Professor Michel Barsoum, A. W. Grosvenor Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has received $664,359 in funding for a two-year grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) entitled, "Neutron Damage and MAX Phase Ternary Compounds."  This project, a collaboration with Dr. Elizabeth Hoffman, Ph.D. MSE alumna, and Dr. Robert Sindelar of Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), and Dr. Gordon Kohse of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is part of the Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) and will receive funding under the category of Investigator-Initiated Research (IIR). The team will investigate how a new class of materials, the MAX Phases, withstand neutron radiation at high temperature for possible use in the next generation of nuclear reactors. The materials characterization analyses for the proposal preparation were performed on the X-Ray diffractometer and on the SEMs of the CRF. To support cutting-edge research and development in the area of nuclear energy, DOE is funding 71 projects under the Nuclear Energy University Program. 
         

Trustee Chair Professor Yury Gogotsi is a member of the team awarded a $3,800,000 per year five-year Energy Frontier Research Center Award (EFRC) by the Department of Energy in partnership with lead institution Oak Ridge National Laboratory and partner institutions Argonne National Laboratory, Northwestern University, University of Tennessee, University of North Carolina, and University of Virginia. Drexel University will receive  $750,000 in funding from this grant.
The project, "Fluid Interface Reactions, Structures and Transport (FIRST) Center" will explore ways to provide a basic scientific understanding of phenomena that occur at the interfaces of electrical energy storage, conversion of sunlight into fuels, geological sequestration of carbon dioxide, and other advanced energy systems.
FIRST is one of 46 EFRCs awarded from an applicant pool of  approximately 260 proposals. The EFRC program exists to advance research in key areas of energy efficiency and sustainability. Part of the characterization measurements by the Drexel group included in this winning proposal were performed on the CRF instrument clusters.

Nanotechnology Institute and the Lehigh Nanotech Network are organizers of the Pennsylvania Regional Nanotechnology Conference "Collaborating  in Today's Economy" on May 27, 2009 at Drexel University. This event is open to all involved in business and  technology management, research, collaboration, technology commercialization, and economic development in and around Pennsylvania.  Tours of CRF will be offered to the participants in the conference.

Materials Science and Engineering seniors Courtney Reid, Dan Pugh, Sarah Byrnes, Charlie Woods and Eric Eisele have been awarded the People, Prosperity and Planet Award in Washington, D.C. by the Environmental Protection Agency. This award was given for their senior design project Cool Roof  Coatings Utilizing Glass Hollow Microspheres for Improved Solar Reflectance. The technology increases the reflectance of cool roof coatings while cutting raw material costs. The infrared reflectance measurements for the first phase of the project were performed on the FTIR spectrometer in CRF.          
Forty-three university teams who received phase one awards of $10,000  each competed in this year's competition for six $75,000 phase two  awards. The competition was held in Washington D.C. at the National  Sustainable Design Expo. The second phase of funding will last two  years and will be used to develop the coating further and field test  the technology by reaching out to the neighborhoods surrounding Drexel. The team's accomplishment is in support of Drexel Smart House and is the result of more than a year of hard work. CRF will offer again its capabilities for the second phase of the project.

The development of Supercapacitors by Dr. Yury Gogotsi, Trustee Professor of Materials Engineering and his team including John Chmiola, Ph.D. student, and Dr. Cristelle Portet, former post-doctoral researcher was ranked  by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as #2 among Readers'  Favorites most interesting topics of 2008! It was prominently featured on Monday, January 26, by NSF  in their January/February newsletter that was sent to broad audience including  all members of the Congress and other decision-makers in Washington http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111835&org=NSF The research featured in the  article entitled   "Supercapacitors Could be Key to a Green Energy Future" has been conducted at the A.J. Drexel  Nanotechnology Institute and characterization work was partially performed on CRF scanning electron microscopes, Raman spectrometers and X-Ray Diffractometer. It was originally posted on the front page of the NSF Website last June (a Google article was #1).
Supercapacitors, most commonly found in backup power applications, are increasingly being used in personal electronic devices, mobile phones and hybrid electric/fuel cell vehicles for their improved power over batteries.

An electron micrograph, "Squid suckers: The Little Monsters That Feed the Beast", created by Drexel's Ph.D. student Jessica Schiffman, received an Honorable  Mention in the Photography category of the sixth annual International Science  & Engineering Visualization Challenge, sponsored by the National Science  Foundation (NSF) and the journal Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Winning entries first appeared on the NSF web site, the Science web site, and the 26 September 2008 print issue of Science, also making appearances on web sites of the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, AAAS, MSNBC Schiffman's image, compiled while researching chitin properties in the lab of  Dr. Caroline Schauer (Dept of Materials Science, Drexel University), portrays the fanglike structures, 400 micrometers in diameter, that a squid uses to latch onto its prey. NSF and Science created the International Science Engineering Visualization Challenge to celebrate and further encourage the role that imagery plays in bringing science to the general public. Schiffman's image was taken using one of the scanning electron microscopes in Drexel's Centralized Research   Facilities.

The new Transmission Electron Microscope (JEOL JEM 2100) is offered to Drexel and other academic researchers with 1, 3 and 6 months subscriptions. For more information see our Rates and Fees TEM table. The TEM can also be used in fully assisted mode with Dr. Craig Johnson. Subscriptions or assisted use can be prepaid by filling an access form and submitting to Craig. Please follow the  steps for Internal users. Please consult Craig (cljohnson@drexel.edu) in advance to discuss the studies of your samples.

The new Transmission Electron Microscope (JEOL JEM 2100) is  now open for work to  Drexel and other academic researchers and to industry researchers  in our CRF, Rm 106E Bossone. Until August 31, 2008 we offer promotional hourly rates. The  TEM will work in an assisted mode only with free assistance by Dr. Craig  Johnson. Blocks of 4 hours at $50/h (total of $200) can be prepaid by filling  an access form and submitting to Craig. Please follow the steps for Internal/External users. Please consult Craig (cljohnson@drexel.edu) in advance  to discuss the studies of your samples.