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George Lisensky (Beloit College) and Karen Nordell Pearson (Hope College)
This workshop was offered in 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2009.
In 1960, Richard Feynman asked the question, “What would happen if we could arrange atoms one by one the way we want them?” Today, the emerging fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology are enabling control of the material world at the scale of atoms and molecules.
Nanotechnology is inherently interdisciplinary and requires new approaches to undergraduate education through interdisciplinary connections between chemistry, physics, biology and materials science. Chemists can play an important part in this collaboration if the barrier of unfamiliar vocabulary is removed.
Silicon chips, gigabyte disk drives, and light emitting diodes - devices that are based on atomically engineered materials - are all around us. These everyday wonders that we depend on would not be possible without the ability to "see" and manipulate materials at the most basic level, the individual atom.
This workshop will focus on a chemical view of materials science and the nanoworld and how to incorporate these topics into the core curriculum. It will include a large number of hands-on activities, connections to commercial high technology materials, and laboratory experiments that do not require specialized equipment. Participants will receive a book, lab directions, and resources for class use.
Day 1: What’s different about the nanoscale?
Topics: Introduction to Nanoscale Materials, Nanoapplications, Electrons in
Solids (Magnetism, Giant Magnetoresistance), Quantum Dots and Metal Nanoparticles
Laboratory Activities: Property changes from a monolayer, Synthesis of gold
nanoparticles, Synthesis of ferrofluid nanoparticles, Synthesis of silver nanoprisms
Day 2: Materials chemistry
Topics: Solid state stoichiometry, Unit cells, Metals, Bands
Laboratory Activities: Structure and properties model building, Thermal conductivity,
Titanium dioxide solar cell, Preparation of OLEDs
Day 3: How can we use the periodic table to tune properties?
Topics: Light Emitting Diodes and applications, Holes and electrons, p-n junctions,
Diffraction
Laboratory Activities: LEDs and periodic properties, PDMS soft lithography, DNA
diffraction
Day 4: How do we know about structure?
Topics: Scanning Probe Microscopy, Piezoelectricity, Liquid Crystals,
Thermolectrics
Laboratory Activities: Synthesis of nickel nanowires, SEM, STM and XRD instrumentation, Synthesis of CdSe quantum
dots, Liquid crystals
Day 5: Defects and Society
Topics and activities: Bubble raft, Dislocations, Amorphous
Metal, Carbon
Nanotubes, Societal Implications, Conclusion
Dates
The workshop schedule runs from dinner at 6:00 pm on Sunday, July 12, through lunch on Friday, July 17, 2009.
Travel by air
The Chicago O'Hare airport (ORD) is 85 miles from Beloit. There is almost hourly airport bus service available for $27 each way. See http://www.coachusa.com/CoachUsaAssets/files/103/madison.pdf for a schedule. If you give us your travel plans we will meet the Van Galder bus in South Beloit, Illinois and take you to campus. Milwaukee (70 miles) and Madison (50 miles) airports are also nearby but no public transportation is available from those locations.
Travel by car
Beloit is located at the border between Wisconsin and Illinois at
the intersection of Interstate 90 and Interstate 43.
Driving Directions
