Materials Science and Nanotechnology for Chemists
George Lisensky (Beloit College) and Karen Nordell (Lawrence University)
In 1960, Richard Feynman asked the question, “What would happen if we could arrange atoms one by one the way we want them?” Today, the emerging fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology are enabling control of the material world at the scale of atoms and molecules.
Nanotechnology is inherently interdisciplinary and requires new approaches to undergraduate education through interdisciplinary connections between chemistry, physics, biology and materials science. Chemists can play an important part in this collaboration if the barrier of unfamiliar vocabulary is removed.
Silicon chips, gigabyte disk drives, and light emitting diodes - devices that are based on atomically engineered materials - are all around us. These everyday wonders that we depend on would not be possible without the ability to "see" and manipulate materials at the most basic level, the individual atom.
This workshop will focus on a chemical view of materials science and the nanoworld and how to incorporate these topics into the core curriculum. It will include a large number of hands-on activities, connections to commercial high technology materials, and laboratory experiments that do not require specialized equipment. Participants will receive a book, lab directions, and resources for class use.
Day 1: What’s different about the nanoscale?
Topics: Introduction, Scale, Nanoapplications, Electrons in Solids, Magnetism, Giant Magnetoresistance, Electrorheology
Laboratory Activities: Property changes from a monolayer, Synthesis of gold nanoparticles, Synthesis of ferrofluid nanoparticles, Synthesis of CdSe quantum dots
Day 2: Materials chemistry
Topics: Solid state stoichiometry, Unit cells, Piezoelectricity, Metals, Carbon Nanotubes, Bands
Laboratory Activities: Structure and properties model building, Thermal Conductivity, Titanium dioxide solar cell, Preparation of OLEDs
Day 3: How can we use the periodic table to tune properties?
Topics: Light Emitting Diodes and applications, Holes and electrons, p-n junctions, thermolectrics
Laboratory Activities: LEDs and Periodic Properties, Counting Photons, DNA diffraction lab, liquid crystals lab
Day 4: How do we know about structure?
Topics: Diffraction, Scanning Probe Microscopy
Laboratory Activities: Synthesis of Nickel Nanowires, SEM and STM Instrumentation
Day 5: Defects and phase changes
Topics and activities: societal implications, bubble raft, dislocations, amorphous metal, NiTi, Conclusion