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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Tying Together Multiscale Calculations For Charge Transport In P3ht: Structural Descriptors, Morphology, And Tie-Chains, Evan D. Miller, Matthew L. Jones, Eric Jankowski Dec 2018

Tying Together Multiscale Calculations For Charge Transport In P3ht: Structural Descriptors, Morphology, And Tie-Chains, Evan D. Miller, Matthew L. Jones, Eric Jankowski

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Evaluating new, promising organic molecules to make next-generation organic optoelectronic devices necessitates the evaluation of charge carrier transport performance through the semi-conducting medium. In this work, we utilize quantum chemical calculations (QCC) and kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations to predict the zero-field hole mobilities of ~100 morphologies of the benchmark polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene), with varying simulation volume, structural order, and chain-length polydispersity. Morphologies with monodisperse chains were generated previously using an optimized molecular dynamics force-field and represent a spectrum of nanostructured order. We discover that a combined consideration of backbone clustering and system-wide disorder arising from side-chain conformations are correlated with …


Optimization And Validation Of Efficient Models For Predicting Polythiophene Self-Assembly, Evan D. Miller, Matthew L. Jones, Michael M. Henry, Paul Chery, Kyle Miller, Eric Jankowski Dec 2018

Optimization And Validation Of Efficient Models For Predicting Polythiophene Self-Assembly, Evan D. Miller, Matthew L. Jones, Michael M. Henry, Paul Chery, Kyle Miller, Eric Jankowski

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

We develop an optimized force-field for poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and demonstrate its utility for predicting thermodynamic self-assembly. In particular, we consider short oligomer chains, model electrostatics and solvent implicitly, and coarsely model solvent evaporation. We quantify the performance of our model to determine what the optimal system sizes are for exploring self-assembly at combinations of state variables. We perform molecular dynamics simulations to predict the self-assembly of P3HT at ~350 combinations of temperature and solvent quality. Our structural calculations predict that the highest degrees of order are obtained with good solvents just below the melting temperature. We find our model produces …


Magnetic And Electrocatalytic Properties Of Transition Metal Doped Mos2 Nanocrystals, Karthik Chinnathambi Oct 2018

Magnetic And Electrocatalytic Properties Of Transition Metal Doped Mos2 Nanocrystals, Karthik Chinnathambi

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, the magnetic and electrocatalytic properties of hydrothermally grown transition metal doped (10% of Co, Ni, Fe, and Mn) 2H-MoS2 nanocrystals (NCs) with a particle size 25–30 nm are reported. The pristine 2H-MoS2 NCs showed a mixture of canted anti-ferromagnetic and ferromagnetic behavior. While Co, Ni, and Fe doped MoS2 NCs revealed room temperature ferromagnetism, Mn doped MoS2 NCs showed room temperature paramagnetism, predominantly. The ground state of all the materials is found to be canted-antiferromagnetic phase. To study electrocatalytic performance for hydrogen evolution reaction, polarization curves were measured for undoped and the doped …


Carbon-Coated Fep Nanoparticles Anchored On Carbon Nanotube Networks As Anode For Long-Life Sodium-Ion Storage, Chunrong Ma, Zhengguang Fu, Changjian Deng, Xiaozhen Liao, Yushi He, Zifeng Ma, Hui Xiong Oct 2018

Carbon-Coated Fep Nanoparticles Anchored On Carbon Nanotube Networks As Anode For Long-Life Sodium-Ion Storage, Chunrong Ma, Zhengguang Fu, Changjian Deng, Xiaozhen Liao, Yushi He, Zifeng Ma, Hui Xiong

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A novel electrode design strategy of carbon-coated FeP particles anchored on a conducting carbon nanotube network (CNT@FePC) is designed to achieve a superior sodium ion storage. Such a unique structure demonstrated excellent long-life cycling stability (a 95% capacity retention for more than 1200 cycles at 3 A g-1) and rate capability (delivered 272 mAh g-1 at 8 A g-1).


Using Graphs To Quantify Energetic And Structural Order In Semicrystalline Oligothiophene Thin Films, Ellen Van, Matthew Jones, Eric Jankowski, Olga Wodo Oct 2018

Using Graphs To Quantify Energetic And Structural Order In Semicrystalline Oligothiophene Thin Films, Ellen Van, Matthew Jones, Eric Jankowski, Olga Wodo

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In semicrystalline conjugated polymer thin films, the mobility of charges depends on the arrangement of the individual polymer chains. In particular, the ordering of the polymer backbones affects the charge transport within the film, as electron transfer generally occurs along the backbones with alternating single and double bonds. In this paper, we demonstrate that polymer ordering should be discussed not only in terms of structural but also energetic ordering of polymer chains. We couple data from molecular dynamics simulations and quantum chemical calculations to quantify both structural and energetic ordering of polymer chains. We leverage a graph-based representation of the …


Boron-Implanted Silicon Substrates For Physical Adsorption Of Dna Origami, Sadao Takabayashi, Shohei Kotani, Juan Flores-Estrada, Elijah Spears, Jennifer E. Padilla, Lizandra C. Godwin, Elton Graugnard, Wan Kuang, William L. Hughes Sep 2018

Boron-Implanted Silicon Substrates For Physical Adsorption Of Dna Origami, Sadao Takabayashi, Shohei Kotani, Juan Flores-Estrada, Elijah Spears, Jennifer E. Padilla, Lizandra C. Godwin, Elton Graugnard, Wan Kuang, William L. Hughes

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

DNA nanostructures routinely self-assemble with sub-10 nm feature sizes. This capability has created industry interest in using DNA as a lithographic mask, yet with few exceptions, solution-based deposition of DNA nanostructures has remained primarily academic to date. En route to controlled adsorption of DNA patterns onto manufactured substrates, deposition and placement of DNA origami has been demonstrated on chemically functionalized silicon substrates. While compelling, chemical functionalization adds fabrication complexity that limits mask efficiency and hence industry adoption. As an alternative, we developed an ion implantation process that tailors the surface potential of silicon substrates to facilitate adsorption of DNA nanostructures …


Structural Evolution Of Molybdenum Disulfide Prepared By Atomic Layer Deposition For Realization Of Large Scale Films In Microelectronic Applications, Steven Letourneau, Elton Graugnard Aug 2018

Structural Evolution Of Molybdenum Disulfide Prepared By Atomic Layer Deposition For Realization Of Large Scale Films In Microelectronic Applications, Steven Letourneau, Elton Graugnard

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) films are attractive materials for electronic and optoelectronic devices, but the temperatures used in the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of these materials are too high for device integration. Recently, a low-temperature atomic layer deposition (ALD) process was demonstrated for growth of MoS2 films at 200 °C using MoF6 and H2S. However, the as-deposited films were amorphous and required annealing to obtain the desired layered structure. The MoS2 films were sulfur-deficient; however, after annealing the crystallinity improved. To study the structure of these films and the process by which they crystallize, …


Electropolishing Valve Metals With A Sulfuric Acid-Methanol Electrolyte At Low Temperature, Pete Barnes, Andreas Savva, Kiev Dixon, Hailey Bull, Laura Rill, Devan Karsann, Sterling Croft, Jesse Schimpf, Hui Xiong Aug 2018

Electropolishing Valve Metals With A Sulfuric Acid-Methanol Electrolyte At Low Temperature, Pete Barnes, Andreas Savva, Kiev Dixon, Hailey Bull, Laura Rill, Devan Karsann, Sterling Croft, Jesse Schimpf, Hui Xiong

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study reports the electropolishing Ti and Nb metals using a fluoride-free electrolyte of sulfuric acid and methanol at low temperature (-70°C) without prior treatment. A fluoride-free electrolyte provides a less hazardous and more environmentally friendly option for electropolishing procedure. Experimental studies are presented on electropolishing with sulfuric acid electrolyte, which provides high quality macro- and micro-smoothing of the metal surfaces. Optimal conditions yielded leveling and brightening of the surface of Ti and Nb metals beyond that of the currently utilized electropolishing procedures with fluoride-containing electrolytes. The root mean squared roughness (Rq) from atomic force microscopy (AFM) …


Electronic Structure, Pore Size Distribution, And Sorption Characterization Of An Unusual Mof, {[Ni(Dpbz)][Ni(Cn)4]}N, Dpbz = 1,4-Bis(4-Pyridyl)Benzene, Winnie Wong-Ng, Izaak Williamson, Matthew Lawson, Daniel W. Siderus, Jeffrey T. Culp, Yu-S. Chen, Lan Li Jun 2018

Electronic Structure, Pore Size Distribution, And Sorption Characterization Of An Unusual Mof, {[Ni(Dpbz)][Ni(Cn)4]}N, Dpbz = 1,4-Bis(4-Pyridyl)Benzene, Winnie Wong-Ng, Izaak Williamson, Matthew Lawson, Daniel W. Siderus, Jeffrey T. Culp, Yu-S. Chen, Lan Li

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The monoclinic (Ni(L)[Ni(CN)4] (L= 1,4-Bis(4-pyridyl) benzene) compound (defined as Ni-dpbz) is a flexible metal organic framework which assumes a pillared structure with layers defined by 2D Ni[Ni(CN)4]n nets and dpbz ligands as pillars. The structure features an entrapped dpbz ligand that links between the open ends of four-fold Ni sites from two neighboring chains. This arrangement results in an unusual 5-fold pseudo square-pyramid environment for Ni and a significantly long Ni-N distance of 2.369(4) Å. Using Density Functional Theory calculations, the different bonding characteristics between the 5-fold and 6-fold Ni's were determined. We found that …


De-Risking Transdisciplinary Research By Creating Shared Values, Donna C. Llewellyn, William L. Hughes Jun 2018

De-Risking Transdisciplinary Research By Creating Shared Values, Donna C. Llewellyn, William L. Hughes

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This Lessons Learned Paper describes a yearlong faculty development pilot program that was designed to help a team of faculty de-risk their pursuit of wicked research problems. Wicked problems are extraordinarily difficult to solve due to their incomplete, contradictory, and at times changing requirements. They often include multiple stakeholders with competing interests and worldviews. As a result, they are risky by definition because they are difficult to fund, publish, and collaborate on. Presented here, a team of eleven faculty, from six different academic units, explored their personal and professional values during an initial off-site two and a half day retreat. …


The Crux: Promoting Success In Calculus Ii, Doug Bullock, Janet Callahan, Jocelyn B. S. Cullers Jun 2018

The Crux: Promoting Success In Calculus Ii, Doug Bullock, Janet Callahan, Jocelyn B. S. Cullers

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the 2013-14 school year, Boise State University (BSU) launched a major overhaul of Calculus I. The details of the reform, described elsewhere, involved both pedagogical and curricular changes. In subsequent years, we developed several assessment tools to measure the effects of the project on students’ grades and retention. The toolkit includes: (1) pass rate and GPA in Calculus I, (2) longitudinal analysis of pass rates and GPA in subsequent courses, (3) impact of Calculus I on retention in STEM and retention at BSU, (4) all of the above comparing students in reformed Calculus vs traditional Calculus, (5) all of …


Work In Progress: Institutional Context And The Implementation Of The Redshirt In Engineering Model At Six Universities, Ann Delaney, Donna C. Llewellyn, Janet Callahan Jun 2018

Work In Progress: Institutional Context And The Implementation Of The Redshirt In Engineering Model At Six Universities, Ann Delaney, Donna C. Llewellyn, Janet Callahan

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Low-income students are underrepresented in engineering and are more likely to struggle in engineering programs. Such students may be academically talented and perform well in high school, but may have relatively weak academic preparation for college compared to students who attended better-resourced schools. Four-year engineering and computer science curricula are designed for students who are calculus-ready, but many students who are eager to become engineers or computer scientists need additional time and support to succeed. The NSF-funded Redshirt in Engineering Consortium was formed in 2016 as a collaborative effort to build on the success of three existing “academic Redshirt” programs …


The Redshirt In Engineering Consortium: Progress And Early Insights, Janet Callahan, Donna C. Llewellyn, Ann E. Delaney Jun 2018

The Redshirt In Engineering Consortium: Progress And Early Insights, Janet Callahan, Donna C. Llewellyn, Ann E. Delaney

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The NSF-funded Redshirt in Engineering Consortium was formed in 2016 with the goal of enhancing the ability of academically talented but underprepared students coming from lowincome backgrounds to successfully graduate with engineering degrees. The Consortium takes its name from the practice of redshirting in college athletics, with the idea of providing an extra year and support to help promising engineering students complete a bachelor’s degree. The Consortium builds on the success of three existing “academic redshirt” programs and expands the model to three new schools. The Existing Redshirt Institutions (ERIs) help mentor and train the new Student Success Partners (SSPs), …


Valuing Women’S Contributions: Team Projects And Collaborative Writing, Jennifer C. Mallette, Harold Ackler Jun 2018

Valuing Women’S Contributions: Team Projects And Collaborative Writing, Jennifer C. Mallette, Harold Ackler

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Team projects offer opportunities for student engineers to learn how to work on a team and produce collaborative written reports. However, research has shown that women often do more writing during these projects, and that their writing labor is unrecognized or undervalued, particularly when the technical work is viewed as more essential. In this paper, we examine the results of a study focused on the writing component in a year-long senior capstone materials science and engineering (MSE) course sequence. This course requires students to complete projects for clients and produce a written report, among other deliverables. To focus more on …


Encouraging A Growth Mindset In Engineering Students, Megan Frary Jun 2018

Encouraging A Growth Mindset In Engineering Students, Megan Frary

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A person’s “mindset” guides a great deal of how one approaches life -- and especially how students approach education. While someone with a fixed mindset believes that their intelligence is fixed and unchangeable, someone with a growth mindset believes that their intelligence is changeable and can grow as they learn more. Most people’s mindset lies along a spectrum with these two extremes at either end. In addition to other outcomes, the mindset that a person has determines how they interpret mistakes they make; whereas someone with a fixed mindset thinks mistakes result from their innate lack of ability, someone with …


Work In Progress: Flexibility And Professional Preparation Via A Multidisciplinary Engineering Curriculum, Noah Salzman, Vicki Stieha, Amy J. Moll, Joann S. Lighty Jun 2018

Work In Progress: Flexibility And Professional Preparation Via A Multidisciplinary Engineering Curriculum, Noah Salzman, Vicki Stieha, Amy J. Moll, Joann S. Lighty

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper reports on one institution’s work-in-progress to build innovation and creativity into a flexible, ABET accredited undergraduate Engineering B.S. degree that provides a variety of choices to undergraduate engineering students. The new Engineering Plus degree has a core set of required foundational courses in engineering, a multi-year design sequence, and allows for self-defined pathways. The new curriculum also offers three defined degree pathways that have been chosen based on an examination of student “fate” data: secondary education, pre-medical, and environmental studies, with additional pathways planned for the near future. The fate analysis examined the paths of students who were …


Panel Discussion On The History Of The Women In Engineering Division: Reflections From Past Chairs Of The Division, Beena Sukumaran, Janet Callahan, Donna C. Llewellyn, Beth M. Holloway, Noel N. Schulz, Sarah A. Rajala, Donna Reese Jun 2018

Panel Discussion On The History Of The Women In Engineering Division: Reflections From Past Chairs Of The Division, Beena Sukumaran, Janet Callahan, Donna C. Llewellyn, Beth M. Holloway, Noel N. Schulz, Sarah A. Rajala, Donna Reese

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In celebration of 125 years of the American Society of Engineering Education, past Chairs of the Women in Engineering Division (WIED), Beth Holloway, Donna Llewellyn, Sarah Rajala, and Noel Schulz convened in a focused panel that looked back through the division’s history. To help archive the historical perspective of these leaders, this paper was developed to help the former Chairs focus their perspectives with guiding questions. One additional chair, who could not attend the conference, Donna Reese participated in this paper. The guiding questions for chairs concerned: the influence of their leadership of the WIED on their career, their perspective …


Proton Irradiation Effect On Thermoelectric Properties Of Nanostructured N-Type Half-Heusler Hf0.25Zr0.75Nisn0.99Sb0.01, Karthik Chinnathambi, Brian J. Jaques Jun 2018

Proton Irradiation Effect On Thermoelectric Properties Of Nanostructured N-Type Half-Heusler Hf0.25Zr0.75Nisn0.99Sb0.01, Karthik Chinnathambi, Brian J. Jaques

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Thermoelectric properties of nanostructured half-Heusler Hf0.25Zr0.75NiSn0.99Sb0.01 were characterized before and after 2.5 MeV proton irradiation. A unique high-sensitivity scanning thermal microprobe was used to simultaneously map the irradiation effect on thermal conductivity and Seebeck coefficient with spatial resolution less than 2 μm. The thermal conductivity profile along the depth from the irradiated surface shows excellent agreement with the irradiation-induced damage profile from simulation. The Seebeck coefficient was unaffected while both electrical and thermal conductivities decreased by 24%, resulting in no change in thermoelectric figure of merit ZT. Reductions in thermal and …


Routine Million-Particle Simulations Of Epoxy Curing With Dissipative Particle Dynamics, Stephen Thomas, Monet Alberts, Michael M. Henry, Carla E. Estridge, Eric Jankowski May 2018

Routine Million-Particle Simulations Of Epoxy Curing With Dissipative Particle Dynamics, Stephen Thomas, Monet Alberts, Michael M. Henry, Carla E. Estridge, Eric Jankowski

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Mesoscale simulation techniques have helped to bridge the length scales and time scales needed to predict the microstructures of cured epoxies, but gaps in computational cost and experimental relevance have limited their impact. In this work, we develop an open-source plugin epoxpy for HOOMD-Blue that enables epoxy crosslinking simulations of millions of particles to be routinely performed on a single modern graphics card. We demonstrate the first implementation of custom temperature-time curing profiles with dissipative particle dynamics and show that reaction kinetics depend sensitively on the stochastic bonding rates. We provide guidelines for modeling first-order reaction dynamics in a classic …


Self-Assembly Of (111)-Oriented Tensile-Strained Quantum Dots By Molecular Beam Epitaxy, Christopher F. Schuck, Robin A. Mccown, Ashlie Hush, Austin Mello, Simon Roy, Joseph W. Spinuzzi, Paul J. Simmonds May 2018

Self-Assembly Of (111)-Oriented Tensile-Strained Quantum Dots By Molecular Beam Epitaxy, Christopher F. Schuck, Robin A. Mccown, Ashlie Hush, Austin Mello, Simon Roy, Joseph W. Spinuzzi, Paul J. Simmonds

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The authors report on a comprehensive study of the growth of coherently strained GaAs quantum dots (QDs) on (111) surfaces via the Stranski–Krastanov (SK) self-assembly mechanism. Recent reports indicate that the long-standing challenges, whereby the SK growth mechanism could not be used to synthesize QDs on (111) surfaces, or QDs under tensile strain, have been overcome. However, a systematic study of the SK growth of (111)-oriented, tensile-strained QDs (TSQDs) as a function of molecular beam epitaxy growth parameters is still needed. Here, the authors explore the effects of deposition amount, substrate temperature, growth rate, and V/III flux ratio on the …


Redshirt In Engineering: A Model For Improving Equity And Inclusion, Donna C. Llewellyn, Ann Delaney, Janet Callahan Apr 2018

Redshirt In Engineering: A Model For Improving Equity And Inclusion, Donna C. Llewellyn, Ann Delaney, Janet Callahan

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The NSF-funded Redshirt in Engineering Consortium was formed in 2016 with the goal of enhancing the ability of academically talented but underprepared students coming from low-income backgrounds to successfully graduate with engineering degrees. The Consortium takes its name from the practice of redshirting in college athletics, with the idea of providing an extra year and support to help promising engineering students complete a bachelor’s degree. The Consortium builds on the success of three existing “academic redshirt” programs and expands the model to three new schools. The Existing Redshirt Institutions (ERIs) help mentor and train the new Student Success Partners (SSP), …


Supramolecular Aptamer Nano-Constructs For Receptor-Mediated Targeting And Light-Triggered Release Of Chemotherapeutics Into Cancer Cells, Deepak K. Prusty, Volker Adam, Reza M. Zadegan, Stephan Irsen, Michael Famulok Feb 2018

Supramolecular Aptamer Nano-Constructs For Receptor-Mediated Targeting And Light-Triggered Release Of Chemotherapeutics Into Cancer Cells, Deepak K. Prusty, Volker Adam, Reza M. Zadegan, Stephan Irsen, Michael Famulok

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Platforms for targeted drug-delivery must simultaneously exhibit serum stability, efficient directed cell internalization, and triggered drug release. Here, using lipid-mediated self-assembly of aptamers, we combine multiple structural motifs into a single nanoconstruct that targets hepatocyte growth factor receptor (cMet). The nanocarrier consists of lipidated versions of a cMet-binding aptamer and a separate lipidated GC-rich DNA hairpin motif loaded with intercalated doxorubicin. Multiple 2′,6′-dimethylazobenzene moieties are incorporated into the doxorubicin-binding motif to trigger the release of the chemotherapeutics by photoisomerization. The lipidated DNA scaffolds self-assemble into spherical hybrid-nanoconstructs that specifically bind cMet. The combined features of the nanocarriers increase serum nuclease …


Improving The Relative Calculations Of Volta Potential Differences Acquired From Scanning Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (Skpfm) From Comparing An Inert Material To First-Principle Calculations, C. M. Efaw, T. Da Silva, P. H. Davis, L. Li, E. Graugnard, M. Hurley Jan 2018

Improving The Relative Calculations Of Volta Potential Differences Acquired From Scanning Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (Skpfm) From Comparing An Inert Material To First-Principle Calculations, C. M. Efaw, T. Da Silva, P. H. Davis, L. Li, E. Graugnard, M. Hurley

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

An improved relative scaling of Volta potential differences (VPD) acquired from scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy (SKPFM) was developed by quantifying the probe work function. In corrosion studies, SKPFM has been used to identify local nobility of complex metallic systems and provide theoretical corrosion initiation sites. However, large variability in measured VPD values for metallic phases has led to controversy in their interpretation. Tracking changes of the probe work function has been shown to decrease the variability seen in SKPFM results. To quantify the work function of SKPFM probes, the measured VPD of an inert gold standard was compared to …


Atomic Layer Deposition Of Molybdenum Disulfide Films Using Mof6 And H2S, Steven Letourneau, Elton Graugnard Jan 2018

Atomic Layer Deposition Of Molybdenum Disulfide Films Using Mof6 And H2S, Steven Letourneau, Elton Graugnard

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Molybdenum sulfide films were grown by atomic layer deposition on silicon and fused silica substrates using molybdenum hexafluoride (MoF6) and hydrogen sulfide at 200 °C. In situ quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) measurements confirmed linear growth at 0.46 Å/cycle and self-limiting chemistry for both precursors. Analysis of the QCM step shapes indicated that MoS2 is the reaction product, and this finding is supported by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements showing that Mo is predominantly in the Mo(IV) state. However, Raman spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction measurements failed to identify crystalline MoS2 in the as-deposited films, and this might result …