In this award, funded by the Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms Program of the Chemistry Division, Prof. Mark Ediger of the University of Wisconsin - Madison and his graduate research students will explore the dynamics of vapor-deposited glasses and liquids. The recent discovery that highly stable glasses can be prepared by physical vapor deposition has prompted many questions about the mechanism by which these materials are prepared and what their ultimate properties might be. The research will involve advanced characterization tools including nanocalorimetry and, in collaboration with Professor Ranko Richert of Arizona State University, dielectric spectroscopy measurements. The researchers will directly probe mobility at the surface of glasses and use this to understand how stable glasses are formed. They will investigate the extent to which surface mobility can be eliminated by coatings. The researchers will attempt to use dielectric relaxation to quantify the very small amounts of mobility in highly stable glasses.
The glassy state of matter is ubiquitous in nature, and also has a number of useful technological applications, from the fabrication of better structural materials to the development of organic electronics and improved formulations for pharmaceuticals. Besides the broader technological impacts of the research being supported, Prof. Ediger and his student colleagues will continue their involvement in the University of Wisconsin - Madison's PEOPLE Program, providing educational enrichment in the summer for high school juniors from groups under-represented in the sciences.
