Materials Science & Engineering

Contest Winners

Grand Prize Winner, Scientific Merit

Morphology Boundary

Kevin Yien, "Morphology Boundary"

Image of two different types of morphology exhibiting true color phosphorescence observed when diethyl 7,7'-((2-bromo-5-formyl-1,4-phenylene)bis(oxy))diheptanoate (BrC6A) and diethyl 7,7'-((2,5-dibromo-1,4-phenylene)bis(oxy))diheptanoate (BrC6) are dropcasted onto a hydrophilic glass slide. This image showed that both the previous morphologies observed could simultaneously grow from the same nucleation site. Both morphologies produced high quantum yields, greater than 50%. In addition, the highly crystalline nucleation site provided promise for attaining even higher quantum yields.

Grand Prize Winner, Artistic Merit

3 PEDOT flowers

Sarah Spanninga, "3 PEDOT flowers"

Electrochemically grown PEDOT with LiClO4 as the counter-ion. PEDOT structures grew as hollow spheres around gas bubbles on the electrode surface during polymerization and forms "flowers" when the gas bubbles burst either during or after polymerization

Category I - Optical and Scanning Electron Microscopy (First - Third Place)

The planet plows onward

Jake Jokisaari, "The planet plows onward"

The object is a single, spherical ceramic particle that has been embedded in the gum on double-sided copper tape. This particle is an anomaly, seemingly unrelated to the polymer-based foam of the rest of the sample. It is presented here for its visual impact.
Faces

Brian E. Lassiter, "Faces"

Boron subphthalocyanine chloride (SubPc) was deposited onto silicon via organic vapor phase deposition and imaged using an optical microscope with cross-polarizers and a Nomarski filter at 20x magnification. The round features are polycrystalline material on top of an amorphous (teal) background. Variations in color are from the polarizer configuration and are a result of the different crystal orientations present. This image represents the move in organic optoelectronics from amorphous films to the controlled growth of crystalline films, which has been shown to dramatically improve device performance. SubPc is a promising material for organic photovoltaics due to its large absorption coefficient and high open-circuit voltage.
Fringes

Lang Sui, "Fringes"

Optical microscope image of self assembled PS-b-PMMA polymer thin film (films are made by Jenny Kim). The purpose of study was to determine the visco-elastic properties and glass transition of multilayered thin films using Brillouin light scattering. This image was taken to see surface features that may have caused Raman-like scattering in the Brillouin spectra. The image shows the edge of a PS-b-PMMA film where the different coloration is a result of light interference from changes in refractive indices for different layer thicknesses.

Category II - Optical and Scanning Electron Microscopy (First - Third Place)

Pd on Mesas

Obi Ezekoye, "Pd on Mesas"

TM AFM image of Pd nano-islands on "mesas" of Ceria-Zirconia. This is a model catalyst system for automotive applications
Self-assembly of nanoparticles in block copolymer thin film

Jenny Kim, "Self-assembly of nanoparticles in block copolymer thin film"

Thin film of block copolymer and gold nanoparticle mixtures was aligned on the wrinkled film. Wrinkles formed during floating the film due to capillary force. Nanoparticles tend to segregated on the defects of the film to minimize the entropic loss. This study exhibits the possibility of organizing nanoparticles within self-assembled block copolymer thin film.
Annealed SrTiO3 film on Si Substrate

Christopher Nelson, "Annealed SrTiO3 film on Si Substrate"

This planar view bright field TEM image depicts an annealed SrTiO3 film at an edge where the Si substrate is present. The pattern at the top right is the Moire fringe pattern viewed along the [001] zone axis resulting from the overlapping Si and SrTiO3 lattices. The dark spots are threading edge dislocations formed from relaxation of the lattice misfit. The distortions of the moire pattern due to the strain fields around the dislocations is evident even at this low magnification.

Category IV - Digitally Enhanced or Colorized Images of Microstructures (First - Third Place)

Apple in the rough

Jake Jokisaari, "Apple in the rough"

The image covers a field of yttrium aluminum garnet nanoparticles with an average particle diameter of 20-30 nm. The ceramic nanopowder was produced by combustion of an aerosol of organometallic precursors in oxygen. There is a fraction of larger particles, where the one picked out in red represents the largest of these. Its unique morphology suggests this fraction of the particles experienced melting during synthesis. This can explain its dimpled appearance.
CaCO3 nano-popsicle

Qiaona Hu, "CaCO3 nano-popsicle"

This research is conducted to analyze the thermodynamics of CaCO3. CaCO3 crystals were cultivated by preparing highly supersaturated Ca-CO3 containing grown solution and the crystallization and transformation of CaCO3 were observed.
Nanotube coil

Anne Juggernauth, "Nanotube coil"

Bundle of carbon nanotubes that pulled out of a vertically aligned forest after growth. The bundle consists of strands that grow at different rates and become entangled. When no longer restrained by the substrate, the difference in lengths and the entanglement of the strands results in coiling of the tube and formation of a coil or spring - like structure.