Colloquium Natural & Life Sciences - Suzanne Mohney & Viacheslav Slesarenko

Session Topic: Innovative materials to meet technological demands

Topic Viacheslav Slesarenko - From composite materials to metamaterials: where are we going?

An idea of composite material is very straightforward: take two materials with different chemical or physical properties and merge them together to obtain new composite materials with superior stiffness, toughness, or rigidity. Over the last fifty years, composites have become an integral part of our technological progress. However, it would be a big mistake to assume that composite materials appeared only in the last century. Instructions on how to make strong concrete by mixing lime and pozzolana can be traced back to the Roman Republic. Moreover, many natural biological materials are composites by definition, and it is not a surprise that some of the engineering materials are inspired by nature. If we look closely, we can even see a similarity between the very complicated internal structure of wood and the design of the composite wings of modern aircraft!

As a counterpart to nature-inspired composites, a new concept of metamaterials has been gaining popularity in the academic environment. Greek prefix meta hints that we are going beyond naturally occurring materials to achieve unprecedented combinations of properties or new functionalities. One might imagine metamaterials as an extreme case of composites when properties of constituents stop playing an important role, and mechanical behavior is defined mainly by complex internal architecture. But can we really achieve functionalities that were unavailable before? Can we design metamaterials that process information? How is growing interest in metamaterials connected with recent advances in manufacturing techniques, such as 3D printing? And finally, is there any future for metamaterials in engineering applications, or are they just enigmatic toys for academic researchers? In this talk, I will attempt to introduce you to this new world of metamaterials with all their hidden potential and ridiculous surrounding hype.   

Topic Suzanne Mohney - Atom-by-Atom Synthesis of Materials

In this talk I will discuss the power of being able to prepare materials one layer of atoms at a time. I will describe a synthesis technique called atomic layer deposition and point to examples from our laboratory, mostly from the fields of electronics or energy. Then I will point to examples from the literature on a wide range of applications, from strengthening glass to imparting corrosion resistance to biocompatible coatings.