| NSF Org: |
DMR Division Of Materials Research |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | September 14, 2017 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | July 29, 2022 |
| Award Number: | 1720139 |
| Award Instrument: | Cooperative Agreement |
| Program Manager: |
Serdar Ogut
sogut@nsf.gov (703)292-4429 DMR Division Of Materials Research MPS Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2017 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2024 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $15,600,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $16,015,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2018 = $3,000,000.00 FY 2019 = $2,600,000.00 FY 2020 = $2,615,000.00 FY 2021 = $2,600,000.00 FY 2022 = $2,600,000.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
633 CLARK ST EVANSTON IL US 60208-0001 (312)503-7955 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
2220 Campus Drive Evanston IL US 60208-0893 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
DMR SHORT TERM SUPPORT, MATERIALS RSCH SCI & ENG CENT |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001718DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001819DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001920DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002122DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002223DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.049 |
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.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Project Outcomes Report
Northwestern University Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (NU-MRSEC)
NSF Award #DMR-1720139 (9/1/17-8/31/24); PI: Mark C. Hersam, Northwestern University
Intellectual Merit:
Under the support of NSF Award #DMR-1720139, the Northwestern University Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (NU-MRSEC) established a cross-disciplinary enterprise built on existing institutional strengths that supports innovative materials research and education. By addressing fundamental materials science and engineering issues, the NU-MRSEC benefited society and the global community by providing a synergistic infrastructure that accelerated the design, synthesis, and characterization of transformative materials and prototype device concepts. The intellectual merit of the NU-MRSEC was primarily achieved via its two interdisciplinary research groups (IRGs):
IRG-1: Reconfigurable Responses in Mixed-Dimensional Heterojunctions. IRG-1 advanced the fundamental understanding of how mixed-dimensional heterojunctions (MDHJs) can be designed to stabilize ambient-sensitive materials, impart new combinations of properties, and achieve reconfigurability with electrical and optical excitations. Heterostructures composed of components of different dimensionality (0D, 1D, 2D) behave as composite material systems with properties that arise from inter-component coupling mediated by the interface, which can be tuned by geometry and interfacial chemistry. In particular, advances were achieved in 0D-2D heterojunctions for stable doping and tuning of optical emission, enhancing the coupling of light to MDHJs while protecting against degradation, and expanding the classes of MDHJs to achieve tunable room-temperature phenomena of relevance to neuromorphic computing.
IRG-2: Functional Heteroanionic Materials via the Science of Synthesis. IRG-2 established a new paradigm for efficient discovery of heteroanionic materials, elaborated the routes to their synthetic realization, and developed theoretical and computational methods for elucidating their structure and properties. Using this methodology, IRG-2 predicted thousands of synthesizable heteroanionic materials, where synthesizability is defined according to computationally accessible stability criteria. Guided by these computational predictions, IRG-2 experimentally realized hundreds of new heteroanionic compounds with applicability in several areas, from superconductivity and light-emitting diodes to batteries and photocatalysis. In this manner, IRG-2 established heteroanionic materials as a productive field of study, ultimately leading the global research community into new avenues of investigation.
Broader Impacts:
The NU-MRSEC promoted broader impacts through comprehensive commercialization, shared facilities, education, and outreach programs that are coupled to an extensive network of academic, national laboratory, and industrial partners, both domestically and abroad. In addition to collaborations and licensed technology to major corporations, the NU-MRSEC transitioned its fundamental materials discoveries to successful commercial outcomes via 10 startup companies that employ hundreds of employees. The NU-MRSEC also administered 18 shared facilities on campus that are used not only by NU researchers but are also open to the broader materials community. The proximity of the NU-MRSEC to Argonne National Laboratory further resulted in several substantive interactions, most prominently the Dow-Northwestern-DuPont Collaborative Access Team (DND-CAT) beamline at the Advanced Photon Source. From the perspective of education and outreach, the NU-MRSEC maintained a diversified portfolio of programs that impacted all levels ranging from the general public to K-12 students to undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs. Highlights include: (1) Materials science exhibits and collaborations with the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago Public Library, Art Institute of Chicago, and Chicago Field Museum of Natural History; (2) Engineering Transdisciplinary Outreach Project in the Arts (ETOPiA), which presented science-themed plays to the general public including matinees for students from the Chicago Public Schools; (3) Research Experience of Undergraduates (REU) and Research Experience for Teachers (RET), which provided summer research opportunities on campus; (5) NU-MRSEC Student and Postdoc Leadership Council, which advised the NU-MRSEC Director and developed programs of interest to graduate students and postdocs. In all NU-MRSEC programs, diversity was promoted and enhanced through partnerships with the University of Texas at Arlington and Grambling State University that were initiated via the NSF Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) program. Through these efforts, the NU-MRSEC regularly exceeded national averages for gender and underrepresented minority participation at all levels including undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, and faculty members.
Last Modified: 12/18/2024
Modified by: Mark C Hersam
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