ABSTRACT

Non-technical Summary:

Hampton University is a private Historically Black College and University (HBCU) founded in 1868 with the mission to educate African-Americans who would go out and teach and lead people within their community. The university is a comprehensive institution of higher education, dedicated to the promotion of learning, building of character and preparation of promising students for positions of leadership and service. The Hampton-Brandeis Partnership for Research & Education in Materials (PREM) between Hampton University and Brandeis University Materials Research Science & Engineering Center (MRSEC) includes the strengthening and expansion of collaborative research and education between these two institutions. The overall goal of the Hampton-Brandeis PREM is to increase recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of talented minority students in materials science and engineering related fields. In addition, an important ancillary goal is to increase the research capacity and productivity at Hampton. The PREM will increase the number of African-American and women students in materials science and engineering research careers and markedly expand the supply of scientists and engineers contributing to innovation and discovery to fuel the growth of the American economy. This will be accomplished by: (1) increasing the number of undergraduate and graduate students participating in materials science research activities, (2) implementing the PREM Path-to-Professorship (PtP) Post-doctoral Fellowship Program to prepare a new cohort of early career faculty for HBCUs, (3) developing a sustainable outreach program in materials science and engineering for middle and high school students in the Hampton Roads region and (4) increasing communication of materials science and engineering to audiences across the continuum, from peers to general public, by all Hampton PREM participants. The Hampton-Brandeis PREM's overall goal is to serve as a catalyst for the recruitment and retention of talented students pursuing research careers in materials science and engineering fields.

Technical Summary:

The Hampton-Brandeis PREM research seeks to study the photo-responsive, opto-active, and optoelectric properties of photonic materials for microfluidic and optofluidic applications. The proposed research for Thrust 1 aims to develop a new type of photoswitchable low-molecular-weight-gelators by integrating dipeptide derivatives which are known to be versatile self-assembly motifs, with a novel family of arylazopyrazole based molecular photoswitches possessing metal binding functionality. In Thrust 2, opto-active biomaterials will be designed and their interactions with cells will be studied to assess their capabilities of being extracellular matrix surrogates, through metrics such as degradation, growth factor release and adaptable/tunable mechanical properties. Fluorogenic protease-sensitive peptide (FPSP) sequences will be developed, and subsequently, the critical cross link density of FPSPs in polyurethane casts will be determined to visualize/quantify cellular proteolytic activity in real-time. Thrust 3, which focuses on opto-electronic materials, will investigate mixed halide perovskites and semiconductors. The proposed research on the development of mixed halide perovskites will include purification studies of commercial precursors, solution-based synthesis, solid-state mechano-chemical synthesis, and crystallization from the melt. Doping studies using rare earth and transition metal ions will be performed to explore improved long-term stability as well as extended emission wavelength coverage in the UV-VIS and IR spectral region. In addition, the research will focus on the characterization of silicon, compound semiconductors, and mixed halide perovskite materials for optofluidic applications. The study aims to determine the optical properties (emission, absorption, transparency, etc.), mechanical properties to support microfluidic fabrication processes, and the electrical properties for circuitry and heterogeneous interfacing of materials. Lastly, research will be conducted to explore how the identities (science, racial and gender) of minority materials science undergraduates and their participation in PREM impact their recruitment, retention and achievement in materials science.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

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