The UMN MRSEC has demonstrated the control of nanocrystal orientation within nanoporous polymer monoliths prepared from ABC triblock terpolymers containing a robust A block (polystyrene), a hydrophilic B block [poly(dimethylacrylamide)], and an etchable C block (polylactide) developed in the IRG.

Mr. Chin-Yi Liu, a graduate student working in Professor Kortshagen’s group, demonstrated the first hybrid solar cell based on silicon nanocrystals and a conductive polymer, poly-3(hexylthiophene) (P3HT). 

One of the challenges in developing robust multilayers is the need to predict the interfacial strength between hard and soft materials. For example, in the case of drug eluting stents that are being used increasingly to treat arteriosclerosis, there are concerns that the drug-eluting layer may detach from the polymeric layers that are used to attach the soft drug eluting layers to the hard metallic stent substrate.

Technology based on fundamental studies carried out within our MRSEC is now saving lives at hospitals across the country: over 175 novel endoscopic surgical procedures per week are being carried out across 250 medical facilities in the U. S. using high-power laser radiation delivered by OmniGuide photonic fibers.

A collaboration between researchers funded by the DOE and NSF-supported MRSEC and CHM at UC Berkeley and UMASS Amherst has led to a breakthrough in the areal density of templates derived from block copolymers (BCPs) having orientational registry over macroscopic distances. The facets on a reconstructed single crystal surface, like sapphire, were used to guide and direct the self-assembly of BCPs having 3 nm cylindrical domains over arbitrarily large surfaces. Grazing incidence x-ray scattering (GISAXS) quantitatively demonstrated

Rotello developed a very rapid and convenient method for fabricating microspheres with walls made of nanoparticles, known as colloidosomes. In this method alkyne and azide functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles are co-assembled at the water-in oil-interface and covalently linked using “click” chemistry under ambient conditions to create magnetic colloidosomes. These colloidosomes are highly stable in water, have size selective permeability, and are responsive towards external

One of the key hurdles to building a large quantum computer is maintaining the coherence of the many individual two-level quantum mechanical systems, or qubits. Atoms and ions in a vacuum or nuclear spins in solids and liquids can have long coherence, but it is not yet known how well those systems can be scaled to make a large computer. Ideally one could use the spin of an electron in a semiconductor as a qubit, since modern semiconductor technology is based upon moving and controlling electrons in silicon.