NANO @ IOWA
News from the Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Institute at UI
June 18, 2015
Items in red are new this issue.
(Others are carried forward from previous issues.)
1. Upcoming conferences and seminars including nanoscience and nanotechnology:

Gordon Research Conference: Environmental Nanotechnology
West Dover, VT
June 21-26, 2015
http://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?id=14914

QEEN Workshop: Quantifying Exposure to Engineered Nanomaterials from Manufactured
Products – Addressing Environmental, Health, and Safety Implications
Arlington, Virginia
July 7-8, 2015
http://nano.gov/node/1327

ICANM 2015: International Conference & Exhibition on Advanced & Nano Materials
Ottawa, Canada
August 10-12, 2015
http://icanm2015.iaemm.com/Home.php

ICEENN 2015: 10th International Conference on the Environmental Effects of Nanoparticles
and Nanomaterials
Vienna, Austria
September 6-10, 2015
https://nanoenvironment2015.univie.ac.at

4th International Conference and Exhibition on Materials Science & Engineering
Orlando, Florida
September 14-16, 2015
http://materialsscience.conferenceseries.com/#

International Symposium on Clusters and Nanomaterials (ISCAN)
Richmond, Virgina
October 26-29, 2015
http://www.iscan.vcu.edu

SETAC North America 36th Annual Meeting
Salt Lake City, Utah
November 1-5, 2015
http://www.setac.org/events/event_details.asp?id=489394&group=

5th International Conference on Nanotek and Expo
San Antonio, Texas
November 16-18, 2015
http://nanotechnologyexpo.conferenceseries.com/
2. Upcoming grant opportunities and funding requests in nanoscience and nanotechnology:

University of Iowa GAP Funding
UIVentures, University of Iowa
Deadline dates: Pre-proposal June 1 – July 31, 2015; Full proposal: July 1 – August 31, 2015
http://uiventures.uiowa.edu/university-iowa-gap-funding

Science, Technology, and Society
National Science Foundation
15-506
Deadline Date: August 3, 2015
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5324

NSF: Science of Science and Innovation Policy
National Science Foundation
PD 09-7626
Deadline Date: September 9, 2015
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=501084

Nanomanufacturing
National Science Foundation
PD 14-1788
Deadline Dates: September 1 – September 15, 2015
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13347

Bioengineering Research Grants
National Institutes of Health
PAR-13-137
Deadline Date: September 25, 2015
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-13-137.html

Use of the NASA Physical Sciences Informatics System
NASA
NNH15ZTT001N-15PSI_A
Deadline Date: September 30, 2015
http://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/solicitations/summary.do?method=init&solId={88074AD32C25-81A8-6EED-D87C6C7459D1}&path=open

Nano-Biosensing
National Science Foundation
PD 14-7909
Deadline dates: October 1 – 20, 2015
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503353

Interfacial Processes and Thermodynamics
National Science Foundation
PD 14-1414
Deadline dates: October 1 – 20, 2015
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13362

Fluid Dynamics
National Science Foundation
PD 14-1443
Deadline dates: October 1 – 20, 2015
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13365

NSF: Environmental Health and Safety of Nanotechnology
National Science Foundation
PD 14-1179
Deadline dates: October 1 – 20, 2015
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=501030

Communications, Circuits, and Sensing-Systems
National Science Foundation
PD 13-7564
Deadline dates: October 1 – November 2, 2015
http://nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13381

NSF Major Research Instrumentation Program MRI Instrument Acquisition or Development
National Science Foundation
15-504
Deadline Dates: October 30, 2015 (Internal deadline); January 13, 2016 (Sponsor deadline)
https://research.uiowa.edu/grantTrack/preselection.php?get=uiwins&GrantID=18031&Type=2

Army Research Laboratory BAA for Basic and Applied Scientific Research
Department of Defense
FOA Number: W911NF-12-R-0011
Deadline Date: March 31, 2017
http://www.arl.army.mil/www/default.cfm?page=8

Image-guided Drug Delivery in Cancer
National Institutes for Health (NIH)
FOA Number: PA-09-253
Deadline Dates: January 25, May 25, and September 25, annually
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-09-253.html

Development of Multifunctional Drug and Gene Delivery Systems
National Institutes for Health (NIH)
FOA Number: PA-10-048
Deadline Dates: February 5, June 5, and October 5, annually
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-10-048.html

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Biology and Medicine
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
FOA Number: PA-11-148
Deadline Dates: February 5, June 5, October 5, annually
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-11-148.html

Bioengineering Nanotechnology Initiative
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
FOA Number: PA-10-149
Deadline Dates: April 5, August 5, December 5, annually
http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=53500

Cancer Diagnostic and Therapeautic Agents Enabled by Nanotechnology
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
FOA Number: PAR-10-286
Deadline Dates: April 5, August 5, December 5, annually
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-10-286.html
3. Recent news and updates from NNI:

CHEM:5118:0001 Nanomaterials course Fall 2015
Basic principles associated with nanoscience and nanotechnology; fabrication and synthesis,
size dependent properties, characterization, applications of materials at nanometer length
scales, recent technological breakthroughs in the field. Open to graduate standing or advanced
undergraduate standing in engineering and science. See link for more information.
https://isis.uiowa.edu/isis2/courses/details.page?_ticket=lwAeVZm9rxtZ-QI_qZ5_vZCDYvyiRaJ&id=796170&ci=157310

Summer REU program 2015 begins!
Nine undergraduate students from the University of Dubuque, Harry S Truman College, Aquinas
College, Iowa State University, Ohio Northern University, Washington and Lee University,
University of Nebraska, Agnes Scott College and Gustavus Adolphus are participating in the NNI
summer REU program 2015. They are working in labs across campus with Tori Forbes, Eric
Nuxoll, Vicki Grassian, Syed Mubeen, Amanda Haes, David Cwiertny, Allan Guymon, Sarah
Larsen, Aliasger Salem and Jennifer Fiegel. Please welcome our visiting students!
4. Highlights of some new interesting nanoscience and nanotechnology research and articles:

New 3D polypyrrole aerogel-based electromagnetic absorber can serve as inexpensive
alternative to graphene aerogels
The electromagnetic radiation discharged by electronic equipment and devices is known to
hinder their smooth operation. Conventional materials used today to shield from incoming
electromagnetic waves tend to be sheets of metal or composites, which rely on reflection as a
shielding mechanism. But now, materials such as graphene aerogels are gaining traction as
more desirable alternatives because they act as electromagnetic absorbers. They're widely
expected to improve energy storage, sensors, nanoelectronics, catalysis and separations, but
graphene aerogels are prohibitively expensive and difficult to produce for large-scale
applications because of the complicated purification and functionalization steps involved in
their fabrication. So a team of researchers in China set out to design a cheaper material with
properties similar to a graphene aerogel—in terms of its conductivity, as well as a lightweight,
anticorrosive, porous structure. In the journal Applied Physics Letters, the researchers describe
the new material they created and its performance. Aming Xie, an expert in organic chemistry,
and Fan Wu, both affiliated with PLA University of Science and Technology, worked with
colleagues at Nanjing University of Science and Technology to tap into organic chemistry and
conducting polymers to fabricate a three-dimensional (3-D) polypyrrole (PPy) aerogel-based
electromagnetic absorber. They chose to concentrate on this method because it enables them
to "regulate the density and dielectric property of conducting polymers through the formation
of pores during the oxidation polymerization of the pyrrole monomer," explained Wu
http://phys.org/news/2015-06-3d-polypyrrole-aerogel-based-electromagnetic-absorber.html

Unlocking nanofibers’ potential
Nanofibers have a huge range of potential applications, from solar cells to water filtration to
fuel cells. But so far, their high cost of manufacture has relegated them to just a few niche
industries. In Nanotechnology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers
describe a new technique for producing nanofibers that increases the rate of production
fourfold while reducing energy consumption by more than 90%, holding out the prospect of
cheap, efficient nanofiber production. “We have demonstrated a systematic way to produce
nanofibers through electrospinning that surpasses the state of the art,” says Luis Fernando
Velásquez-García, a principal research scientist in MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories,
who led the new work. “But the way that it’s done opens a very interesting possibility. Our
group and many other groups are working to push 3D printing further, to make it possible to
print components that transduce, that actuate, that exchange energy between different
domains, like solar to electrical or mechanical. We have something that naturally fits into that
picture. We have an array of emitters that can be thought of as a dot-matrix printer, where you
would be able to individually control each emitter to print deposits of nanofibers.”
http://www.rdmag.com/news/2015/06/unlocking-nanofibers-potential

Nanomaterial self-assembly imaged in real time
A team of researchers from UC San Diego, Florida State University and Pacific Northwest
National Laboratories has for the first time visualized the growth of 'nanoscale' chemical
complexes in real time, demonstrating that processes in liquids at the scale of one-billionth of a
meter can be documented as they happen. The achievement, which will make possible many
future advances in nanotechnology, is detailed in a paper published online today in the Journal
of the American Chemical Society. Chemists and material scientists will be able to use this new
development in their basic and applied research, for example, to better understand the
stepwise formation of nanostructures. Previously, scientists could examine changes in
nanostructures only by looking at the large-scale alterations of a bulk population of particles or
by taking 'screen shots' in a static fashion of individual nanostructures with electron
microscopy. 'That process is like taking photos every 10 minutes of a football game and then
trying to piece these photos together to tell the story of what is really a highly dynamic
process,' said Nathan Gianneschi, an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UC
San Diego who headed the research effort with Seth Cohen, chair of UC San Diego's Department
of Chemistry and Biochemistry. 'Until now, this was the state of the art in terms of how we
could document how nanostructures formed. The development we describe in our paper
demonstrates that these processes can be observed in real time, by literally videoing these
processes on the nanoscale level using an electron microscope.'
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150608144024.htm

Solar cells in the roof and nanotechnology in the walls
It isn't cars and vehicle traffic that produce the greatest volumes of climate gas emissions – it's
our own homes. But new research will soon be putting an end to all that! The building sector is
currently responsible for 40% of global energy use and climate gas emissions. This is an undercommunicated fact in a world where vehicle traffic and exhaust emissions get far more
attention. In the future, however, we will start to see construction materials and high-tech
systems integrated into building shells that are specifically designed to remedy this situation.
Such systems will be intelligent and multifunctional. They will consume less energy and
generate lower levels of harmful climate gas emissions. With this objective in mind, researchers
at SINTEF are currently testing microscopic nanoparticles as insulation materials, applying
voltages to window glass and facades as a means of saving energy, and developing solar cells
that prevent the accumulation of snow and ice. Research Director Susie Jahren and Research
Manager Petra Rüther are heading SINTEF's strategic efforts in the field of future construction
materials. They say that although there are major commercial opportunities available in the
development of green and low carbon building technologies, the construction industry is
somewhat bound by tradition and unable to pay for research into future technology
development. "The strategic process currently being driven by SINTEF Building and
Infrastructure and SINTEF Materials and Chemistry allows us to position ourselves to assist in
the industry's development while at the same time also giving it a boost", say Jahren and
Rüther. "Our researchers are working hard to produce innovative ideas about the directions
future development might take. Then we check to see if the ideas they come up with are viable
from a cost-benefit and environmental perspective", they say.
http://phys.org/news/2015-06-solar-cells-roof-nanotechnology-walls.html
About NANO @ IOWA
NANO @ IOWA is a biweekly electronic newsletter to inform faculty, staff and students about important
news and events in nanoscience and nanotechnology. This newsletter is provided as a service of the
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