some of the characteristics of living biological organisms.
The stumbling block to developing graphene electronics has been the inability to produce a semiconducting form of graphene. Researchers at the Georgia Tech MRSEC have finally found a solution to this elusive goal, graphene bent over SiC steps. This semiconducting graphene can operate at temperatures above 200 C and is easily scalable to industrial fabrication.
Controlling physical and chemical features on the nanoscale is crucial for devices based on nanotechnology as well for basic science. At Georgia Tech, we have made key breakthroughs in the controlled production of materials for nanoscience.
Asymmetrical films of adhesive protein Mfp-5 show significantly higher reversible adhesion to smooth mica surfaces than the “gold standard” of noncovalent binding: well-ordered avidin-biotin interactions. The insights are crucial for intelligent translation of mussel adhesion to engineered systems.
Altering crystal structure of unique magnetic films manipulates magnetization orientation