Title: NNCI: Soft Hybrid Nanotechnology Experimental (SHyNE) Resource

Program Name: National Nanotechnology Coordi

Recipient: Northwestern University     PI Name: Vinayak P Dravid     Total Funding: $5,500,000.00

Award Notice Date: 8/19/2020     Start Date: 9/1/2020     End Date: 8/31/2025

Abstract: Non-Technical Description: The Soft and Hybrid Nanotechnology Experimental (SHyNE) Resource NNCI site is the Northwestern University (NU) led collaborative venture with the Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility (PNF) of the University of Chicago (UC). SHyNE builds on each institution's long history of transforming the frontiers of science and engineering. Soft nanostructures are typically polymeric, biological, and fluidic, while hybrid represents systems comprising structures and hybrid materials comprising soft-hard interfaces. SHyNE facilities provides broad access to an extensive fabrication, characterization, and computational infrastructure with a multi-faceted and interdisciplinary approach for transformative science and enabling technologies. SHyNE provides specialized capabilities for soft materials and soft-hard hybrid nano-systems. SHyNE enhances regional capabilities by providing users with on-site and remote open-access to state-of-the-art laboratories and world-class technical expertise to help solve the challenging problems in nanotechnology research and development. SHyNE covers non-traditional industries: agricultural, biomedical, chemical, food, geological and environmental, among others. A critical component of the SHyNE mission is scholarly outreach through secondary and post-secondary research experience and integration with course/curricula as well as societal and public outreach through a novel nano-journalism project in collaboration with the Medill School of Journalism. SHyNE promotes and facilitates active participation of underrepresented groups, including women and minorities, in sciences and utilizes Chicago's public museums for broader community outreach. SHyNE leverages an exceptional depth of intellectual, academic, and facilities resources to provide critical infrastructure in support of research, application development, and problem-solving in nanoscience and nanotechnology and integrates this transformative approach into the societal fabric of Chicago and the greater Midwest. Technical Description: SHyNE is a solution-centric, open-access collaborative initiative with strong ties with Northwestern University's International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN), in partnership with University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. SHyNE open-access user facilities bring together broad experience and capabilities in traditional soft nanomaterials such as biological, polymeric or fluidic systems and hybrid systems combining soft/hard materials and interfaces. Collectively, soft and hybrid nanostructures represent remarkable scientific and technological opportunities. However, given the sub-100nm length-scale and related complexities, advanced facilities are needed to harness their full potential. Such facilities require capabilities to pattern soft/hybrid nanostructures across large areas and tools/techniques to characterize them in their pristine states. These divergent yet integrated needs are met by SHyNE, as it coordinates Northwestern's extensive cryo-bio, characterization and soft-nanopatterning capabilities with the state-of-the-art cleanroom fabrication and expertise also at UC's Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility (PNF). SHyNE addresses emerging needs in synthesis/assembly of soft/biological structures and integration of classical clean-room capabilities with soft-biological structures, providing expertise and instrumentation related to the synthesis, purification, and characterization of peptides and peptide-based materials. SHyNE coordinates with Argonne National Lab facilities and leverages existing super-computing and engineering expertise under Center for Hierarchical Materials Design (CHiMaD) and Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII), respectively. An extensive array of innovative educational, industry and societal outreach, such as nano-journalism, industry-focused workshops/symposia and collaborations with Chicago area museums, provide for an integrated and comprehensive coverage of modern infrastructure for soft/hybrid systems for the next generation researchers and the broader society. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

For more information: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2025633

Title: MRSEC: Center for Multifunctional Materials

Program Name: DMR SHORT TERM SUPPORT, MATERIALS RSCH SCI & ENG CENT

Recipient: Northwestern University     PI Name: Mark C Hersam     Total Funding: $16,015,000.00

Award Notice Date: 9/14/2017     Start Date: 9/1/2017     End Date: 8/31/2024

Abstract: Nontechnical Description: The Northwestern University Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (NU-MRSEC) advances world-class materials research, education, and outreach via active interdisciplinary collaborations within the Center and with external partners in academia, industry, national laboratories, and museums, both domestically and abroad. The intellectual merit of the NU-MRSEC resides primarily within its interdisciplinary research groups (IRGs) and seed-funded projects that promote dynamic evolution of Center research foci. IRG-1, entitled "Reconfigurable Responses in Mixed-Dimensional Heterojunctions", explores nanoelectronic materials systems that simultaneously process and store information to provide functionality comparable to that exhibited by complex biological systems such as neural networks. IRG-2, entitled "Functional Heteroanionic Materials via the Science of Synthesis", brings together experts in materials synthesis, computational design of materials, and advanced characterization, to expand a relatively unexplored class of materials with unconventional combinations of electrical and thermal properties. The NU-MRSEC achieves broad impact through several programs including professional development of graduate students and postdocs, research experiences for undergraduates and teachers, as well as outreach to K-12 students and the general public. These activities are enhanced by partnerships with Argonne National Laboratory, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Children's Museum, Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago O'Hare International Airport, Chicago Public Schools, and Chicago City Colleges. Technical Description: The Northwestern University Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (NU-MRSEC) integrates materials research, education, and outreach through two interdisciplinary research groups (IRGs) and with external partners in academia, industry, national laboratories, and museums, both domestically and abroad. IRG-1, entitled "Reconfigurable Responses in Mixed-Dimensional Heterojunctions", explores how heterojunctions consisting of nanoelectronic materials of differing dimensionality are influenced by dielectric screening, electronic band/level offsets, and interfacial regions. By utilizing low-dimensional materials synthesis, surface chemical functionalization, spatially and spectrally resolved characterization, and advanced computation, IRG-1 develops quantitative descriptions of the nonlinear responses in mixed-dimensional heterojunctions. Elucidation of the mechanisms governing structural changes, and the corresponding changes in optoelectronic properties, allows controllable reconfiguration in response to a multitude of physical and chemical stimuli, with implications for neuromorphic computing. IRG-2, entitled "Functional Heteroanionic Materials via the Science of Synthesis", develops new heteroanionic materials with tunable electronic, ionic, thermal, and optical properties, which are otherwise inaccessible from simpler homoanionic structures and chemistries. Discovery of heteroanionic materials is facilitated by synthetic and characterization methods that provide a panoramic view of crystallization and diffusion processes, in which emerging phases of interest are revealed and growth mechanisms are delineated. By emphasizing synthesis as the central science, the tools, protocols, and databases formulated in IRG-2 enable synthesis-on-demand of complex materials suggested by computational discovery. The research of the NU-MRSEC informs a diverse range of education and outreach activities that target all levels including postdocs, graduate students, undergraduates, K-12 students and teachers, as well as the general public. Examples include Transdisciplinary Engineering and Theater Workshops that create original science-themed plays, and Jugando con la Ciencia (Playing with Science) that translates outreach curricula and texts into Spanish.

For more information: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1720139