Addition of rubber particles to epoxy thermosets has been successful for toughening these brittle materials.

  The term “defect” suggests something to be avoided.  However, our team has developed an extensive toolkit to control the locations, shapes, and detailed geometry of so-called topological defects in liquid crystals, the same sorts of materials used in the $100bn/year display industry.  Our goal is to harness these defects to use them as cues for further directed- and self-assembly, as lenses and optical elements, and as building blocks for hierarchical materials.

Here, three IRG2 PP developed a combination of experiments with 3D active fluids confined in microfluidic channels and a minimal hydrodynamic model to show that size of the channel determines the emergent lengthscale of the growing deformations. These findings will advance our understanding of active nemato-hydrodynamics and the pathways to 3D active turbulence at low Reynolds number.

Researchers from Wisconsin MRSEC have shown that stretching a two-dimensional material called CrSBr significantly changes its magnetoelastic properties, which link magnetism and physical strain. They created a tiny mechanical device to measure this effect and found that the magnetoelastic coupling could be increased by 50% through stretching. These findings open up new possibilities for highly sensitive magnetic sensors and more efficient electronics that could adjust based on strain.

MRSEC researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated that introducing geometric disorder in mechanical metamaterials leads to distributed damage during failure, resulting in significantly enhanced fracture toughness with minimal loss of strength. This finding challenges the traditional reliance on periodic unit cell geometries in architected materials.

Dendrimers are highly branched molecules. Amphiphilic glycodendrimers have been synthesized for the first time. These macro-molecules have tunable carbohydrate head groups and hydrophobic tails. The precise architecture of the dendrimers facilitates assembly of precise structures, including vesicles (glycodendrimersomes). These novel vesicles display biological activity, including fusion and coalescence in response to lectins.

Researchers demonstrated that by applying electric fields to a two-dimensional gallium layer, they could detect a permanent dipole moment. This breakthrough, shown through microreflectivity, confirms earlier predictions about non-centrosymmetric bonding in 2D metals. The technique, called AC electric double layer gating, effectively modulates the material's properties, paving the way for new insights into the electronic structure and electro-optic characteristics of ultra-thin materials.

Researchers developed new design techniques for creating complex two-dimensional patterns using triangular units that fit together based on specific chemical interactions. By leveraging symmetry, they designed crystal structures with many different subunit types, which could help advance technologies in light manipulation. Experiments with DNA origami confirmed the effectiveness of these designs, producing patterns with sizes comparable to visible light. The study also identified cost-effective design principles to streamline future work in this area.

This year, we collaborated with Penn’s Center for Technology Transfer (CTT) on a discussion panel "How to Start a Materials-based Company." CTT is in charge of transferring inventions and innovative knowledge to outside organizations for the benefit of society. The panel, geared mainly towards graduate students, focused on starting a materials science based company. Three CEOs from the Delaware Valley discussed their startup experience, and two experts, who assist new companies, provided information on available resources for entrepreneurs.

Researchers have reported the discovery of superconductivity in a twisted bilayer of WSe2, a type of transition metal dichalcogenide. This phenomenon, previously observed in twisted graphene, raises questions about whether superconductivity in flat-band systems is specific to graphene or a more universal trait. The study suggests that unique properties of WSe2, such as its band gap and magnetism, could lead to new opportunities for exploring superconductivity in different materials beyond graphene.