NANO @ IOWA
News from the Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Institute at UI
July 1, 2015
Items in red are new this issue.
(Others are carried forward from previous issues.)
1. Upcoming conferences and seminars including nanoscience and nanotechnology:

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

Thesis Defense: “Passive Mass Transport for Direct and Quantitative SERS
Detection using Purified Silica Encapsulated Metal Nanoparticles
Binaya Shrestha, Department of Chemistry, University of Iowa
Thursday July 9, 1.00-4.00pm, E231 CB

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

Electronics, Photonics and Magnetic Devices
National Science Foundation
PD 13-1517
Deadline Dates: October 1 – November 2, 2015
http://nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13379

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

2015 Broad Agency Announcement Engineer Research and Development Center
Department of Defense
FOA Number: W912HZ-15-BAA-01
Deadline Date: January 31, 2016
http://nano.gov/node/1373

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

Exploratory/Developmental Bioengineering Research Grants
National Institutes for Health (NIH)
FOA Number: PA-12-284
Deadline Dates: January 25, May 25, and September 25, annually
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-12-284.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:

Adapting nanoscience imaging tools to study ants’ heat-deflecting adaptations
The tiny hairs of Saharan silver ants possess crucial adaptive features that allow the ants to
regulate their body temperatures and survive the scorching hot conditions of their desert
habitat. According to a new research paper published in Science, the unique triangular shape
and internal structure of the hairs play a key role in maintaining the ant’s average internal
temperature below the critical thermal maximum of 53.6 C (128.48 F) most of the time despite
midday Saharan temperatures that can reach up to 70 C (158 F). The paper, published by
Columbia Engineering researchers and collaborators—including researchers from the U.S. Dept.
of Energy (DOE)’s Brookhaven National Laboratory—describes how the nanoscale structure of
the hairs helps increase the reflectivity of the ant’s body in both visible and near-infrared
wavelengths, allowing the insects to deflect solar radiation their bodies would otherwise
absorb. The hairs also enhance emissivity in the mid-infrared spectrum, allowing heat to
dissipate efficiently from the hot body of the ants to the cool, clear sky. To study how the hairs
allow the creatures to control electromagnetic waves in this manner, the Columbia Engineering
research team led by Nanfang Yu needed to see inside these nanoscale structures and
understand their functions. They turned to the resources and expertise available at
Brookhaven’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN), a DOE Office of Science User Facility
on nearby Long Island. Working with and receiving training from the CFN’s Fernando Camino, a
coauthor on the article in Science, and Matthew Sfeir, Yu’s group performed imaging studies
using the CFN’s Dual Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)/Focused Ion Beam (FIB) system and
Fourier Transform Spectrometer/Microscope. For the dual beam system, Camino worked
directly with the paper’s lead author, Norman Nan Shi. “My contribution was to train Shi to use
this tool and give him the ability to play with the parameters until we could succeed in
characterizing the structure of this hair,” Camino said.
http://www.rdmag.com/news/2015/06/adapting-nanoscience-imaging-tools-study-ants-heatdeflecting-adaptations

Solar desalination
When graduate student Natasha Wright began her PhD program in mechanical engineering, she
had no idea how to remove salt from groundwater to make it more palatable, nor had she ever
been to India, where this is an ongoing need. Now, three years and six trips to India later, this
is the sole focus of her work. Wright joined the lab of Amos Winter, an assistant professor of
mechanical engineering, in 2012. The lab was just getting established, and the aim of Wright’s
project was vague at first: Work on water treatment in India, with a possible focus on filtering
biological contaminants from groundwater to make it safe to drink.
There are already a number of filters on the market that can do this, and during her second trip
to India, Wright interviewed a number of villagers, finding that many of them weren’t using
these filters. She became skeptical of how useful it would be to develop yet another device like
this. Although the available filters made water safe to drink, they did nothing to mitigate its
saltiness — so the villagers’ drinking water tasted bad and eroded pots and pans, providing
little motivation to use these filters. In reviewing the list of questions she had prepared for her
interviews with locals, Wright noticed that there were no questions about the water’s salty taste.
“No one had ever asked them about that. And although this might sound obvious, people really
don’t like the taste of salt,” Wright says. “So once I started asking, it’s all anyone would talk
about.’”
http://www.nanowerk.com/news2/green/newsid=40507.php


Superslippery islands (but then they get stuck)
(Nano)islands that slide freely on a sea of copper, but when they become too large (and too
dense) they end up getting stuck: that nicely sums up the system investigated in a study just
published in Nature Nanotechnology. "We can suddenly switch from a state of superlubricity to
one of extremely high friction by varying some parameters of the system being investigated. In
this study, we used atoms of the noble gas xenon bound to one another to form twodimensional islands, deposited on a copper surface (Cu 111). At low temperatures these
aggregates slide with virtually no friction", explains Giampaolo Mistura of the University of
Padua. "We increased the size of the islands by adding xenon atoms and until the whole
available surface was covered the friction decreased gradually. Instead, when the available
space ran out and the addition of atoms caused the islands to compress, then we saw an
exceptional increase in friction".
http://www.ecnmag.com/news/2015/06/superslippery-islands-then-they-get-stuck

Scientists highlight the importance of nanoscale hybrid materials for non-invasive cancer
diagnosis
Various diagnostic imaging techniques are currently used for clinical imaging/disease
diagnosis. The accuracy of diagnosis is mainly based on the type of energy used (such as X-ray,
sound waves, photons and positrons) to derive the visual information, as well as the degree of
spatial resolution (mesoscopic or microscopic) and the level of information that can be obtained
(physiological, anatomical or molecular). Based on potential health hazards imposed by type of
energy used, clinical imaging modalities can be broadly categorized as ionizing and nonionizing modalities. Compared to ionizing imaging techniques (for example X-ray imaging),
non-ionizing imaging techniques make use of harmless low-energy input radiations (such as
visible light and near infra-red light) that are safer to image the targeted subjects. Furthermore,
such non-ionizing techniques allow repeated imaging procedures with increased dosage levels
for image clarification and verification. Extensive research is going on worldwide to enhance
image resolution and therefore to further popularize non-ionizing imaging techniques in clinical
imaging and diagnosis. Owing to recent spectacular advances in nanochemistry and
nanomaterials sciences, substantial progress in the design and synthesis of synthetic nanoscale
hybrid materials has been achieved with new or improved properties. This allows scientists to
fabricate new hybrid materials that can be used in individual and multimodal imaging
techniques simultaneously. A review published in Science Bulletin by Prof. Yanli Zhao
coauthored with Dr. Sivaramapanicker Sreejith, Tran Thi Mai Huong, and Dr. Parijat Borah
showcased various strategies for the design of organic-inorganic nanohybrids toward
fluorescent, Raman, photoacoustic and combined multimodality imaging. The team stated that
"design of multifunctional nanohybrids offers great opportunities to integrate additional
functionalities, thus opening up new imaging and therapeutic avenues".
http://phys.org/wire-news/196592301/scientists-highlight-the-importance-of-nanoscale-hybridmaterial.html
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NANO @ IOWA is a biweekly electronic newsletter to inform faculty, staff and students about important
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