CAREER: Synthesis, Characterization, and Application of Gel-Grown, Polymer-Reinforced Single Crystals

技术概述：最近在自然界和实验室中对高分子纤维和其他大分子的宏观单晶的观察引起了材料科学家、化学家和生物学家的极大兴趣。然而，它们形成的机制却知之甚少。本CAREER提案的研究目标是：了解控制聚合物网络和大分子结合到单晶中的基本原理，开发具有详细控制结构和孔隙度的广泛聚合物增强晶体的合成路线，表征这些晶体的内部结构，并建立模型系统的结构-力学性能相关性。为了实现这些目标，PI将开发在凝胶中使用晶体生长来生产离子、分子和共价晶体的聚合物增强单晶。如果成功，这项工作有可能改变我们目前对导致大量聚合物杂质在晶体内结合的机制的理解，而不会破坏它们的单晶性质。这个项目的特别优势在于跨学科的方法，结合了PI？S在晶体生长，有机合成和材料表征方法方面具有专业知识。通过结合所有这些努力，该项目旨在对控制聚合物纤维融入单晶的潜在机制产生基本的理解。反过来，这种理解将允许PI将影响推广到感兴趣的材料（例如，生物活性矿物，无机半导体，药物化合物）。该项目的最终目标是能够为给定的晶体材料设计凝胶系统，并预测获得该材料的单晶所需的生长条件。非技术总结：本项目旨在了解聚合物网络融入宏观单晶的机制。制造各种单晶的能力，包含有机聚合物或孔隙的良好控制分布，将导致一类具有有趣的结构-性能关系的新型复合材料和潜在的应用范围，从结构生物材料到药物的新配方，再到能源产生和储存材料。这一CAREER提案的主要教育目标是制定策略，向学生（K-12，本科生和毕业生）介绍生物和生物启发材料的跨学科领域，特别是为康奈尔大学材料科学与工程系（MSE）招募更多的女学生。该项目将培养本科生和研究生从事未来材料科学方面的研究工作，重点是生物材料。准备工作将包括实验室研究以及两门课程的开发：？材料化学吗?和生物矿化?。生物矿化课程将与拟议的研究相结合，旨在培养工程专业学生在了解天然生物矿物（如骨骼、牙齿、贝壳）的结构和形成的基础上，设计新的生物材料所需的基础知识。为了影响康奈尔大学MSE的女性招聘和保留，PI将促进一名新的女性？（Women in Materials Science and Engineering，简称WIMSE）。该小组的目标是在MSE部门的女性中建立一个支持性社区，向女学生介绍工业界和学术界的榜样，并在未来五年内增加康奈尔大学MSE专业的女性本科生人数。

TECHNICAL SUMMARY:Recent observations, both in Nature and in the laboratory, of macroscopic, single crystals with incorporated polymer fibers and other macromolecules have generated immense interest amongst materials scientists, chemists, and biologists. The mechanisms by which they form, however, are poorly understood. The research goals of this CAREER proposal are: to understand the fundamental principles that govern the incorporation of polymer networks and macromolecules into single crystals, to develop synthetic routes to a wide range of polymer-reinforced crystals with detailed control over structure and porosity, to characterize the internal structure of these crystals, and to establish structure-mechanical property correlations for model systems. To accomplish these goals, the PI will develop the use of crystal growth in gels to produce polymer-reinforced single crystals of ionic, molecular, and covalent crystals. When successful, this work has the potential to transform our current understanding of the mechanisms that lead to the incorporation of large amounts of polymeric impurities within crystals, without disrupting their single crystal nature. The particular strength of this program lies in the interdisciplinary approach that combines the PI?s demonstrated expertise in crystal growth, organic synthesis, and materials characterization methods. By combining all of these efforts, the project aims to generate a fundamental understanding of the underlying mechanisms governing polymer fiber incorporation into single crystals. This understanding, in turn, will allow the PI to generalize the effects to materials of interest (e.g., bioactive minerals, inorganic semiconductors, pharmaceutical compounds). The ultimate goals of the project are to be able to design a gel system for a given crystalline material and to predict the growth conditions required to obtain single crystals of that material with incorporated networks. NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:This project aims to understand the mechanisms by which polymer networks become incorporated into macroscopic, single crystals. The ability to make a variety of single crystals that contain well-controlled distributions of organic polymers or pores, will lead to a new class of composite materials with interesting structure-property relationships and potential applications ranging from structural biomaterials to new formulations of pharmaceutical drugs to materials for energy generation and storage. The primary educational objectives of this CAREER proposal are to develop strategies for introducing students (K-12, undergraduates, and graduates) to the interdisciplinary fields of biological and bio-inspired materials, and in particular, to recruit more female students to the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) department at Cornell University. The PI will train undergraduate and graduate students for future research jobs in materials science, with a focus on biomaterials. This preparation will include laboratory research as well as the development of two courses: ?Materials Chemistry? and ?Biomineralization?. The course on biomineralization will be integrated with the proposed research and is designed to train engineering students in the fundamentals necessary to design new biomaterials, based upon an understanding of the structure and formation of the natural biominerals (e.g., bone, teeth, shells). To impact recruitment and retention of women in MSE at Cornell, the PI will facilitate a new women?s group (Women in Materials Science and Engineering or WIMSE). The goals of this group are to foster a supportive community amongst women in the MSE department, to introduce female students to role models in industry and academia, and to increase the number of female undergraduate majors in MSE at Cornell over the next five years.