IRGs

Our group will focus on materials based on two-dimensional triangular and kagomé lattices, an area that we have pioneered as a small initiative during the previous funding cycle. The materials developed during the initiative period have attracted much interest and will serve as launching points for delving further in exciting new directions, such as probing exotic states of quantum matter that contain “topological order.”

The objective of this IRG is on the one hand to use electrochemistry to accurately determine how thermodynamics, phase stability, and kinetics are modified at the nanoscale, and on the other hand to apply that knowledge to engineer materials with high-energy, high-power Li storage capabilities, and to design nanocatalysts with superior ORR activity and reduced noble metal content.

This IRG proposes to develop a new class of “mechanomutable heteronanomaterials,” which we define as possessing spatially localized and controlled nanoscale units of different types of materials that change their mechanical properties reversibly in response to an external stimulus.

In this IRG, we will explore the materials science, design, fabrication, characterization, and potential identification of novel physical phenomena, of a truly unique class of fiber materials systems that are composed of conductors, insulators, glassy semiconductors, and especially crystalline semiconductors with 10’s of nanometers feature sizes.

The long-term intellectual goal of this Initiative Project is to develop a fundamental, generalizable understanding of how nanoparticles and polymer multilayers can be designed to integrate with living cells in ways that preserve cell viability and cellular processes while allowing materials to carry out engineered functions.