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Program Highlights

Revealing Hidden Phases in Materials
Strong interactions at the interface between a crystalline film and substrate can impart new structure to thin films. Here, a germanium surface (purple atoms) squeezes a BaTiO3 thin film above, revealing a hidden phase not seen in the bulk. The hidden phase of BaTiO3 shows oxygen octahedra cages (shaded in aqua) alternating in size. By combining theory, synchrotron x-ray diffraction, and electron microscopy, a new materials design approach has uncovered hidden traits of a material that can be expressed through articulated forces at an interface.

Electrocatalytic Surfaces Using Bulk Metallic Glass Nanostructures

Metallic glass nanostructures provide a new platform for electrocatalytic applications. Several surface modification strategies that remove or add metal species (top images) improve the catalytic activity of metallic glass nanostructures. These strategies were demonstrated for three key electrocatalytic reactions important for renewable energy.

Leveraging MRSEC Equipment Purchases

Leveraged upgrades to Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope (S/TEM) and Focused Ion Beam System (FIB):

Modeling the UV Electromagnetic Response of Al and Mg Plasmonic Nanostructures

Objective:

MRSEC Shared Facilities: A Vital Resource

The resources of the Wisconsin MRSEC Shared Facilities impact researchers campus-wide and beyond. Over the past year >79,000 usage hours accounted for:

Wisconsin MRSEC Outreach Impacts 255,000 People This Year!

Since 2011, the Wisconsin MRSEC has created over 40 unique research-inspired education resources. These resources are disseminated through educational kits, outreach activities, instructional videos and other online resources, all based on cutting-edge research going on in the Wisconsin MRSEC.

These resources have impacted:

Templating Nanomaterials from Defects in Liquid Crystals

Defects in liquid crystals can function as nanoscopic molds for assembling molecules

Expanding the Palette of Useful Semiconductors

Designing materials nature never intended

Full Circle of Innovation in Instrumentation: Atomic Level Imaging

A MRSEC innovation comes back home to reveal the atomic structure of new materials

Efficient and uniform doping of zinc oxide nanocrystals via plasma synthesis

In solution-based synthesis, often doping efficiencies are low and dopants are excluded from the nanocrystals’ central cores. The research team developed a fundamentally different plasma-based process for synthesizing aluminum-doped zinc oxide nanocrystals.

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