T
he mission of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering
is to produce B.S./M.S./Ph.D. graduates who can excel in leadership
positions in industry and academia at national and international levels.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
Tenure-Track Faculty FTE
Auxiliary Faculty FTE
Research Faculty FTE
Office Staff FTE
DNI Staff FTE
Technical Staff FTE
MCF Staff FTE
Total Undergraduate Students
Total Graduate Students
Domestic Graduate Students
Ph.D. Awarded (05-06)
M.S. Awarded (05-06)
B.S. Awarded (05-06)
New Research Awards
Research Expenditures
Books, Chapters, Editorials
Refereed Journal Publications
National Awards Won
University Awards Won
11.2
1
3
3
2
1
3
80
79
62%
11
5
7
$3.2M
$4.5M
16
87
38
13
Funding Sources
2
R
apid growth in the number of undergraduate students majoring in
Materials. Revolutionary partnerships. $4.5 million in research
expenditures this year. Drexel University’s
Department of Materials Science and
Engineering (MSE) has certainly seen phenomenal growth and success this year. Our
noteworthy accomplishments will no doubt
multiply as we seek to fill four faculty positions over the next four years.
Our research and educational enterprise has
grown tremendously. Among our highlights, the
department received a three-year $633K Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need—Drexel Research and Education in Advanced Materials
(GAANN-DREAM) award from the Department
of Education. The grant provides need-based
fellowships in the exciting research areas of
nanomaterials, biomaterials, design of materials, particulate processing, and electronic and
photonic materials. Caroline Schauer is leading
us in a new undergraduate research initiative, a
National Science Foundation Research Experience
for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) site, dedicated to
sensor research from science to application. Michel Barsoum and Jonathan Spanier received
an $800K grant from NSF to study intermetallic nanolaminate solid solutions. In addition to
more than $250K awarded to our faculty from
two DoD-sponsored Defense University Research
Instrumentation Program (DURIP) awards, Antonios Zavaliangos received a Major Research
Instrumentation grant for the “Acquisition of a
High Resolution X-ray Tomography Unit” from
the NSF, totaling nearly $400K.
visit us online at
FROM THE DEPARTMENT HEAD
We’ve also received interdepartmental and
inter-school grants that have led us to groundbreaking discoveries with our fellow researchers.
Yury Gogotsi, with colleagues from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and the University of
Illinois at Chicago, is leading a new
four-year, million dollar NSF-funded
Nanotechnology Interdisciplinary Research Team (NIRT) project entitled
“Nanotube-Based Nanofluidic Devices and Fundamental Fluid Studies at
the Nanoscale.” A $280K one-year
state grant teams Jonathan Spanier
with collaborators from other departments in integrating scanning probe
microscopy and fluorescence microscopy to investigate biochemical pathways relating to epidermal growth factor receptor endocytosis. Christopher Li received a $100K NSF
grant for research on active hierarchical nanostructures fabricated by holographic polymerization and block copolymer self assembly to
be conducted with MSE affiliated faculty Adam
Fontecchio (ECE).
Our talented faculty and students have
made noteworthy accomplishments that have
brought our department to a whole new level
this year. Ph.D. student John Chmiola won a
prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
Another Ph.D. student, Siddhartha Pathak, took
home the Grand Prize at the 50th International
Conference on Electron, Ion, and Photon Beam
Technology Nanofabrication Bizarre/Beautiful Micrograph Contest. Roger Doherty was
chosen as a TMS Fellow, Michel Barsoum was
elected to academician of the World Academy
of Ceramics, and Christopher Li received the
www.materials.drexel.edu
ASM International Bradley Stoughton Award for
Young Teachers. Yury Gogotsi was selected as
one of 15 nanotechnology innovators nationwide to be honored with Nanotech Briefs’ Nano
50 Awards. Gogotsi, along with his
research team, was also published in
Science and work by student Linyou
Cao, MSE faculty Jonathan Spanier,
and MSE affiliated faculty Bahram
Nabet (ECE), was published in Physical Review Letters.
Our newest facilities have certainly contributed to the department’s
recent success. The state-of-the-art
Materials Characterization Facility
(MCF) and Microfabrication Facility
(MFF), part of the A. J. Drexel Nanotechnology Institute (DNI), now offer unique instruments and expert staff that attract researchers not only from universities in the region, but
also from a growing number of companies including Arkema Inc. and Nanoblox. Please visit
the DNI Web site at www.nano.drexel.edu for
more information.
On behalf of MSE I hope you enjoy this report, highlighting these and some of our other
most recent endeavors in greater detail. If you
find yourself in Philadelphia, I encourage you to
stop by and see us. You can also visit us on the
Web at www.materials.drexel.edu to learn
more about our department’s achievements.
Cheers,
Surya Kalidindi
Department Head and Professor
skalidin@coe.drexel.edu
3
OUR FACULTY
OUR STAFF
MAT E R IA LS FAC ULTY
Wei-Heng Shih (Ph.D., Ohio State University)
Distinguished Professor
Professor
Sheila Berninger
Roger Doherty (Ph.D., Oxford, UK)
T.S. Venkataraman (Ph.D., WPI)
MSE Program Coordinator
A. W. Grosvenor Professor (67% reduced position)
Professor (50% in Physics)
Andrew Marx
Yury Gogotsi (Ph.D., Kiev Polytechnic, UA)
Antonios Zavaliangos (Ph.D., MIT)
Technology Coordinator
Professor
Associate Department Head and Professor
Dorilona Rose
Surya Kalidindi (Ph.D., MIT)
Christopher Li (Ph.D., University of Akron)
Program Coordinator of Research and Publications
Department Head and Professor
Assistant Professor
Judy Trachtman
Richard Knight (Ph.D., Loughborough, UK)
Caroline Schauer (Ph.D., SUNY Stony Brook)
Educational Programs and Accounts Coordinator
Auxiliary Professor
Assistant Professor
Frank Ko (Ph.D., Georgia Tech)
Jonathan Spanier (Ph.D., Columbia University)
Professor
Assistant Professor
Michele Marcolongo (Ph.D., U. of Penn.)
Associate Professor
MATERIALS
CHARACTERIZATION
FACILITY (MCF)
Dee Breger
Director of Microscopy
Research Assistant Professor
Peter Finkel
Director of Microfabrication Facilities
Research Assistant Professor
Zhorro Nikolov
Director of MCF
Research Professor
OTHER STAFF
Dustin Doss
Nanotechnology Program Coordinator
Technical Staff
Shirin Karsan
Franco Capaldi
Anthony Lowman
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics
Associate Professor of Chemical & Biological Engineering
Bakhtier Farouk
Bahram Nabet
J. Harland Billings Prof. of Mech. Engineering & Mechanics
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Adam Fontecchio
Giuseppe Palmese
Assistant Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Department Head of Chemical & Biological Engineering
Alexander Fridman
Karl Sohlberg
John S. Nyheim Chair Prof. of Mech. Engr. and Mechanics
Professor of Chemistry
Haviva Goldman
Yen Wei
Assistant Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy
Professor of Chemistry
Selçuk Güçeri
Margaret Wheatley
Dean of the College of Engineering
John M. Reid Prof. of Biomedical Engineering and Science
R E S E ARC H FAC ULT Y
David Fulwood (Ph.D., London University, UK)
Wan Shih (Ph.D., Ohio State University)
Research Assistant Professor
Research Associate Professor
Nina Orlovskaya (Ph.D., Ukrainian Acad. Sci., UA)
Gleb Yushin (Ph.D., N. Carolina State University)
Research Assistant Professor
Research Assistant Professor
E ME R I TUS FAC ULTY
Roger Corneliussen
Ihab Kamel
Jack Keverian
A. J. DREXEL
NANOTECHNOLOGY
INSTITUTE (DNI)
Holly Burnside
A F F I LI ATED FAC ULTY
4
MATERIALS DEPARTMENT
Michel Barsoum (Ph.D., MIT)
Alan Lawley
Fellow of the National Academy of Engineering
Samuel K. Nash
Harry C. Rogers
visit us online at
Nanotechnology Business Coordinator
DEPARTMENT WELCOMES NEW STAFF
Sheila Berninger, Materials Science and Engineering Program Coordinator, was hired full time in
September 2006. Sheila has a B.A. in English-Communications and Spanish from Albright College in
Reading, PA. She has more than five
years of experience in journalism and
is currently pursuing her M.S. in Public Communication at Drexel University. Sheila’s responsibilities include
publicity, event planning, recruiting
and outreach, and coordination for
the Department of Materials Science
and Engineering. She also acts as
the liaison between the department and its Visiting
Advisory Board. Additionally, she provides support
to faculty, staff, and students, arranges travel itineraries, and schedules catered events for various
conferences and meetings for the department.
www.materials.drexel.edu
After five years as a student in the B.S./M.S.
program of the Department of Materials Science
and Engineering, Andrew Marx was appointed the
department’s Technology Coordinator to assist with computer and Web
site maintenance. Coming in with a
student’s perspective has allowed
Andrew to provide services that facilitate students’ research and educational goals, while utilizing the latest
technology to ensure that the department stands out among its techenabled peers. He is responsible for the redesign
of the department Web site, as well as an intranet
site that helps to streamline information dispersal
throughout the department. When not engaged in
web and hardware maintenance, Andrew is either
cycling or snapping photos in Fairmount Park.
5
NEW STAFF
DNI WELCOMES NEW STAFF
Dr. Peter Finkel joined Drexel University in
March 2006 as Director of the Microfabrication Facility in the A. J. Drexel Nanotechnology Institute. In
addition, he was appointed Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science and
Engineering and Adjunct Professor in the Physics
Department at Rowan University, N.J. Peter holds a
Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from Drexel University and an M.S. in Physics from
Queens College, City University
of New York. He received postdoctoral training in Solid State
and Low Temperature Physics
from the Institute for Low Temperature Physics (ILTP), Academy of
Science of Ukraine. Prior to joining Drexel, Peter was a Research
Member of Technical Staff (Physicist) with RCA/GE/Thomson R&D
Center in Lancaster, PA, where he worked on new
types of displays, field emission devices, new materials, and electron optics. He also supplied technical
expertise to the programs related to all aspects of
the magnetic shielding of color picture tubes. His
research at Thomson, in collaboration with several
academic institutions, promoted the development
and construction of a world-class magnetic laboratory for studying magnetic properties of ferromagnetic parts as a function of stress and temperature,
a specialized system for magnetic field probing for
electron optic design.
At Drexel, Peter manages the Nano- and Microfabrication Laboratory, oversees microfabrication facility operations and equipment maintenance,
supervises and organizes users’ training on plasma
reactive ion etching systems, photolithography, and
process characterization, arranges new system installation and training, and interacts with faculty
members in their research and coursework.
6
Shirin Karsan joined Drexel University
full time as Business Coordinator for the A.
J. Drexel Nanotec hnology Institute in Febr uary 2006. Shirin has a B.S. in diagnostic imaging, with extensive experience in clinical
health care, x-ray, ultrasound, obstetrics,
gynecology, and or thopedics. She is currently pursuing a Master’s
in Bioethics at the University
of Pennsylvania.
Shirin’s responsibilities
include the development of
the Materials and Nanotec hnology Consor tium, acting as the liaison between
academia and industry to
promote researc h and collaboration, and to meet the
needs of industry, gover nment, and academia. She recr uits new consor tium members, handles project management, plans consor tium events, seminars,
and meetings to continually promote the
consor tium while disseminating education
and infor mation to both the inter nal university and exter nal academic, researc h, and
industrial communities through event planning, mar keting, and publicity.
Shirin is also responsible for the business and financial operations of the newly
established, wor ld-class Centralized Researc h Facilities in the A. J. Drexel Nanotec hnology Institute. These responsibilities
include monitoring equipment, billing procedures and budgeting issues, wor king with
students and assisting with grant proposals,
and ensuring appropriate operations of the
researc h facility.
visit us online at
EDUCATIONAL
INITIATIVES
New REU Site Brings Sensors
Research to Undergraduates
A new National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site joined three-year
old DREAM (Drexel Research Experience in Advanced Materials) as one of two REU sites hosted by the Department of
Materials Science and Engineering this summer and one of three in Drexel’s College of Engineering.
SENSORS: From Design to Implementation brought 10 undergraduate students to Drexel from around
the country to experience hands-on sensors research from science to application for 10 weeks. The students
were chosen from over 40 applicants and hailed from Beloit College, Bryn Mawr College, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Skidmore College, Swarthmore College, Temple University, Texas Tech
University, and Vassar College.
In addition to research, SENSORS Fellows participated in lectures about the different stages of sensors
research, workshops on how to conduct a research project, and an engineering ethics component taught by senior investigator Dr. Mark Manion, associate professor in the Department of English and Philosophy. The Fellows also
went on field trips to the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division
in Maryland and the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.
The summer culminated in a poster competition among the three Drexel
REU sites. In addition, each SENSORS Fellow submitted an NSF Graduate
Research Fellowship-style original research proposal as a final project.
Bryn Mawr student Sanda Win tackles
the difficult dilemmas of drug delivery in
mentor Dr. Margaret Wheatley’s lab
Dr. Caroline Schauer, assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering serves as the PI of the program. She is joined
by co-PI Dr. Jin Wen, assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering (CAEE). MSE program coordinator Dorilona Rose, who helped in
writing the proposal, assisted with the administration of the program. SENSORS is a three-year grant with
a $300,000 budget.
Other senior investigators hail from MSE and other departments within the College of Engineering;
School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, and Health Systems; and the College of Medicine.
For more information, visit www.materials.drexel.edu/Programs/SENSORS/
www.materials.drexel.edu
7
E D U C AT I O N A L
I N I T I AT I V E S
Department of Materials Science and Engineering Receives
Department of Education GAANN Grant
High School Students Get Hands-on Materials Experience
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering is the recipient of a grant from the Department of Education as part of their Graduate
Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN)
program. The three-year grant, entitled GAANNDREAM (Drexel Research and Education in Advanced Materials), totals $633,360. The purpose
of the grant is to provide need-based graduate
PI and Director of GAANN-DREAM is Dr.
Surya Kalidindi, Department Head and Professor of the Department of Materials Science and
Engineering. Co-I Dr. Antonios Zavaliangos, Associate Department Head and Professor in the
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, will serve as Co-Director. Dorilona Rose, Program Coordinator of Research and Publications in
the Department of Materials Science and
Engineering, who contributed substantially
to writing and submitting the grant, will
administer GAANN-DREAM.
SEM image of electrospun chitosan nanofibers, post-mechanical testing. This image
was taken by GAANN-DREAM recipient Jessica Schiffman, a Ph.D. student working
with advisor Dr. Caroline Schauer.
fellowships in five exciting research areas: nanomaterials, biomaterials, design of materials, particulate processing, and electronic and photonic
materials. Additionally, fellows will receive teaching preparation for future academic careers and
the opportunity to participate in an international
or industrial research experience.
Other Co-Is include Dr. Caroline
Schauer, Assistant Professor and Dr. Jonathan Spanier, Assistant Professor from
the Department of Materials Science and
Engineering; Dr. Mun Choi, Associate Dean
of Research and Graduate Studies in the
College of Engineering; Dr. Fredricka Reisman, Assistant Provost for Evaluation and
Assessment; Dr. William Lynch, Director
and Dr. Sheila Vaidya, Associate Director
of the School of Education; and Mr. Stephen Cox, founder and Project Director of
the NSF-funded Philadelphia Alliance for
Minority Participation program.
For the second year in a row, the Department
of Materials Science and Engineering, in conjunction
with the ASM International Philadelphia Chapter, hosted Materials
Camp, a week-long academic day
camp in July that introduced high
school students to all facets of the
field of materials science and engineering. Students were exposed
to metals, polymers, ceramics, and
composites, as well as a number
of topics such as the strength of
materials and materials design.
In the lab, the participants, a collection of juniors and seniors from Delaware Valley
schools, also got a firsthand look at furnaces and
electron microscopes; metals and ceramics; magnets and polymers; slime, foam and composites; and
macro-, micro-, and nanotechnology. To top off their
experience, students participated in an intense com-
petition to build the lightest, strongest beam using
the same technology that goes into exciting products
such as helicopter rotors and high performance skis.
Materials Camp provides the perfect opportunity
to pique students’ interest in materials science and
engineering at the time in their lives when they are
choosing a path of higher education.
This is one of three new GAANN
grants that the College of Engineering received as part of the 2006 competition. These
join a fourth existing GAANN in the College.
For more information, visit www.materials.
drexel.edu/Programs/GAANN/
Ph.D. student Chris Hovanec shows a group of high school students how
to look for signs of heat treatment in hardened steel
This high school student learns firsthand how hot the field of
Materials Science and Engineering can be!
8
visit us online at
www.materials.drexel.edu
9
EXCELLENCE IN SCHOLARSHIP: 2006 GRADUATES
Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Engineering
John Cunningham
Experimental Studies and Modeling of the Roller
Compaction of Pharmaceutical Powders
Supervising Professor: Antonios Zavaliangos
Current Position: Johnson & Johnson
Ranjan Kumar Dash
Nanoporous Carbons Derived From Binary Carbides
and Their Optimization for Hydrogen Storage
Supervising Professor: Yury Gogotsi
Current Position: FuelCell Energy; Danbury, CT
Svetlana Dimovski
Structure, Characterization and Exploration of Synthesis of Conical and Polyhedral Crystals of Graphite
Supervising Professor: Yury Gogotsi
Current Position: Procter & Gamble; Cincinnati, OH
Adrish Ganguly
Synthesis and Characterization of Solid Solutions of
Max Phases
Supervising Professor: Michel W. Barsoum
Current Position: Williams Advanced Materials;
Brewster, NY
Surojit Gupta
Tribology of Max Phases and their Composites
Supervising Professor: Michel W. Barsoum
Current Position: Post-Doc, Penn State Univ.
Joshua Robert Houskamp
Microstructure Sensitive Design: A Tool for Exploiting
Material Anisotropy in Mechanical Design
Supervising Professor: Surya R. Kalidindi
Current Position: Post-Doc with Oakridge Associated
Universities at Army Research Laboratories; Army
Proving Grounds, MD
10
Milan Ivosevic
Splatting of Thermally Spprayed Polymer Particles:
Modeling Transport and Impact
Supervising Professor: Richard Knight and Richard
Cairncross
Current Position: Materials Scientist; Resodyn Corporation; Butte, MT
Master of Science in
Materials Engineering
Bachelor of Science in
Materials Engineering
Jose M. Bermudez
Harren Bray
Linyou Cao
Anthony Mario Coratolo
Anthony Mario Coratolo
Brendan Robert Donohue
Varun Gupta
Benjamin J. Gillespie
Nicholas Lee Titchenal
Jonathan M. Hopely
William E. Yackabonis
Stephen A. Mastro
Vincent C. Zuwiala
Optomechanical Behavior of Embedded Fiber Bragg
Grating Strain Sensors
Supervising Professor: Mahmoud El-Sherif
Current Position: Senior Engineer; NAVSEA Philadelphia (US Navy); Philadelphia, PA
Jamie Ostroha
PEG-Based Degradable Networks for Drug Delivery
Applications
Supervising Professors: Anthony Lowman, Nily Dan
Current Position: Lead Project Engineer; Spectrum
Brands; Madison, WI
Adam Procopio
On the Compaction of Granular Media Using a MultiParticle Finite Element Method
Supervising Professor: Antonios Zavaliangos
Current Position: Project Manager; Merck & Co., Inc.
Jonathan D. Thomas
Development of Injectable Hydrogels for Nucleus
Pulposus Replacement
Supervising Professor: Michele Marcolongo
Current Position: Post-Doc, Drexel University
visit us online at
GRADUATE NEWS
Recent Alum Accepts Tenure-Track Faculty Position
MSE alumnus Dr. Miladin Radovic (Ph.D. 2001) has been appointed Assistant Professor
of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, as of August 2006.
Radovic is the 11th Ph.D. alum to continue on to a tenure-track position in academia. Since
receiving his Ph.D. from Drexel in 2001, Dr. Radovic has been working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, predominantly on reliability and durability of the materials
and components for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells. Dr. Radovic’s research areas include processing,
thermal and mechanical properties, and reliability and durability of the materials for high
temperature applications, such as MAX phases, oxide ceramics, cermets, and material for
Solid Oxide Fuel Cells.
Ph.D./M.B.A. Student Ranjan Dash Wins
Most Likely to Enhance Drexel’s Reputation Award
Ph.D./M.B.A. student Ranjan Dash (advisor: Yury Gogotsi) was the recipient of the graduate student Most Likely to Enhance Drexel’s Reputation Award (Engineering and Physical Sciences) for 2006 presented by the Graduate Studies Awards Committee. Ranjan is the first
Drexel student to complete a Ph.D. and M.B.A. simultaneously. He was recognized at Commencement on June 17, 2006 and received the award at the Awards Ceremony as part of
the Hood Presentation and Reception on June 16th. Just two days later, Ranjan began his job
at FuelCell Energy in Danbury, CT.
www.materials.drexel.edu
11
Dr. Roger Doherty is Chosen
as 2007 TMS Fellow
Dr. Roger Doherty has been chosen to be a
TMS Fellow. Doherty is one of five recipients of
the 2007 Fellow Award. This
award is presented to people
who have made outstanding
contributions to the practice
of metallurgy or materials
science and technology. The
award was presented at the
TMS Awards Dinner on Tuesday, February 27, 2007 in
Orlando, Florida during the
136th TMS Annual Meeting.
The mission of TMS (The Minerals, Metals, and
Materials Society), is “to promote the global science and engineering professions concerned with
minerals, metals, and materials.”
Dr. Christopher Li Receives
the ASM International 2006
Bradley Stoughton Award
Dr. Christopher Li is the recipient of the 2006
ASM International Bradley Stoughton Award for
Young Teachers. Li received
the award for “his outstanding
enthusiasm for teaching materials science and engineering
classes and the establishment
of the thermal analysis center
for undergraduate education
at Drexel University.” Li received a certificate and an
honorarium of $3,000 at the
ASM Awards Dinner at the
MS&T 2006 conference October 15-18, 2006 in
Cincinatti, OH.
12
AWARDS ACHIEVEMENTS
Barsoum Elected to World
Academy of Ceramics
Dr. Michel Barsoum has been elected as a “WAC
Academician” member of the World Academy of
Ceramics (WAC). Founded in
1987, WAC is “directed towards
promoting progress in the field
of ceramics and fostering a better understanding of the social
impact and cultural interactions
of ceramics science, technology,
history, and art. It is a voluntary,
nonprofit organization of collective and individual Supporting Members concerned with the
welfare of the ceramics sector.” Members are nominated based on the important contributions they have
made to the advancement of ceramics worldwide. For
more information, please visit www.waceramics.org.
Ph.D. Student Siddhartha
Pathak Takes Top Prize in
International Micrograph Contest
Ph.D. student Siddhartha Pathak (advisor: Surya
Kalidindi) is the Grand Prize Winner of the 50th International Conference on Electron, Ion, and Photon Beam
Technology Nanofabrication Bizarre/Beautiful Micrograph Contest. A total of 81 entries were submitted
to the contest.
John Chmiola Receives NSF
Graduate Fellowship
Ph.D. student John Chmiola (advisor: Yury Gogotsi) is the recipient of a 2006 NSF Graduate Research
Fellowship. John is one of only three recipients from
Drexel to receive the award this year. Drexel has had
16 NSF Graduate Fellowship recipients over the past
four years, including three from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. These highly competitive national fellowships offer recognition and three
years of support for advanced study to approximately
1,000 outstanding graduate students in the mathematical, physical, biological, engineering, and behavioral
and social sciences, including the history of science and
the philosophy of science, and to research-based Ph.D.
degrees in science education.
for a complete list of awards, visit
Pathak’s image (above) shows layered steps inside
closed pores in La0.8Ca0.2CoO3 revealed by fracture. During sintering, if the surface adjacent to the
pore is smooth (generally the closed-packed-planes),
then this represents a difficult and slow situation for
further growth. The final grain shape is determined by
these slow-growing facetted layers. Lanthanum cobaltite based perovskites are important materials for
use as catalysts, oxygen separation membranes, and
solid oxide fuel cells. This work was done at the High
Temperature Materials Laboratory (HTML) at Oak
Ridge National Lab (ORNL) under the SURA (Southeastern Universities Research Association)/ORNL Summer 2005 Program in Materials Research.
www.materials.drexel.edu/ar/awards
Drexel and Dr. Gogotsi Honored
as Nanotech Brief’s Nano 50
Dr. Yury Gogotsi, professor of Materials Science and Engineering and director of the A. J. Drexel
Nanotechnology Institute, was selected as one of 15
nanotechnology innovators from
across the U.S. to be honored
with Nanotech Briefs’ Nano 50
Awards. The nanotech innovators, which include researchers
from the NASA Ames Research
Center, Naval Research Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, UCLA,
and Rice University, are recognized for being “leaders or
pioneers in a specific area of nanotechnology, with a
significant background of accomplishments in advancing the state-of-the-art in nanotechnology.”
The University’s Carbide-Derived Carbon (CDC)
also received a Nano 50 Award in the technology category. CDC, which was developed by Gogotsi and
Drexel colleagues in collaboration with the U. of Pennsylvania and the U. of Illinois-Chicago with support
from the U.S. Department of Energy and industry, has
the potential of being used in hydrogen and methane
storage, supercapacitors, water filtration, and treatment of the blood infection sepsis. Winners in the technologies category were cited as being “breakthroughs
that have, or are expected to have, a significant impact in one or more application areas.” In addition,
CDC was selected from more than 500 nanotechnologies nominated for this award.
Nanotech Briefs is a monthly digital publication.
The Nano 50 awards recognize the top 50 technologies, products, and innovators that have or will have
a significant impact on nanotechnology. The awards
were presented in November at the NASA Tech Briefs
National Nano Engineering Conference in Boston.
13
Barsoum and Spanier
Receive NSF FRG Award
Dr. Michel Barsoum (PI) and Dr. Jonathan
Spanier (Co-I) and their collaborators at Rowan
University were awarded a four-year $800,000
grant entitled, “MAX Phase Solid Solutions: Unique
Opportunities at Engineering Bulk and Surface
Properties” by the Division of Materials Research
(DMR) as an NSF Focused Research Group (FRG).
The work encompasses a broad range of experimental and theoretical simulation tools to investigate the properties of this emerging class of inorganic, nano-laminate engineering compounds.
The linking of undergraduate and graduate
student researchers, faculty, and resources from
both institutions resulting from this partnership is
enabling students to benefit from broad, interdisciplinary research experiences.
Li Receives NSF Funding
for Nanoscale Exploratory
Research Proposal
Dr. Christopher Li has received a $100,000
grant from the National Science Foundation for
a Nanoscale Exploratory Research (NER) proposal entitled, “NER: Top-down meets bottom-up,
active hierarchical nanostructures fabricated by
holographic polymerization and block copolymer
self assembly” along with Dr. Adam Fontecchio
(ECE).
The objective of this research is to develop
a new method to create active, tunable hierarchical nanostructures. The approach is to combine top-down (Holographic polymerization)
and bottom-up (block copolymer self assembly)
nanomanufacturing techniques in one system: using the top-down technique to create long-range,
large scale features within which self-assembly is
employed to create tailored fine scale architectures.
14
MAJOR RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
Gogotsi Awarded
NSF NIRT Grant
Dr. Yury Gogotsi, along with Dr. Gary Friedman (ECE), and collaborators from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Illinois at Chicago, is the recipient of a four-year
$1,000,000 NSF-funded Nanotechnology Interdisciplinary Research Team (NIRT) project entitled
“Nanotube-Based Nanofluidic Devices and Fundamental Fluid Studies at the Nanoscale.”
This research will join six faculty members from
the fields of MSE, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computational science, in
a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional (Drexel,
University of Pennsylvania, University of Illinois at
Chicago) approach. The work will combine the
expertise of researchers in microfabrication, fluid
thermophysics, nanostructured carbon materials,
magnetism, and molecular dynamics into a synergistic program.
This simulation of water molecules inside of a carbon nanotube is just one
part of Drexel’s NSF-funded NIRT project. The program brings together
researchers from Drexel, U. of Pennsylvania, and U. of Illinois-Chicago.
(Image: H. Ye)
for a complete list of grants awarded, visit
Zavaliangos Receives
Major Research
Instrumentation Grant
A Major Research Instrumentation grant for
the Acquisition of a High Resolution X-ray Tomography Unit ($349,267) was awarded by the
National Science Foundation to PI Dr. Antonios
Zavaliangos. Co-PIs include Dr. Haviva M. Goldman (Neurobiology and Anatomy), Dr. Joseph
Wartman (Civil, Architectural, and Environmental
Engineering), Dr. Surya R. Kalidindi (MSE), and
Dr. Wei Sun (Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics).
This instrument provides
unprecedented non-destructive capability for examination of the internal structure
of specimens with a resolution that approaches 1 micron. It is the best of its kind
in the Delaware Valley and
one of three comparable instruments available in
academic institutions in the U.S. (the others bring
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and
Amherst College).
Drexel’s MicroCT X-ray Tomography Unit allows
for non-destructive, high-resolution sample inspection. Utilizing a high-performance computing cluster
(HPCC), a series of x-ray “slices” (right) are reconstructed to create a full 3-D map (top)—you can
even “fly” through your sample!
(Images: B. McWilliams)
www.materials.drexel.edu/ar/grants
MSE Receives Two
DURIP Awards
Drexel University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering is the recipient of two Defense
University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) awards from the Army Research Office (ARO).
PI Dr. Surya Kalidindi and Co-PIs Dr. Roger
Doherty and Dr. Michel Barsoum are the recipients of the DURIP entitled “Acquisition of an Orientation Imaging Microscopy
(OIM) system for acquiring and
analyzing Electron Backscattered Diffraction (EBSD) data”
for $126,230. Ph.D. student
Christopher Hovanec contributed tremendously to this proposal and was instrumental in This OIM map of cold-rolled
its successful outcome.
recrystallized electrical steel
PI Dr. Jonathan Spanier is
the recipient of a DURIP entitled “Electronic Instrumentation
for Nanodevice Fabrication.”
is an example of how OIM
systems allow researchers to study the orientation
of grains within a metallic
sample
(Image: D. Stojakovic)
Li Part of ARL Team
Dr. Christopher Li is a co-PI on a new Materials Center of Excellence for research on polymers
awarded by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL). This cooperative program will receive
$6.75 million over nine years. PI on the grant is
materials affiliated faculty Dr. Giuseppe Palmese, Professor and Department Head of Chemical & Biological Engineering (CBE). Other Co-PIs
include Dr. Cameron Abrams and Dr. Joe Elabd,
also of CBE. The proposal focuses on multiscale
synthesis, computational modeling, and design of
advanced polymer systems.
15
PARTNERSHIPS
WITH INDUSTRY
Drexel Celebrates Opening of Materials Characterization Facility
Drexel University hosted over 200 outside guests plus
several hundred faculty, staff, and students on October
25, 2006, as the A.J. Drexel Nanotechnology Institute celebrated the official opening of the Centralized Research
Facilities.
“It took five years to get to this point, moving parallel
on constructing the site, acquiring the high-tech equipment,
and developing the intellectual capacity to make the best
use of the facility,” said Dean Selçuk Güçeri, College
of Engineering. “Our students, both undergraduate and
graduate, will be the winners in this new phase of our
operation.”
The full day of events started with technical workshops in
four different areas: scanning
electron microscopy, Raman and
infrared spectroscopy, microfabrication, and post-processing of
electron micrographs. More than
150 people from Drexel, Temple
University, other universities, and
area companies attended the
workshops.
Tours of the Materials Characterization Facility and
a meeting of the Materials and Nanotechnology Consortium filled the afternoon, leading up to a poster session
and reception for participants in the NSF-sponsored Research Experience for Teachers (RET) programs at Drexel
and the University of Pennsylvania. Thirty middle, high
school, and community college teachers who participated
in the RET programs in summers 2004-2006 attended the
session, and several of them invited their students. About
130 high school students attended.
The main event was a ribbon cutting ceremony at the
Materials Characterization Facility (MCF). The MCF offers state-of-the-art characterization instruments, including
three advanced scanning electron microscopes, a Nano
Indenter, Raman and infrared spectrometers, and other
instruments for nanoscale and microscale characterization
of materials. In particular, a new Zeiss scanning electron
16
microscope provides extremely high spatial resolution and
microanalysis capabilities.
Built from the ground up by the MSE department, the
MCF was some five years in the making. Beginning with a
collection of characterization equipment housed in several
different locations, the number and quality of instruments
grew through the continued efforts of many faculty. Once
a critical mass was established, the instruments were organized under the umbrella of a “recharge center,” enabling
the cost of operation and maintenance of the instruments
to be recovered from user fees. The final steps included
the development and implementation of an on-line log-in and usage
tracking system to streamline the
billing process significantly.
Construction of the Bossone Research Enterprise Center offered
the chance to house all the instruments together in a single customdesigned location. The move of the
instruments to Bossone took place
in early 2006, marking the culmination of the activities of a large
number of people, including the MSE Department facilities committee, chaired by Dr. Richard Knight. David Von
Rohr and Tim Kelly, the MSE department’s former Electron
Microscopist and Spectroscopist respectively, plus many
of the faculty, staff, and graduate students, served as
key players throughout the founding of the facility and its
transition. This true team effort resulted in the MCF growing from a departmental to a university-wide resource.
“This facility makes Drexel University a regional center for material characterization at micro- and nanoscale,” said Dr. Yury Gogotsi, Director of the A. J. Drexel
Nanotechnology Institute. “It has already attracted many
companies, which have become members of our Materials and Nanotechnology Consortium. It also attracts users
from the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Penn State,
Temple, Lehigh, and other universities, increasing Drexel’s
reputation among its peer institutions.”
visit us online at
MAJOR PUBLICATIONS
Groundbreaking Work on Supercapacitors Appears in Science
Drexel University researchers and colleagues
from the Université Paul Sabatier in France have
published the first ever paper in Science magazine
related to supercapacitors (J. Chmiola, G. Yushin,
Y. Gogotsi, C. Portet, P. Simon, and P. L. Taberna,
“Anomalous Increase in Carbon Capacitance at Pore
Sizes Less Than 1 Nanometer,” Published online 17
August 2006).
As scientists look to tomorrow to find the problems that need to be addressed today, one clearly
stands at the top of the list:
energy. Increasing the efficiency of energy storage devices is the driving force behind Chmiola, et al.’s work.
and Research Traineeship (IGERT) and Graduate
Research Fellow.
“Unlike batteries and fuel cells that harvest energy stored in chemical bonds,” Chmiola explained,
“supercapacitors exploit the electrostatic separation between electrolyte ions and high surface area
electrodes, typically carbon. Finding the optimal
pore size to maximize surface area, while minimizing the effect of constricting ions in too small pores,
has remained the holy grail of electrode research.
Historically, the design protocol for supercapacitor
carbons was to produce the
largest surface area with the
largest pore size possible.”
“Our recent results chalSupercapacitors,
most
lenge this long-standing
commonly used in backup
practice,” Chmiola continued.
power applications where
“When we realized that we
their indefinite lifespan makes
could improve performance
them the most attractive canfurther by looking at the lowdidates, are also finding iner end of the pore size speccreased usage in personal
trum into a range thought to
electronic devices, mobile
John Chmiola and Cristelle Portet attach a prototype superbe previously inaccessible,
phones, and hybrid electric/
capacitor cell to a toy car powered by a solar cell.
we knew that we stumbled
fuel cell vehicles for their improved power over batteries. Other benefits, such onto something very special.”
as short charging times and low performance fadAccording to this work, decreasing the electrode
ing at low temperatures, could open up new ap- pores below 1 nm can lead to smaller, lighter, more
plications, such as electric buses that recharge at powerful supercapacitor devices. “Supercapacitors
predetermined stops.
stand to become a new means to power the world,”
Though supercapacitors are already an emerging industry, improvements are continually being
made. Specifically, the work reported in Science
deals with the design of porous carbon material,
which can be used as electrodes in supercapacitors.
Careful design of the pore size of this material,
according to lead author John Chmiola (advisor:
Yury Gogotsi), may be the key to realizing all of
these goals.
Gogotsi said. “This work may also have implications for understanding ionic transport in narrow
channels in many other systems, including cells in
human bodies.”
Reference to this work also appeared in a number of print and online publications, including the
“News of the Week” section of Science, Financial
Times Deutschland, Nature, EuroNanotechNews.com,
and Nanotechweb.org.
Chmiola is a Ph.D. student and a National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education
www.materials.drexel.edu
17
MAJOR PUBLICATIONS
Spanier and Collabora tors’
Work Featur ed in the Media
The research work of Dr. Jonathan Spanier
and his collaborators from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University was featured in
a number of newspapers and journals, both online and in print, from April
28th to May 2, 2006.
Spanier and his collaborators have demonstrated
that a little water can help
create ultra-dense storage
systems for computers and
electronics. They have proposed a new and surprisingly effective means of
stabilizing and controlling
ferroelectricity in nanostructures: terminating their surfaces with fragments
of water. Ferroelectrics are technologically important “smart” materials for many applications
because they have local dipoles, which can be
switched to orient in different directions to encode and store information. The team’s work is
reported in the April 2006 issue of Nano Letters.
Spanier and his colleagues successfully demonstrated the benefits of using water fragments
and other molecules to stabilize memory bits in
segments of oxide nanowires that are only about
3 billionths of a meter wide. In this investigation,
the researchers probed oxide nanowires individually to characterize the size-dependence of ferroelectricity and performed calculations and experiments to validate the presence of molecules
on oxide surfaces and detail their important role
in nanoscale ferroelectricity. Significantly, these
results show that ferroelectric surfaces with water fragments or other molecules can stabilize
ferroelectricity in smaller structures than previously thought.
18
Though a scheme for the dense arrangement
and addressing of these nanowires remains to
be developed, such an approach would enable
a storage density of more than 100,000 terabits
per cubic centimeter.
This work is supported at Drexel by the Army
Research Office, and at Penn and Harvard by
the National Science Foundation, the Packard
Foundation, the Dreyfus Foundation, the Office
of Naval Research, and the Center for Piezoelectric Design.
Ph.D. Student Goknur Cambaz
and Dr. Gleb Yushin, et al.
on the Cover of Nano Letters
The work of Ph.D. student Goknur Cambaz
(advisor: Yury Gogotsi), research assistant professor Dr. Gleb Yushin, and their collaborators
appeared on the cover of the March 8, 2006
issue of Nano Letters (Vol. 6, Issue 3). According to the Nano Letters Web site, the image is
a “transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image
of an etched silicon
carbide (SiC) whisker. Selective etching
in aqueous solution
of hydrofluoric and
nitric acids resulted
in the formation of
a complex pagodalike nanostructure.”
The
corresponding
article is entitled,
“Anisotropic Etching
of SiC Whiskers” and is co-authored by Cambaz, Yushin, Dr. Yury Gogotsi, and Dr. Vadim
Lutsenko.
for a complete list of publications, visit
Marcolongo and
Colleagues Win Otto
Aufranc Award for 2006
Dr. Michele Marcolongo and her coauthors are recipients of the 2006 Otto
Aufranc Award given by the Hip Society.
The paper award was presented at the 2006 Meeting of the Hip Society in
Chicago, IL on March 25,
2006, followed by a banquet. The award consists of
a $2,000 honorarium and
a commemorative scroll.
The paper is entitled,
“Significance of In Vivo
Degradation for Polyethylene in Total Hip Arthroplasty” and is coauthored by Steven M. Kurtz, Ph.D.; William
Hozack, M.D.; James Purtill, M.D.; Marcolongo; Matthew Kraay, M.D.; Victor Goldberg,
M.D.; Peter Sharkey, M.D.; Javad Parvizi,
M.D.; Clare M. Rimnac, Ph.D.; and Avram A.
Edidin, Ph.D.; all from Drexel; Exponent Inc.,
Philadelphia, PA; the Rothman Institute, Philadelphia, PA; University Hospitals of Cleveland and Case Western Reserve University,
Cleveland, OH; or Case Western Reserve
University, Cleveland, OH.
The paper looks at retrieved ultra high
molecular weight polyethylene acetabular
components (hip cups) for the mechanical
and chemical changes that occur in vivo.
This research work was led by Dr. Steven
Kurtz.
www.materials.drexel.edu/ar/publications
Milan Ivosevic’s Research
Work Featured on Cover of
International Thermal Spray
and Surface Engineering
Inaugural Newsletter
Ph.D. student Milan Ivosevic’s (advisors: Ric hard Knight and Ric hard Cairncross) SEM image was featured on the inaugural issue of the International Thermal
Spray and Surface
Engineering
newsletter
unveiled at the
May 2006 International Thermal
Spray
Conference in Seattle,
Washington.
The SEM image is of an
HVOF sprayed
nylon splat after impact onto a glass slide. The unique
“fried-egg” morphology is c haracteristic
of HVOF sprayed polymers, and is believed to be formed by polymer particles
having a low temperature, high viscosity
core together with a high temperature,
low viscosity surface. The image was taken as part of an NSF-funded researc h
project to attain improved understanding
of transport and splat formation during
HVOF deposition of polymeric coatings
and is color enhanced.
19
Drexel University
Department of
Materials Science and Engineering
2005-2006 Annual Report
News Editor
Dorilona Rose
Contributing Editor
Sheila Berninger
Layout and Design
Andrew Marx
Cover Micrographs courtsey of Dr. Gleb Yushin
1
2
4
3
5
7
6
8
9
1: SiC whiskers, as-produced (SEM)
2: SiC fibers (TEM)
3, 4, 8: SiC whiskers, etched (TEM)
5: SiC ribbons (SEM)
6: SiC whiskers, as-produced (TEM)
7: Carbon nanofiber (TEM)
9: Diamond nanoparticle (TEM)
3141 Chestnut Street
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Phone 215.895.2323
Fax 215.895.6760
Web www.materials.drexel.edu
Email mate_info@coe.drexel.edu