Center for Complex and Active Materials MRSEC

What an impressive accomplishment! Congratulations, Héctor Pascual Herrero and Shrivatsav Shankar!

PhD student and CCAM researcher,?Héctor Pascual Herrero, received?an ACCESS Explore Grant (NNT240008), securing an allocation of 400,000 ACCESS units to utilize supercomputing resources, including Stampede3. We are so proud of Héctor's impressive achievement!

??Apply Now! MSE@UCI is seeking to?#recruit?Postdoctoral Scholars Qualified Candidates with experience in: ?Advanced and Additive Manufacturing ?Advanced Materials Characterization ?Biomaterials, Bioinspired and Self-Assembled Materials ?Energy Materials and Sustainability ?Materials for Structural Applications and Extreme Environments ?Modeling, Theory and Computational Approaches to Materials Science and Engineering ?Nanoscale and Functional Materials Apply via this link: https://lnkd.in/geEFTEpq #mseatuci?#uci?#ucirvine?#engineering?#uciengineering?#materialscience?#materialsscienceandengineering?#research?#researcher?#advancedmanufacturing?#additivemanufacturing?#materialscharacterization?#biomaterials?#bioinspired?#energymaterials?#sustainability?#extremeenvironments?#modelingtheory?#computationalapproach?#materialsscienceandengineering?#nanoscale?#functionalmaterials

Multi-Objective Design of DNA-Stabilized Nanoclusters findings published in ACS Publications. DNA-stabilized silver #nanoclusters (AgN-DNAs) exhibit sequence-dependent compositions and fluorescence colors. Recently, high-throughput experiments combined with supervised machine learning have enabled the design of #DNA templates that tune AgN-DNA properties, including near-infrared (NIR) emission, which shows promise for deep tissue bioimaging. Led by?Prof. Stacy Copp,?the IRG2 team and collaborators developed a multiobjective, continuous-property design model for AgN-DNAs using variational autoencoders (VAEs) with automatic feature extraction. This generative model learns both the forward mapping from DNA sequence to AgN-DNA properties and the inverse mapping from properties to sequence. It was trained on experimental data linking DNA sequences to AgN-DNA fluorescence characteristics. Experimental validation demonstrated the model’s ability to design AgN-DNAs with enhanced emission, including bright NIR-emitting AgN-DNAs, which were produced with four times greater abundance than those in the training set. This generative approach can be extended to a variety of biomolecular systems with sequence-dependent properties, facilitating precise design of emerging nanomaterials. The theoretical work was led by MRSEC junior research fellow?Peter Mastracco, who recently earned his Ph.D., in collaboration with?Petko Bogdanov’s experimental group at the University at Albany-SUNY.

Helical motifs, while common in nature, are rare in dense inorganic crystals. In a project led by?Prof. Maxx Arguilla?(Chemistry) in collaboration with?Prof. Elizabeth Lee?(MSE), the seed team recently discovered an atomically precise one-dimensional van der Waals (vdW) crystal that exhibits a distinctive helical motif. The study reports the synthesis of GaSI crystals, which form weakly bound chains with an unusual tetrahelical structure. Unlike the circular cross-sections typical of helical structures, GaSI crystals feature a squircular cross-section and packing, resulting in a non-centrosymmetric and piezoelectric space group. This structure enabled the team to experimentally demonstrate pronounced second harmonic generation in the visible range from bulk single crystals. The experimental and computational work was primarily driven by MRSEC junior research fellows (JRFs)?Kaitlyn Dold?and?Dmitri Cordova. Their work was recently published in the?Journal of American Chemical Society. https://lnkd.in/gNtgY3JV

Research by CCAM researcher,?Prof. Maxx Arguilla?and the rest of his research team was recently published in?Nature Materials. Helicity in solids often arises from the precise ordering of cooperative intra- and intermolecular interactions unique to natural, organic or molecular systems. In the past, this exclusivity has limited the realization of helicity and its ensuing properties in dense inorganic solids. In this recently published work, researchers report that Ga atoms in GaSeI, a representative III–VI–VII one-dimensional (1D) van der Waals crystal, manifest the rare Boerdijk–Coxeter helix motif. This motif is a non-repeating geometric pattern characterized by 1D face-sharing tetrahedra whose adjacent vertices are rotated by an irrational angle. Using InSeI and GaSeI, they show that the modularity of 1D van der Waals lattices accommodates the systematic twisting of a periodic tetrahelix with a 41?screw axis in InSeI to an infinitely extending Boerdijk–Coxeter helix in GaSeI. GaSeI crystals are non-centrosymmetric, optically active and exfoliable to a single chain. These results present a new materials platform towards understanding the origin and physical manifestation of quasi-periodicity and helicity in low-dimensional solids, enabling potential applications in chiroptics, spin-tronics, and emergent chiral-induced phenomena. https://lnkd.in/g2cREdsW

We are pleased to share that Assistant?Prof. Seunghyun Sim?received the 2024-2025 Early-Career Faculty Award for Research from UC Irvine's academic senate. Her?research focuses on developing living #biomaterials by integrating synthetic #biology (#genetic engineering) with synthetic soft materials (#molecular #engineering). In recent years, numerous genetically encoded biological modalities—useful for therapeutics, imaging, sensing, and communication across various scales—have been discovered and engineered in molecular and synthetic biology. Seu's work seeks to harness these modalities, driven by living cells, to create a new class of biomaterials with 3D complexity and unprecedented functionality. Congratulations, Seu! https://lnkd.in/gJ42TerY

This is wonderful and well deserved! Congratulations, Stacy Copp!

Our research on Grain Rotation Mechanisms in Nanocrystalline Materials has been accepted for publication in "Science". IRG1 faculty members?Prof. Xiaoqing Pan?and?Prof. Horst Hahn?have uncovered key insights into grain rotation mechanisms in nanocrystalline materials using advanced four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM). Their research provides the first direct evidence of how shear-coupled grain boundary dynamics drive grain growth and rotation during processes like recrystallization and annealing. These findings open new avenues for advanced grain boundary engineering and enhanced design of nanocrystalline materials, while also establishing a foundational framework for studying and developing complex concentrated materials, such as high-entropy alloys. https://lnkd.in/diXW-rUe

On September 10, 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the selection of 91 early-career scientists from across the country who will receive a combined $138 million in funding for research covering a wide range of topics. We are delighted to share that MRSEC's?Stacy Copp?is among this select group. Stacy, who is is part of IRG-2 and the Industry Co-Lead for CCAM, won the award for her work in Broad-Spectrum Light-Harvesting and Energy Transfer in Bioinspired Nanocluster Assemblies. Her project advances the fundamental #solar photochemistry of few-atom metal #nanoclusters, which are promising for artificial light-harvesting systems that mimic natural #photosynthesis.