| Start Date: | 10/18/2012 | Start Time: | 3:30 PM |
| End Date: | 10/18/2012 | End Time: | 4:30 PM |
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Event Description
The Department of Physics will host “Human-designed and Nature-designed Approaches to Self-Assembly: Nanomagnets from Diblock Copolymers and Conducting Bacterial Nanowires” with Dr. Mark Tuominen, Professor of Physics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, October 18, 2012 at 3:30 p.m. at Disque Hall, room 919 (32nd and Chestnut Streets).
Recently we have seen a rapid expansion in the understanding and utilization of self-assembly. The research activity is driven in part by the promise of new scalable nanomanufacturing processes relevant for nanoscale materials and devices. Dr. Tuominen will discuss two specific examples: diblock copolymer nanolithography (human-designed) and bacterial protein nanostructures (nature-designed). Diblock copolymer nanolithography uses the thermodynamically-driven microphase separation of block copolymers to create a periodic nanoscale patterns, which in turn can be transformed into a fabrication template, lithographic mask, or functional material. He will discuss the use of this method to produce ferromagnetic nanostructures to investigate the physics of materials built from single-domain magnets. As a contrasting example, he will describe the emerging topic of conducting self-assembled protein nanofilaments (called “pili”) produced by bacteria. These “natural organic metals” are nanowires produced from amino acids by a common soil bacteria, Geobacter sulfurreducens. Networks of pili can transport electrons over centimeter-long distances, thousands of times the size of a bacterium, and exhibit electronic conductivities comparable to synthetic organic metallic nanostructures. Surprisingly, the temperature and gate-voltage dependence this biological material is similar to quasi-1D disordered synthetic organic metals. Further, the electrical capacitance of the network is comparable to that of synthetic supercapacitors.
The lecture is free and open to the Drexel community. For more information, email Dr. Goran Karapetrov at goran@drexel.edu |
Contact Information:
Name: Dr. Goran Karapetrov
Phone: (215) 571-4090
Email: goran@drexel.edu |
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Location:
Disque Hall, Room 919 (32nd and Chestnut Streets). |
Audience:
AlumniCurrent StudentsFacultyParents & FamiliesProspective StudentsPublicStaff |
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