Author: Verónica Savignano
SBPMat newsletter – first issue
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CAPES’s Materials Area Anniversary. Part 1.
At the end of January, 2014, the Brazilian community of Materials research celebrates an anniversary: the Materials Area of CAPES reaches its sixth year of existence. CAPES is the government agency linked to the Brazilian Ministry of Education in charge of promoting high standards for post-graduate courses in Brazil.
In fact, it was on January 30th, 2008, that CAPES’s published a press release announcing the introduction of changes to its table of areas. Such table lists the areas of knowledge and it is used in the evaluations of the post-graduation programs in Brazil. The changes disclosed in such note included the insertion of the Materials Area, which up until then did not exist, and which from then on would be a part of the Multi-disciplinary greater area, which had been recently created.
One day prior to such disclosure, an official letter from CAPES’s Evaluation Office had been sent to all coordinators of post-graduation programs previously identified as possibly being grouped into the new area. The official letter informed that a recent meeting of CAPES’s Superior Board had approved the creation of the new Materials area of evaluation, and also that physicist Lívio Amaral, a professor from the UFRGS (Federal University of the State of Rio Grande do Sul) had been appointed as the pro-tempore coordinator. In addition, the official letter asked the coordinators who deemed it to be in the interest of their programs to become connected to the new area of evaluation, to inform CAPES of their decision.
Background
In September, 2012, professor Amaral had taken part in a meeting at the headquarters of CNPq (Brazilian Council for the Scientific and Technological Development) called by Professor Celso de Melo, who was a director in the council. The theme of the meeting was the Materials Science and Engineering area, and the Advisory Boards of such body. The other participants of the meeting were the professors Glória de Almeida Soares (from COPPE-UFRJ), Elson Longo (from UFSCar) and João Marcos Alcoforado Rebello (from COPPE-UFRJ).
A document signed by the participants of the meeting pointed some problems with the evaluation of research projects in the Materials Area. To sum it up, due to the fact that there was no Advisory Board for the Materials Area at that time, the projects and other requests pertaining to Materials Science or Engineering were often appraised with debatable parameters or sent from area to area until someone was found who could evaluate them, a situation which significantly increased the number of appeals received by the CNPq and the time to reply to the requesting researcher. To solve such issue, the document proposed initially the creation of a committee with representatives from the several areas of knowledge involving Materials and also that the scientific societies with any relation to Materials were to be called to the debate, to find a solution fully backed by the technical and scientific community.
“This matter of the inclusion of a Materials area in the government fostering agencies had been considered since the mid-90s”, Lívio Amaral states. “That occurred within the context of creation of a Brazilian Materials society, having the MRS as a reference, which ended up occurring in the early 00s. At the time, there was a lot of debate in several situations, such as in the Brazilian Meetings on Condensed Matter Physics of the Brazilian Physics Society”, he adds.
In parallel, professor Amaral had been following-up on that matter within CAPES, where he was the coordinator of the Physics and Astronomy Area. According to Amaral, by means of evaluations conducted every three years, it was possible to verify that several post-graduation programs, regardless of the names they had and by which of CAPES’s areas they were encompassed, were awarding master and doctorate degrees with intellectual production in Materials. “Since, in addition to being department coordinator, I also took part in CAPES’s Technical and Scientific Council, I had the opportunity to take that entire matter to debate in such Council”, the professor comments.
At that time, Jorge Almeida Guimarães, who would become CAPES’s president in 2004, was the coordinator of the Biological Sciences II Area and, like professor Amaral, took part in the Technical and Scientific Council and was a professor in the UFRGS. “We discussed at length the need to create two new areas, the Materials and Biotechnology areas”, Lívio Amaral tells us.
In addition, Amaral recalls that another favorable coincidence then occurred. CAPES’s president at the time was Professor Abílio Afonso Baeta Neves, who had previously been the dean of post-graduation in UFRGS when the program of post-graduation in Materials Science had been submitted to the university, by initiative from professors of the Physics department, Amaral included, and of the Engineering and the Chemistry departments. “In summary, in that scenario, the discussion regarding new areas, inside and outside the Technical and Scientific Council, was very frequent due to such circumstances”, professor Amaral sums it up.
Meeting of CAPES’s Technical and Scientific Council, at the time of professor Abílio Baeta Neves’s presidency. At the table, the third one from the right is the president; the sixth, the one speaking, is professor Jorge Guimarães; the seventh is profesor Lívio Amaral. (Picture provided by Lívio Amaral)
The decision for the creation
According to Amaral, in July, 2007, CAPES held a meeting in Brasília, to consider the possible creation of a new area of knowledge, to be called “Materials”. Representatives from several post-graduation programs were invited, including professor Lívio, who was at the time the coordinator of UFRGS’s program.
The official letter-invitation sent by CAPES’s Evaluation Office contained: “The agency has been granted to such area the importance it deserves, considering the relevance of the creation of new materials for the current science and technology. CAPES’s Superior Council, in addition, has already authorized this Office to create the area at hand. For such decision, the meeting to be held in July 31st shall be decisive, for it will allow us to conclude if such innovative measure is in the interests of the programs – and of the Brazilian science and technologies. The new area would encompass all programs that – currently divided into different areas of knowledge – highlight this theme, which is a priority for the Country and for applied sciences”.
“The meeting was, therefore, conclusive for the creation of the new area and designed the initial milestones for the same”, Amaral states. Thus, on January 25th, 2008, CAPES’s Ordinance No. 09 was published, which ordinance, in its article 3, created two new areas of knowledge, “Materials” and “Biotechnology”, and designated their pro tempore coordinators.
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List of post-graduation programs that adhered to the Materials area (as of March, 2008).
1. Program of Post-Graduation in Materials – UNIVERSIDADE DE CAXIAS DO SUL
2. Program of Post-Graduation in Materials Science – UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL
3. Program of Post-Graduation in Materials Engineering and Science – UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO CEARÁ
4. Program of Post-Graduation in Materials Science – UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE PERNANBUCO
5. Program of Post-Graduation in Materials Science and Technology – UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL PAULISTA “JÚLIO DE MESQUITA FILHO” – UNESP-BAURÚ
6. Program of Post-Graduation in Materials Engineering – UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO – ESCOLA DE ENGENHARIA DE LORENA
7. Program of Post-Graduation in Materials Engineering and Science – UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO GRANDE DO NORTE
8. Program of Post-Graduation in Materials Engineering and Science – UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO – SÃO CARLOS
9. Program of Post-Graduation in Materials Science and Technology – UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL PAULISTA “JÚLIO DE MESQUITA FILHO” – UNESP- CAMPUS DE ILHA SOLTEIRA
10. Program of Post-Graduation in Materials Engineering and Science – UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA.
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Featured paper: Changing the properties and morphology of graphene nanoribbons with nitrogen.
The scientific paper by members of the Brazilian community in Materials research featured this month is:
Josue Ortiz-Medina, M. Luisa García-Betancourt, Xiaoting Jia, Rafael Martínez-Gordillo, Miguel A. Pelagio-Flores, David Swanson, Ana Laura Elías, Humberto R. Gutiérrez, Eduardo Gracia-Espino, Vincent Meunier, Jonathan Owens, Bobby G. Sumpter, Eduardo Cruz-Silva, Fernando J. Rodríguez-Macías, Florentino López-Urías, Emilio Muñoz-Sandoval, Mildred S. Dresselhaus, Humberto Terrones, Mauricio Terrones. Nitrogen-Doped Graphitic Nanoribbons: Synthesis, Characterization and Transport. Advanced Functional Materials 2013, 23, 3755-3762. DOI 10.1002/adfm.201202947.
Changing the properties and morphology of graphene nanoribbons with nitrogen
Multiple layers of graphene with the shape of ribbons (narrow and long) are called graphitic nanoribbons. These materials have been studied to control their properties by various methods, such as doping, in which are introduced atoms of “foreign” elements in the graphene carbon lattice.
In a study led by scientists at Pennsylvania State University with the participation of researchers from institutions in the United States, Mexico, Spain and Brazil, nitrogen-doped graphitic nanoribbons were manufactured by the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method and showed new features, linked with the introduction of nitrogen, such as highest semiconductor performance, promising for applications in electronic devices, chemical reactivity and a very particular morphology on its edges. The research was published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.
“This article showed by the first time that it is possible to make doping with nitrogen on the same synthesis by CVD of graphite nanoribbons, and that you can control the level of doping during synthesis,” highlights Fernando Rodríguez-Macías, foreign visiting professor at the Brazilian Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) and one of the authors of the scientific paper. A Mexican national, Rodríguez-Macías came to UFPE in 2012, during his sabbatical year to work as a foreign visiting professor in the Department of Fundamental Chemistry and in the Graduate Program in Materials Science of the University. “I have prolonged my stay for another year to continue until 2014 doing collaborative studies for the production of carbon nanostructures, of bionanotechnology and toxicity of nanomaterials,” says the professor. “I am also teaching preparation and characterization of materials,” he adds.
The doped nanoribbons
The article’s authors showed that different concentrations of nitrogen generate controlled changes in material behavior. In particular, scientists have proven that the more nitrogen introduced into the structure of graphene, the most predominant the semiconductor behavior of nanoribbons. As an explanation to this phenomenon, the researchers suggested, based on theoretical calculations, that nitrogen atoms of doped nanoribbons act as scattering centers of electrons and decrease the conductive behavior of undoped graphene. “The control of doping level allows you to change the electrical properties of the nanoribbons, which can be useful for applications in transistors and other electronic devices,” says Rodríguez-Macías.
In addition, the paper also shows that the reactivity of nanoribbons can change with the doping level. Pure graphene, explains UFPE’s visiting professor, is very inert and has limited interactions with many chemical substances; on the other hand, nanoribbons doped with nitrogen are more reactive, which makes them useful for applications in sensors and catalysis.
As to the morphology, the article’s authors found that the nitrogen-doped nanoribbons have loops on their edges, uniting different graphene sheets. “This morphology is not presented by undoped graphite nanoribbons,” says Rodríguez-Macías.
This figure, sent by Professor Fernando Rodríguez-Macías, shows the nitrogen-doped graphitic nanoribbons in three scales. The scanning electron microscopy (top left corner) shows how these ribbons are made up of several layers and feature a curved surface with roughness. The transmission electronic microscopy (bottom left corner) shows that the nanoribbon layers are graphene sheets. The high resolution transmission electronic microscopy (right) shows that the layers of graphene on the nanoribbons edges form loops uniting different graphene sheets.
Collaborators
Almost all work of materials synthesis of the paper of Advanced Functional Materials was developed at Pennsylvania State University; the characterization was done in collaboration with other researchers and laboratories, reports UFPE’s visiting professor.
The participation of UFPE in the article happened through the doctoral student Miguel Angel Pelagio-Flores in the analysis and theoretical modeling of doped nanoribbons, and through professor Fernández-Macías himself, who, in addition to having participated in the discussion of results and review of the article from his office at UFPE, was doctoral advisor of the first author of the article, Josué Ortiz-Medina, while professor of a Mexican institution, IPICYT. “Ortiz-Medina did most of the experimental work of the article, besides being an important part of the characterization and theoretical studies of these new nanomaterials, when he was in exchange at Penn State in the laboratory of professor Terrones,” contextualizes the professor.
In total, 19 authors sign the article, among them MIT’s Professor Mildred Dresselhaus, reference in carbon science.
XIII SBPMat Meeting Symposia.
A: Functional hybrid interfaces: from characterization to applications. Main organizer: Welchy Leite
Cavalcanti (IFAM/Germany).
B: Advances in Functional Polymers. Main organizer: Ricardo Vinicius Bof de Oliveira (UFRGS/Brazil).
C: Magnetic Materials. Main organizer: Marcos Flavio de Campos (UFF/Brazil).
D: Organic Electronics and hybrids: materials and devices. Main organizer: Rodrigo F. Bianchi (UFOP/Brazil).
E: Sol-Gel Materials: From Fundamentals to Advanced Applications. Main organizer: Andrea S. de Camargo (USP São Carlos/Brazil).
F: Research Frontiers of Computer Simulations in Materials Science: Developments and Applications. Main organizer: Juarez L. F. Da
Silva (USP São Carlos/Brazil).
G: Anti-fouling Materials and Coatings. Main organizer: Alexander Hiroshi Kasama (PETROBRÁS/Brazil).
H: Luminescent Materials. Main organizer: Hermi F. Brito (USP/Brazil).
I: Beyond Graphene: Low-dimensional systems based on graphene and III-Nitrides. Main organizer: Caio M.C. de Castilho (UFBA/Brazil).
J: IX Brazilian Electroceramics Symposium. Main organizer: Daniel Zanetti (UFABC/Brazil).
K: Structure-Properties Relationship of Advanced Metallic Materials. Main organizer: Leonardo Barbosa Godefroid (UFOP/Brazil).
L: Current Research in Energy Storage Systems. Main organizer: Alexandre Urbano (UEL/Brazil).
M: Nanomaterials for Nanomedicine. Main organizer: Carlos Jacinto da Silva (UFAL/Brazil).
N: Surface Engineering: functional coatings and modified surfaces. Main organizer: Carlos Alejandro Figueroa (UCS/Brazil).
O: Multifunctional materials derived from clay minerals. Main organizer: Maria Gardênnia da Fonseca (UFPB/Brazil).
P: Advanced Carbon Nanostructures and Composites. Main organizer: Ana Flávia Nogueira (UNICAMP/Brazil).
Q: International Symposium on Cementitious Materials. Main organizer: Sandro Torres (UFPB/Brazil).
R: Innovation and Technology Transfer Symposium. Main organizer: Roberto Faria (USP São Carlos/Brazil).
S: Ceramic and metallic materials obtained by wet-chemical methods. Main organizer: Mary Alves (UEPB/Brazil).
Boletim SBPMat – edição 16 – dezembro 2013.
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Master in Materials Science exploring Large Scale Facilities (Mamaself)
- a 2 year Master course in Materials science
- scholarships available for both European students and Non-European students
- an international Master in the framework of the Erasmus Mundus programme
Master in Materials Science Exploring Large Scale Facilities (Mamaself).
Mamaself is a 2 year full time Master proposing a high level course in Material Science, Physics, Chemistry with strong relation to the Large Scale Facilities.
This Master is the result of the collaboration between five Universities: University Rennes 1, (France, coordinating institution of the program), University of Torino, (Italy), Technical University (TUM) and the Ludwig Maximilian University München (Germany) and The University of Montpellier 2 (France).
Mamaself is an international Master proposing courses at these 5 universities in very interesting cities in Europe : this is a great opportunity for students to combine study and discovering Europe. All lectures are given in English, and the atmosphere is really international : a Mamaself class is composed with 2/3 Non-European students and 1/3 European students. The students especially appreciate the structure of the program with 3 key events : integration week at the beginning of the program, two-week Summerschool and Mamaself status meeting organised at the top of a mountain in Switzerland (see website for details).
Mobilities
The student will receive at least 2 Master degree, corresponding to his/her two places of study during the program : each student will spend one year in a first hosting institution, the first semester of the second Master year at another university. The last semester is dedicated to the Master thesis and can be spent at a university or at Large scale Faclities or at a partner institution in USA, Japan, Switzerland, Brazil, India and Russia at our partner institutions.
Grants for Non-European students
For each academic year the consortium of universities selects Non-European students who will receive a grant. The grant for Non-European students is 22.000 euros per year. Deadline for application: 28.01.2014. Non-EU students who already spent a time in Europe can applicate in the cat B fellowship, deadline 28.1.2014.
Grants for European students
In the framework of the Erasmus Mundus programme, European students can apply for an EM fellowship of 9.000€ per year. European students can receive 3000€ complementary grant for a mobilty at one of the non EU partner institutions in Japan, Switzerland, India, USA, Russia, Brazil. Deadline for application is 28.01.2014
Admission
Students must have 180 ECTS (Bacheor or equivalent) in Material Science or related disciplines (Chemistry, Physics, Geoscience,…), good academic records and good English competencies. The application must be done online on: http://application.mamaself.eu. The deadline for submission is: 26 January 2014, the deadline for students who apply without EM grant is: 18 Mai 2014.
Instruction language is English for lectures and for all communication.
Further information about the study programme, the universities of the consortium, the admission process can be found on www.mamaself.eu.
For any other question, please contact christiane.cloarec@univ-rennes1.fr.
Vaga para pós-doutorado em materiais multifuncionais com porosidade hierárquica.
O grupo de Físico-Química de Materiais (GFQM) do Instituto de Química da UNESP, campus de Araraquara, está com inscrições abertas para seleção de candidatos interessados em realizar pós-doutorado (PDJ) no âmbito do programa Ciência sem Fronteiras. A bolsa com vigência entre 01/2014 a 01/2015, prorrogável por mais 1 ano, destina-se ao desenvolvimento do projeto intitulado “Materiais multifuncionais com porosidade hierárquica: avaliação in operando a partir do monitoramento simultâneo com diferentes técnicas espectroscópicas”, sob coordenação da Prof. Dr. Sandra Helena Pulcinelli. O valor mensal da bolsa será de R$ 4.100,00 (quatro mil e cem reais).
Requisitos para a vaga
Os candidatos deverão ter formação em Química, Física, Engenharia Química ou Engenharia de Materiais, com experiência em química de materiais e/ou catálise heterogênea. Os candidatos devem possuir também experiência comprovada em técnicas de caracterização de materiais que utilizam luz sincrotron, em especial a absorção de raios X (XAS).
Os candidatos interessados deverão encaminhar cópia (formato PDF) do currículo vitae (CV-Lattes) e uma carta de intenções especificando as razões de seu interesse e um sumário de suas habilidades até o dia 15/01/2014 para o e-mail sandrap@iq.unesp.br. As atividades devem iniciar-se antes de fevereiro de 2014.
Artigo em destaque: Pontos quânticos desenvolvidos para LEDs mais eficientes.
O artigo científico de membros da comunidade brasileira de pesquisa em Materiais em destaque neste mês é:
Wan Ki Bae, Young-Shin Park, Jaehoon Lim, Donggu Lee, Lazaro A. Padilha, Hunter McDaniel, Istvan Robel, Changhee Lee, Jeffrey M. Pietryga & Victor I. Klimov. Controlling the influence of Auger recombination on the performance of quantum-dot light-emitting diodes. Nature Communications 4, article number 2661, published 25 October 2013. doi:10.1038/ncomms3661.
Texto de divulgação:
Pontos quânticos desenvolvidos para LEDs mais eficientes
Um trabalho de pesquisa publicado no mês de outubro na Nature Communications, revista científica de conteúdo aberto do grupo Nature, resultou num material que aumenta dezenas de vezes a eficiência de LEDs de pontos quânticos ao diminuir a influência do efeito Auger, um dos principais limitadores da eficiência desses dispositivos que apresentam grande potencial para serem usados em iluminação, entre outras aplicações. O trabalho foi realizado no Grupo de Nanotecnologia e Espectroscopia Avançada do Laboratório Nacional de Los Alamos, localizado no sul dos Estados Unidos, com a participação de um doutor brasileiro, Lázaro Padilha, e com a colaboração de grupos da Coreia.
“O resultado veio depois de mais de um ano de pesquisa sobre como efetivamente minimizar o efeito Auger em pontos quânticos”, relata Padilha, atualmente professor do Instituto de Física da Unicamp, que chegou a Los Alamos em 2010 para fazer um estágio de pós-doutorado. O trabalho que gerou o paper na Nature Communications, além de outros artigos em periódicos de alto fator de impacto como Nano Letters e ACS Nano, começou no final de 2011 e, na sua primeira etapa, visou entender o processo físico para minimizar a influência do chamado “efeito Auger” ou “recombinação Auger” nos pontos quânticos.
Os pontos quânticos, cristais semicondutores de alguns nanometros de tamanho, apresentam propriedades que possibilitam a emissão de luz com brilho intenso e cores puras e podem ser fabricados usando técnicas simples e de baixo custo. Por esses motivos, essas nanopartículas são materiais interessantes para a fabricação de LEDs. Desde a primeira demonstração de LEDs de pontos quânticos, ocorrida em 1994 (Nature 370, 354 – 357, 04 August 1994; doi:10.1038/370354a0), esses dispositivos têm sido objeto de pesquisas visando otimizar sua capacidade de converter eletricidade em luz.
Nos LEDs, a emissão de luz se produz quando, ao se introduzir energia no dispositivo por meio de corrente elétrica, ocorrem recombinações nos átomos do material emissor. Especificamente, elétrons próximos ao núcleo do átomo saem de seu lugar deixando vagas, as quais são preenchidas por elétrons mais distantes, dotados de mais energia. A energia excedente pode sair em forma de fóton, ocorrendo a desejada emissão de luz, ou pode ser transmitida a um terceiro elétron, que será ejetado do átomo. Esta segunda possibilidade constitui o efeito Auger, que pode ser visto como um concorrente da emissão de luz no uso da energia.
Nanoengenharia dos pontos quânticos
Depois de compreender como minimizar a recombinação Auger nos pontos quânticos do ponto de vista físico e constatar que impacta significativamente na eficiência dos LEDs, o grupo de Los Alamos se propôs a desenvolver o material que teria o melhor desempenho frente a esse efeito. “Eu trabalhei nos estudos de espectroscopia para entender os processos físicos que levariam a um melhor desempenho dos materiais como base para LEDs”, diz Lázaro Padilha.
O desenvolvimento do material foi feito a partir de pontos quânticos compostos por um núcleo de seleneto de cádmio (CdSe) e uma casca de sulfeto de cádmio (CdS). Para conseguir a redução da influência do efeito Auger, os cientistas aplicaram duas estratégias de nanoengenharia: a variação da espessura da casca e a introdução de uma camada composta por uma liga de zinco, cádmio e enxofre (ZnCdS) entre o núcleo e a casca.
Após concluir, em Los Alamos, o desenvolvimento do material base, os colaboradores da Coreia do construíram LEDs com uma arquitetura na qual a camada emissora, formada pelos pontos quânticos, ficou inserida entre as camadas de transporte de cargas negativas e positivas, sendo uma inorgânica e a outra orgânica, respectivamente, como mostra a figura a seguir, extraída do artigo da Nature Communications:
“Uma vez encontrado o material que teria o melhor efeito, foram fabricados os LEDs e pudemos confirmar os resultados esperados”, conta Padilha. A confirmação ocorreu através de uma série de medidas espectroscópicas dos pontos quânticos dentro dos dispositivos.
De acordo com Padilha, com os novos materiais desenvolvidos, os cientistas conseguiram obter LEDs de pontos quânticos até 10 vezes mais eficientes, com uma taxa de conversão de energia elétrica em energia luminosa da ordem de 8%.
Diretor e ex-presidente da SBPMat é eleito membro titular da Academia Brasileira de Ciências.
A Assembleia Geral da Academia Brasileira de Ciências (ABC) elegeu, no dia 18 de dezembro, 24 cientistas para integrar seus quadros como membros titulares.
Entre eles figura o diretor financeiro da nossa SBPMat, o professor Fernando Lázaro Freire Júnior (PUC-Rio), eleito na área de Ciências Físicas. O professor Fernando Lázaro foi presidente da SBPMat por dois mandatos consecutivos, de 2006 a 2009. Também foi membro da diretoria fundadora que conduziu a sociedade entre 2001 e 2003 e diretor científico de 2004 a 2005.
A ABC também elegeu, nesta oportunidade, um membro colaborador, seis membros correspondentes e 29 afiliados eleitos para o período 2014 – 2018.
Veja aqui notícia no site da ABC com a lista completa dos membros eleitos neste ano: