MRS Fall 2009: Thursday morning
Well, Networkers, I'm annoyed with myself. I had been looking forward to Robert Hamers' talk this morning in Symposium SS on his (photochemical) grafting work (he's got his materials going on just about everything, including diamond). Clearly, I'm wearing out a bit as the week comes to a close. Either that, or too much sake last night at Koreana.
One word I've been hearing more and more lately is "nanodiamond". (Is this the leading edge of the next trend, or have I been living in a cave outside the nanoworld?) Nanodiamond produced during explosion of TNT+RDX. The other place they show up is in meteorite impacts. The speaker from Northwestern for SS9.3 ("Platform approach to gene delivery via surface-modified nanodiamonds"), Dr Xueqing Zhang, was one of them.
The two subsequent speakers also were using nanodiamond in biological applications (it is the Biosurfaces & Biointerfaces symposium!): "Para-xylylene-encapsulation of ultrananocrystalline diamond-based microchip platforms for controlled ulti-therapeutic delivery" (Erik Robinson, Northwestern) and "Modified nanodiamonds for specified adsorption of fluorescent dyes and toxins" (Natalie Gibson, NCSU).
After the morning coffee break we had a few talks in the biomimetic/bioinspired category (SS9.9 didn't show). Alexander Epstein (SS9.7) from the Aizenberg lab at Harvard talked about biomimetic nanostructured surfaces: they are trying to replicate biological functional structures like superhydrophobicity, sensing, etc. such as the neuromast sensors fish use for navigation. They've adapted soft lithography to get closer to the ideal orientation, aspect ratio and mechanical properties (including the relationship between their artificial neuromasts and the substrate). James Harden and his group from Ottawa (SS9.8) are building up and studying amphiphilic block copolymer, modular artificial proteins; here he considered hybrid beta sheet structures. Finally, Sungwook Chung (LBNL and UIUC) talked about "A bio-inspired approach to tip-based nanofabrication at peptide-derivatized templates". They are working to combine dip-pen nanolithography (including thermal control) with bio-mediated synthesis (think coccoliths and diatoms). Right now they're doing nanometre-scale patterning of peptides.
And that, Networkers, marks the end of my Fall MRS contribution to the JMS blog. Safe travels.
One word I've been hearing more and more lately is "nanodiamond". (Is this the leading edge of the next trend, or have I been living in a cave outside the nanoworld?) Nanodiamond produced during explosion of TNT+RDX. The other place they show up is in meteorite impacts. The speaker from Northwestern for SS9.3 ("Platform approach to gene delivery via surface-modified nanodiamonds"), Dr Xueqing Zhang, was one of them.
The two subsequent speakers also were using nanodiamond in biological applications (it is the Biosurfaces & Biointerfaces symposium!): "Para-xylylene-encapsulation of ultrananocrystalline diamond-based microchip platforms for controlled ulti-therapeutic delivery" (Erik Robinson, Northwestern) and "Modified nanodiamonds for specified adsorption of fluorescent dyes and toxins" (Natalie Gibson, NCSU).
After the morning coffee break we had a few talks in the biomimetic/bioinspired category (SS9.9 didn't show). Alexander Epstein (SS9.7) from the Aizenberg lab at Harvard talked about biomimetic nanostructured surfaces: they are trying to replicate biological functional structures like superhydrophobicity, sensing, etc. such as the neuromast sensors fish use for navigation. They've adapted soft lithography to get closer to the ideal orientation, aspect ratio and mechanical properties (including the relationship between their artificial neuromasts and the substrate). James Harden and his group from Ottawa (SS9.8) are building up and studying amphiphilic block copolymer, modular artificial proteins; here he considered hybrid beta sheet structures. Finally, Sungwook Chung (LBNL and UIUC) talked about "A bio-inspired approach to tip-based nanofabrication at peptide-derivatized templates". They are working to combine dip-pen nanolithography (including thermal control) with bio-mediated synthesis (think coccoliths and diatoms). Right now they're doing nanometre-scale patterning of peptides.
And that, Networkers, marks the end of my Fall MRS contribution to the JMS blog. Safe travels.
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