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Hydrogen-Bonded Liquid Crystal
Caption:
Dyer. Polarizing microscope image by John Bozzola, IMAGE Facility, Southern Illinois University Carbondale. This image involves false color digitization. [Image 1 of 2 related images; see also, Compound Purification.]
More about this Image
Materials chemist Dr. Daniel Dyer was awarded an NSF CAREER (Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program) award, a 5-year grant awarded to promising young scientists who integrate teaching with their research. Dyer, an assistant professor, conducts his research in his lab at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His primary focus is nanotechnology.
Dyer is creating thin films and ultra-thin films from organic polymers (long, chain-like molecules) and liquid crystals, which ultimately would be very useful in commercial devices. Thin films are measured in microns and ultra-thin films can get down to the nanoscale. Dyer is trying to make films that have a special characteristic called ‘polar order.’
The molecules in the materials Dyer work with have dipoles – a negative end and a positive end – that are usually in random order. But in some materials like crystal or liquid crystal, the dipoles have some order, and align along the same axis. In` so-called ‘polar material,’ the dipoles not only align the same way, but their negative ends also point the same direction. Organic polymers and liquid crystals with polar order would offer some striking benefits for silicon technology. For example, it’s much easier to coat a silicon chip with an organic compound than with an inorganic compound. If you could get those organic molecules to orient in the particular direction you wanted, the advantages would be huge.
[This information is taken from Perspectives magazine, published by Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.]
(Preview Only)
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Credit: |
Credit Daniel Dyer and John Bozzola, Southern Illinois University Carbondale |
Decade of Image: |
2000 - 2009 |
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Categories:
CHEMISTRY / General
CAREER Program
Formats Available:
Restrictions:
No additional restrictions--beyond NSF's general restrictions--have been placed on this image. For a list of general restrictions that apply to this and all images in the NSF Image Library, see the section "Conditions".
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