Following up on their recent creation of light-sensitive fibers, Professors Yoel Fink and Joannopoulos and their research teams have developed fibers that can detect ("hear") and produce sound ("sing").

Since its development in China thousands of years ago, silk from silkworms, spiders and other insects has been used for high-end, luxury fabrics as well as for parachutes and medical sutures. Now, MRSEC supported researchers are untangling some of its most closely guarded secrets, and explaining why silk is so strong, a question that has remained unresolved. Buehler and co-workers of the MIT MRSEC IRG-II have

Our team has developed a simple solution-based method to fabricate arrays of ZnO nanowires inside of a glass microchannel. 

Graduate student Mingjing Ha working with Optomec, Inc. and Northwestern University collaborators (Mark Hersam) has demonstrated low voltage, fast carbon nanotube (CNT) circuits printed on flexible plastic substrates. The circuits are fabricated by aerosol jet printing from a liquid dielectric ink (ion gel) and a purified semiconducting CNT ink (Northwestern). The printed semiconducting CNTs form the channels in thin film transistors and printed circuits.

We have demonstrated the first ever hybrid polymer film of an insoluble polymer with an acid (top picture).  

  Silicon nanowires are potentially transformative photovoltaic materials. Nanowire arrays are commonly synthesized using metal seeds. The growth process often introduces metal impurities into wires which degrade their electronic properties. We have used a plasma-assisted, vapor-liquid-solid process to grow silicon nanowires using tin seeds.  The tin is etched by the hydrogen plasma while the wires grow, resulting in self terminating wires which are metal free. 

  Stitching defects make the film weaker, but have no electronic effect

Supermolecular, helical assemblies are a common structural motif exploited in far-ranging biological contexts, from the flagellar appendages of swimming microorganisms to the protein coats that sheath rod-like viruses.  The screw-like structure of these