SF Bay Area Nanotechnology Council

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Cascade of electronic transitions in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2023

Dr. Dillon Wong, Assoc. Research Scholar, Princeton

Fri March 3, 11:30 AM – Virtual Event – Free!

Twisted bilayer graphene, a material constructed from rotating two sheets of graphene relative to each other, displays electronic properties not found in single graphene sheets. When rotated to the so-called “magic-angle”, approximately 1.05 degrees, twisted bilayer graphene exhibits correlated insulating, superconducting, and magnetic behavior that is tunable via electrostatic gating. Possible applications include superefficient information storage and processing, and rotation/twisting-controlled electronics.

     The exotic electronic states found in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene are believed to arise from strong electron-electron interactions that occur when partially filling the system’s flat electronic bands. I will review a series of experiments that use a scanning tunneling microscope to investigate the strength of the electron-electron interactions, as well as the nature of the superconducting state.

Dillon Wong is an associate research scholar at Princeton, where he has led teams in building facilities for 2-D materials fabrication, and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). 

     He earned a physics PhD at UC Berkeley, where among other projects he used STM to image, characterize, and manipulate charged defects in gate-tunable graphene field-effect transistors made from exfoliated and chemical-vapor-deposition-grown graphene.

     Dillon has published 22 peer-reviewed papers, including some in Nature and Science, and was awarded 1 US patent.

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SFBA Monthly Seminar – Nanotechnology + Synthetic Biology: Directing Evolution of Energy Materials

Thursday, September 29th, 2022

Merging Nanotechnology & Synthetic Biology toward Directed Evolution of Energy Materials by Elena A. Rozhkova, Argonne National Laborator

Date and time

Thu, October 27, 2022, 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM PDT

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nanotechnology-synthetic-biology-directing-evolution-of-energy-materials-tickets-420103008407

About this event

The biological use of solar energy for synthesis of fuels from water and carbon dioxide inspires researchers and engineers in their efforts to replace exhaustible energy sources with renewable technologies.

Environmentally friendly schemes of photocatalytic energy conversion, known as artificial photosynthesis, along with inorganic materials, also use biological structures, such as molecules, enzymes, machineries of whole microorganisms capable of light-harvesting, water splitting, carbon dioxide and proton reduction.

In this talk, I will make an argument that merging nanotechnology, biotechnology and synthetic biology approaches allows for systemic manipulation at the nanoparticle-bio interface toward directed evolution of energy materials, novel environmentally friendly catalytic, “artificial life” systems and, ultimately, to circular economy.

For example, purple membranes isolated from Halobacteria cells or, more recently, obtained via cell-free synthetic biology approaches, were integrated with TiO2 nanoparticles to produce hydrogen or reduce carbon dioxide. These new functions are not typical of the host microorganism. On the other hand, interplay between plasmon resonance of photonic (Au, Ag) nanoparticles and natural mechanisms of the same light-sensitive membranes in engineered hollow hybrids, or “artificial cell”, resulted in ATP photosynthesis.

Dr. Rozhkova earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry at the Moscow State Institute for Fine Chemical Technology. She then worked in Japan as a postdoctoral fellow of Japan Society for Promotion of Science at Tohoku University. After moving to the US in 2003, she became a research staff member at the Chemistry Department of Princeton University, and later she moved to Chicago.

Since joining the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne National Laboratory in 2007, Elena has focused on a general theme of nano-bio interfaces, one of the most exciting interdisciplinary research fields of our time. Success in this area can lead to the solution of emerging problems of civilization, for example, to provide alternative sustainable energy, to advance medical technologies in the diagnosis and treatment of incurable diseases

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SFBA Nanotechnology Seminar – Nanomaterial-Enabled Soft Electronics

Thursday, September 29th, 2022

Nanomaterial-Enabled Soft Electronics by Prof Yong Zhu, Andrew A. Adams Distinguished Professor North Carolina State University (NCSU)

Date and time

Thu, October 13, 2022, 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM PDT

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sfba-nanotechnology-seminar-nanomaterial-enabled-soft-electronics-tickets-420099277247

About this event

Soft electronics takes a leap beyond Si-based rigid electronics. They are made of ultrathin, compliant, and stretchable materials, already with broad applications from personal health monitoring to prosthetics to human-machine interfaces. Metal nanowires, in particular silver nanowire (AgNWs), have emerged as a promising soft electronic material.

In this talk, I will discuss the recent advances in AgNW-based soft electronics and soft robotics. I will start with highly conductive and stretchable AgNW electrodes, followed with a variety of wearable sensors for monitoring of human physiology and motions (e.g., strain, pressure, temperature, hydration, ECG, and EMG). I will discuss their application in personal healthcare and sports.

Manufacturing is a critical enabling step for developing AgNW-based soft electronic devices. I will discuss our recent efforts in scalable and sustainable nanomanufacturing.

Soft robotics have recently received tremendous interests. I will briefly discuss the AgNW-based soft heater and bimorph actuator and their application in soft robotics. I highlight a recent strategy employing mechanical bistability to significantly increase the speed of the thermally actuated soft robots.

Yong Zhu is the Andrew Adams Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, with affiliate appointments in Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering, at North Carolina State University.
He received his BS degree from the University of Science and Technology of China and MS and PhD degrees from Northwestern University. After completing his postdoctoral training at the University of Texas at Austin he joined NC State University in 2007 as an Assistant Professor.
His group conducts research at the intersection of mechanics of materials and micro/nano-technology, including nanomaterial-enabled flexible, stretchable and wearable electronics.
His work has been recognized with numerous awards including James R. Rice Medal from the Society of Engineering Science, Bessel Research Prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, ASME Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award, and Best Wearable Material/Component Development Award at IDTechEx Wearable USA

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Probing Nanoscale Interface and Interphases in Lithium-ion Batteries

Tuesday, September 14th, 2021

About this event

Agenda:

11:30 AM – 12 Noon: Nano Journal Club*

12 Noon – 12:10 PM : Introduction and Announcements

12:10 Pm – 1:00 PM : Seminar by Jagjit Nada

*Nano Journal will discuss the paper on : Challenges for and Pathways toward Li-Metal-Based All-Solid-State Batteries

Seminar Talk: Probing Nanoscale Interface and Interphases in Lithium-ion Batteries

Electrochemical energy storage (EES) is one of the key drivers for next generation mobility, consumer electronics, defense technology, and other applications. EES is also an enabler to improve penetration of renewable energies such as solar and wind into the electric grid. To meet such demands there is an increasing need for batteries to have high energy density and power without compromising on safety and affordability. Electrode-electrolyte interfaces are central to battery performance and life as the ion must travel across the device without interruption between heterogenous materials interfaces. Most liquid and solid electrolytes have limited thermodynamic stability and form a reactive interphase layer that can usually range from a few nanometers to tens of nanometer The nature and composition of such reactive interphase layer primarily determines the quality of the ion-transport at the interface. The talk will focus on investigation of solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) on lithium-ion anodes such as silicon that is critical for the cycle and calendar life. The second part of the talk will cover solid-state batteries, where role of the solid electrolyte-electrode interfaces is critical for maintaining capacity and high-rate capability. Several important class of solid-electrolyte and their stability with Li-metal and cathodes will be presented.

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy through the Vehicle Technology Office

Probing Nanoscale Interface and Interphases in Lithium-ion Batteries image

Jagjit Nanda is a Distinguished Staff Scientist and Group Leader of the Energy Storage and Conversion Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Chemical Sciences Division with 18 plus years of experience in energy storage and battery materials. He also has a joint faculty appointment in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Prior to joining Oak Ridge in 2009, Jagjit worked as a Technical Lead at the Research and Advanced Engineering Center, Ford Motor Company, MI, leading R&D projects in lithium-ion battery materials and nanomaterials for energy application. He is the co-editor of Hand Book of Solid-State Batteries-2015 along with Nancy Dudney and Willam West and has co-authored more than 150 journal and technical publications in the topic of batteries, solid-state electrolytes and electrochemical interfaces. Jagjit is a Fellow of Electrochemical Society and winner of two R&D 100 awards in the area of batteries and supercapacitors.

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