Properties of Nanomaterials
Georgia Tech nanoscience and nanotechnology researchers are providing the pattern for the future-one nanometer at a time.
FACULTY
Meet Georgia Tech Faculty involved in Properties of Nanomaterials.
RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT
Cross-campus Efforts
Georgia Tech professors recognize that theoretical modeling and simulations as well as scientific experiments are critical for understanding nanocrystals' helpful properties.
In a cross-campus effort, Materials Science and Engineering Professor Z.L. Wang, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry Professor Robert Whetten, and researchers from Georgia Tech's Center for Computational Materials Science are working on discovering nanocrystals' unique characteristics, which have future magnetic and catalytic applications in the industrial sector.
Tech's Center for Computational Materials Science uses supercomputer-based simulations to investigate nanocrystal characteristics, while Wang and Whetten, who have collaborated on nanoscience research in the past, use more traditional research methods to determine the assembly and cluster properties of nanocrystals.
For more information about nanocrystal characterization, visit Georgia Tech's Nanostructure Research Laboratory.
Robert Whetten, Principal Investigator
In 2004, William King, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech's School of Mechanical Engineering, created a new method of "writing" tiny circuit patterns using pens with built-in heaters. Until King incorporated easily-melted solid inks into his heat-based method, scientists were unable to turn on and off the pens' probing tips. Using King's new thermal dip pen nanolithography method (DPN for short), scientists are now able to write patterns so small they can't be created by traditional light-based lithography. King's DPN method can also be used for nanoscale soldering to repair circuitry on semiconductor chips.
Nanotechnology pioneer Mostafa El-Sayed, the director of Georgia Tech's Laser Dynamics Laboratories, is also closing the circuit between nanoscience research and nanotechnology applications, combining his fascination with nanomaterials with his interest in lasers. The Julius Brown Chair and School of Chemistry and Biochemistry Regents' professor, El-Sayed is blazing the way to creating molecule-sized computers, using lasers to take pictures at a speed a million times faster than a camera flash.
Like El-Sayed, Georgia Tech School of Chemistry and Biochemistry Professor Thomas Orlando also uses lasers to study nanomaterials. Orlando's sophisticated ultrahigh vacuum surface systems are equipped with UV-laser sources and low-energy electron beams that stimulate reactions and uncover the characteristics of materials on the nanoscale level.
From tiny writing to tiny pulses of light, nanoscience and nanotechnology researchers across Georgia Tech's campus are engaged in research that will lead to a better understanding of the science of the small and its uses in everyday life.
