Intellectual Merit:

1. CAREER: Nanoelectronic and NanophotonicCharacterization of Hybrid Hard and Soft MaterialsMark C. Hersam, Northwestern University, DMR-0134706 Intellectual Merit: Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have been identified as promising materials for many applications including nanoelectronics, biosensing, and optical amplifiers. However, currently available synthetic methods produce SWNTs with a diverse range of structures and electronic properties, thus limiting their widespread use in modern technology. An effective and scalable solution to this polydispersity problem has been developed using the technique of density gradient centrifugation (DGC). DGC exploits subtle differences in buoyant density to sort SWNTs by their structure and electronic properties. The photograph at the right shows a centrifuge tube loaded with SWNTs following the DGC process. The SWNTs have separated into visible bands, whose colors indicate purification by electronic structure. Nature Nanotechnology, October, 2006.

2. Benjamin Levy, undergraduate participant in the Undergraduate Projects in Nanoscale Engineering and Design Program, is using a Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer with the assistance of staff member, Nick Wu. CAREER: Nanoelectronic and NanophotonicCharacterization of Hybrid Hard and Soft MaterialsMark C. Hersam, Northwestern University, DMR-0134706 Broader Impacts: With leveraged funding from the philanthropic Murphy Society, a new program has been developed entitled “Undergraduate Projects in Nanoscale Engineering and Design.” This program is designed to facilitate interdisciplinary undergraduate research projects by providing access and training to the state-of-the-art tools and techniques offered by the Northwestern University Atomic and Nanoscale Character-ization Experimental (NUANCE) User Facility. Over the past three years, 40 undergraduates from 8 different academic departments have conducted innovative nanoscale engineering and design projects under the auspices of this program. In an effort to disseminate the results of these projects, the final student reports are publicly available on the internet at the NUANCE web page.