Alex passed the qualifying exam! Many Congratulations! It is the time to do research! 🙂

Tyler’s DNA lattice paper was selected as Editor’s choice – 2023 of Cell Reports Physical Science. Many Congratulations!

Aaron N. Michelson, Tyler J. Flanagan, Seok-Woo Lee*, Oleg Gang*, “Light-weight and high strength silica nanolattices templated from DNA origami,” Cell Reports Physical Science, 4, 101475 (2023) [PDF][web][Editor’s Choice – 2023!] – featured at UConn Today Columbia University News, American Ceramic Society News, the Department of Energy (DOE) website, Tech Brief, and Science Tech Daily!

Majoring In MSE Will Help You Shoot For The Stars

 

Shuyang‘s collaboration work (Tra Vinikoor et al.) was published at Nature Communications! Many congratulations!

Shuyang contributed to the nanoindentation measurement that quantifies the degree of healing of the articular cartilage. The mechanical properties of healed cartilages must be similar with those of heathy cartilages. This work shows that nanoindentation can also be used to study bio-materials (tissue re-generation).

Tra Vinikoor, Godwin dzidotor, Thinh T. Le, Yang Liu, Ho-Man Kan, Srimanta Barui, Meysam T. Chorsi,  Eli J. Curry, Emily Reinhardt, Hanzhang Wang, Parbeen Singh, Marc A Merriman, Ethan D’orio, Shuyang Xiao, James H Chapman, Feng Lin, Cao-Sang Truong, Somasundaram Prasadh, Lisa Chuba, Shaelyn Killoh, Seok-Woo Lee, Qian Wu, Ramaswamy M. Chidambaram, Kevin W. H. Lo, Cato T. Laurencin, Thanh D. Nguyen, “Injectable and biodegradable piezoelectric hydrogel for medical applications,” Nature Communications, 14, 6257 (2023) [PDF][web]

Book Chapter 9. ‘Characterization of Cold Sprayed Materials Consolidations” was published. This chapter is included in “Advances in Cold Spray (second edition), Woodhead Publishing Series in Metals and Surface Engineering”. This chapter describes how micromechanical testing can be used to study mechanical properties of cold sprayed materials. All these works were done by Dr. Tyler Flanagan!

Bryer C. Sousa, Mark Aindow, Seok-Woo Lee, Diana Lados, Anthony G. Spangenberger, Christopher M. Sample, Danielle L. Cote, “Ch.9. Characterization of cold-sprayed material consolidations,” Advances in Cold Spray (2nd ed.), Woodhead Publishing, 205-298 (2023) [PDF][web]

Tyler’s paper was highlighted at UConn Today, Columbia University News, and the Department of Energy (DOE) website. It was also highlighted at UConn MSE department news!

Scientists Create New Material Five Times Lighter and Four Times Stronger Than Steel

[UConn Today: Strong as Glass]

[Department of Energy website]

Our group alumni, Dr. Tyler Flanagan, visited UConn during his vacation! Welcome back!

 

Tyler’s paper was published at Cell Reports Physical Science! Many Congratulations!

Aaron N. Michelson, Tyler J. Flanagan, Seok-Woo Lee*, Oleg Gang*, “Light-weight and high strength silica nanolattices templated from DNA origami,” Cell Reports Physical Science (2023) [PDF][web] – DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2023.101475

Abstract: Continuous nanolattices are an emerging class of mechanical metamaterials that are highly attractive due to their superior strength-to-weight ratios, which originate from their spatial architectures and nanoscale-sized elements possessing near-theoretical strength. Rational design of frameworks remains challenging below 50 nm because of limited methods to arrange small elements into complex architectures. Here, we fabricate silica frameworks with ∼4- to 20-nm-thick elements using self-assembly and silica templating of DNA origami nanolattices and perform in situ micro-compression testing to examine the mechanical properties. We observe strong effects of lattice dimensions on yield strength and failure mode. Silica nanolattices are found to exhibit yield strengths higher than those of any known engineering materials with similar mass density. The robust coordination of the nanothin and strong silica elements leads to the combination of lightweight and high-strength framework materials offering an effective strategy for the fabrication of nanoarchitected materials with superior mechanical properties.

 

Shuyang’s nanoindentation study on SrNi2P2 and its Rhodium doped structure has been published at Journal of Materials Research! Congratulations! Two UConn undergraduate students (Kiera Burns and Aurora Buswell) participated in this research.

Shuyang Xiao, Sarshad Rommel, Kiera A. Burns, Aurora A. Buswell, Vladislav Borisov, Juan Schmidt, Roser Valentí, Paul C. Canfield, Mark Aindow, Seok-Woo Lee, “Effects of Rhodium doping on dislocation nucleation in a [001] SrNi2P2 single crystals under spherical nanoindentaiton,” Journal of Materials Research (2023) [PDF][web] – DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/s43578-023-01073-y

Abstract: Nanoindentation was performed on SrNi₂P₂ single crystals and their dilute solid solutions, Sr(Ni_1−xRh_x)₂P₂ (x = 0 ~ 0.055), under [001] loading to investigate the effects of elemental doping on Young’s modulus and dislocation nucleation stress. The results show that Young’s modulus and the dislocation nucleation stress decrease as the Rh content increases, and their Rh content dependence also varies with the Rh content. Electron diffraction analysis and the anisotropic lattice distortion calculations revealed that a local structural transition from the orthorhombic superstructure to the tetragonal structure and local compressive residual stresses could be the main reasons for the decrease in Young’s modulus and dislocation nucleation stress, respectively. The overlap of stress–strain fields between Rh atoms and the associated local structural transition contribute to their Rh content dependence. The results also indicate that elemental doping does not necessarily strengthen materials if the incipient plasticity is controlled by dislocation nucleation, unlike conventional solid solution strengthening.

 

Farewell lunch with Shuyang and Jay. We wish both a great success in their next endeavor! Congratulations again on their graduation!