News at MRSEC

Susan Sinnott, head of the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Penn State and faculty member of IRG 2 (High Entropy Oxides), has been selected for the top research award from the American Vacuum Society (AVS). She will give the honorary lectureship "Atomistic Simulations to Advance Surface Science" at the AVS 68th International Symposium and Exhibition this November. Please find the full story from Penn State News.

Former Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) fellowship recipient, Paul Orbe received a 2021 Fulbright Teachers for Global Classroom award. NSF funding supported his research in the Dabo group at the Penn State MRSEC. By utilizing High-throughput methods, Paul contributed to the discovery of materials catalyzing water splitting reactions. 

The Research Experience for Teachers collaboration resulted in a published paper focused on creating 3D printed equipment to help make the measurement of liquid contact angles on solid surfaces more accessible for K12 classrooms. The developed system was created utilizing the Penn State Makers Commons' 3D printers, while various sample surfaces surfaces were additionally explored using the Material Characterization Laboratory's Scanning Electron Microscope and a MRSEC-funded laboratory goniometer. The MRSEC also helped provide sufficient 3D printed materials, testing surfaces, and safety equipment to bring the activity to a 5th grade classroom at a local middle school, where the students used the 3D printed equipment to easily measure the contact angle of water on various naturally occurring and artificially-produced hydrophobic surfaces. The work resulted in a published paper in the American Chemical Society.

Yihuang Xiong co-authored a paper "Data-Driven Analysis of the Electronic-Structure Factors Controlling the Work Functions of Perovskite Oxides" on tuning work functions of materials is critical to the performance of microelectric and (photo) electrochemical devices. The IRG 2 Entropy validated data-driven models to predcit the work functions of cubic perovskites from simple electronic simple electronic descriptors, which may ultimately be applied to high-entropy perovskites. Read the paper in PCCP.