Spring 2013 - Materials Science and Engineering - University of ...

4researchNEWSENERGY REPORT, continued from page 3continuedtapped to serve on the subcommittee thatproduced the report by John Hemminger,chair of the DOE’s Basic Energy SciencesAdvisory Committee (BESAC).The DOE’s BES Program supportsfundamental energy research that developsnew technologies and helps fulfill theDOE’s missions in the areas of energy,the environment, and national security.The program also operates major researchfacilities designed to serve the needsof scientists from academia, nationallaboratories, and other institutions.For the past ten years, the BES programhas published its results in the Basic ResearchNeeds Report Series. Produced by BESAC,which recruits contributors from energyresearch programs around the world, thereports have outlined the development status ofalternative energy technologies and the scientificbottlenecks preventing their implementation.“The BES reports have laid the foundationfor many of the major investmentsthe DOE’s Office of Science has made,”says Rubloff. “Particularly notable is the$100 million investment in the nation’s 46Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC),including NEES, which is based at theUniversity of Maryland.”The report to which Rubloff contributed,“From Quanta to the Continuum:Opportunities for Mesoscale Science,” identifiedchallenges in and refined the definitionof the field of mesoscale science, which isgenerally understood to cover structures anddevices that fall somewhere between thenano- and microscales.But, says Rubloff, “meso”is much more than length scale.“The report recognizes qualitativedistinctions in the arrangementsof small things, suchas atoms, situated somewherebetween the ‘top down’ way wemake things like semiconductors—usinginstruments inclean rooms—and exploitationof the ‘bottom up’ fabricationthat occurs in nature, like selforganizingDNA or the selfassemblyof nanoparticles into regular arrays.Meso is the new science that happens whensmaller objects we understand or research arebrought together as larger populations.”Rubloff was particularly involved indefining the research directions concerningdefects and directed assembly, two areas inwhich both he and many of his colleagues atthe Clark School are active.“For example, at NEES, we makemulticomponent nanowire structures foruse in batteries and capacitors,” he says.“The directed assembly of billions ofthese close together is a major challenge.”Other examples Rubloff cites include themultiferroic materials systems createdby MSE professors Ichiro Takeuchi andManfred Wuttig; block copolymer orderingstudied by MSE professor and chair RobertM. Briber; the study of defects chemistry insolid state ionics by University of MarylandEnergy Research Center director EricWachsman; and connected porous materialarchitectures created by MSE assistantprofessor Liangbing Hu.“Working on the report was a greatexperience,” says Rubloff. “Besides thenew research opportunities mesoscalescience represents, I personally believeits societal impact is even greater. We’vemade large and worthwhile investments innano, but translating them into economicvalue requires that we be able to assemble,aggregate and design nanoscale componentson a massive scale. In this sense the value ofnano will be delivered in large part throughscience and engineering at the meso scale.”Attendees at the 2012 Robust Wide Bandgap (WBG)Semiconductor Power Electronics Workshop, co-hostedby Argonne National Laboratory and the Universityof Maryland.New Video Shows HowMaterials Scientists Are“Solving Society’s GreatProblems”“Solving Society’s Great Problems,”a new video about the Clark School’sDepartment of Materials Science andEngineering, premiered at the 2012Materials Research Society’s FallMeeting & Exhibit. In it, students andfaculty discuss their research andhow it can make the word a betterplace, and take us inside their labsand facilities. See the video online at:http://ter.ps/msesolvesWorkshop on Wide BandgapPower SemiconductorsStresses Need for CommercialDevelopmentArgonne National Laboratory and theUniversity of Maryland recently co-organizeda workshop on wide bandgap (WBG)power semiconductors that brought togetherover 60 key industry and governmentstakeholders to facilitate the rapiddevelopment of low-cost manufacturing ofWBG power devices in the United States.The event was hosted at the Clark School’sJeong H. Kim Engineering Building byMSE professor Aris Christou and KrishnaShenai, Argonne’s Energy Systems Division’sprinciple engineer.The event was one of a pair offeredby Argonne National Laboratory and theUniversity of Maryland: a workshop held atArgonne, co-sponsored by the Clark School’sCenter for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering(CALCE), focused on the use of WBG semiconductorsfor transformative advances in electricutility and transportation infrastructures;while the event at Marylandemphasized WBG productsdesigned to address nationalsecurity needs. Discussionsfocused on the key challengesmanufacturers face in commercializingWBG power modules,and identifying the nation’s strategicmilitary and space applicationrequirements.Compared to siliconpower devices, WBG powersemiconductor materials, suchas silicon carbide (SiC) andTECHTRACKS SPRING 2013