MSE250 Nanoscale Materials Laboratory
SPRING 2007
Laboratory methods used to examine the structure of materials, to measure important
properties, and to investigate the relationship between structure and properties. Emphasis
on technical content, laboratory skills and writing reports of quality and form suitable for
publication. The control of properties by material structure and chemistry takes on
challenging new aspects at the nanoscale, and will be encountered in several experiments.
1. Self-study before each lab-lecture; hard copy and on-line course pack, references
to MSE220/215 text (Callister 2nd Edition) and reserve books in Towne Library
available in advance. Contents: theoretical and conceptual background to the
fundamental principles involved in each experiment; principles of experimental
equipment; detailed procedures; data analysis requirements; suggestions for your
lab reports.
2. BlackBoard-based on-line quiz to be taken before each lab lecture;
3. Two 1 hour lab lectures providing additional conceptual background, introducing
the experimental techniques and equipment, and comments on common errors or
misconceptions in the reports
4. Two 3-hour lab sessions per experiment
Powder diffraction and solid state synthesis (crystal structure, x-ray diffraction, the
powder method. Amorphous and crystalline semiconductors. Synthesis of ceramic
superconductor from oxide powders; achieving a targeted phase in a pseudobinary
system. Phase analysis and identification of unknown phases using database searchmatch. Magnetic levitation and Meissner effect).
Measuring binary phase diagrams (Determination of the Pb-Sn phase diagram,,phase
transformations using optical metallography, general principles of metallography
including sample mounting, polishing and etching)
Bottom-up fabrication of organic and polymer light-emitting diodes (organic dyeactivated light-emitting diodes based on ruthenium bipyridine: preparation of ruthenium
chromophore; polymerization and spin-coating active layer; application of metal contacts.
Visual observation of recombination electroluminescence; I-V characterization of the
diode structure. Wave-particle duality and estimation of Planck’s constant from LED I-V
and spectral output data.)
Electrical, optical and electro-optic properties of semiconductors (Optical absorption to
measure energy band gap; direct and indirect semiconductors. Pseudobinary alloys and
bandgap engineering. Resistivity of doped and intrinsic semiconductors; effects of
temperature and illumination. Effect of material properties on current-voltage behavior
of p-n junctions/diodes. Experiments on inorganic light-emitting diodes, solar cells.)
Tensile testing of metals and polymers (determination of yield strength, ultimate tensile
strength and ductility; fractography using the optical microscope. Dynamic mechanical
analysis of polymers and the determination of the glass transition temperature from such
tests.
1
Semiconductor and gold nanoparticles/quantum dots (absorption spectroscopy,
nanoelectronic materials, correlation of properties with particle size. Synthesis of alkaneprotected gold nanoparticles using the citric acid method)
2