TSU-Fisk – Illinois-MRSEC PREM: Ferro-, Magneto-, and Opto-electronic Nanostructures and Devices

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).

NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Tennessee State University (TSU) is a comprehensive, land-grant historically black university located in Nashville, Tennessee, that was founded in 1912. The student enrollment exceeds 7,500 students, where most of the students are African American. Fisk University, founded in 1866, is the oldest institution of higher education in Nashville; it is also a historically black university and a long-time research and education partner of TSU.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) is a large public land-grant institution that ranks 13th nationally for earned doctorates, and is home to 29 top-ten ranked engineering degree programs, including the number two ranked undergraduate Materials Science and Engineering program, and the number-one ranked condensed matter physics graduate program. The TSU-Fisk-Illinois (TSUFI) PREM vision is to foster a long-term, collaborative research and education partnership with the Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (I-MRSEC) at UIUC, which has the research infrastructure and educational resources to significantly enhance recruitment, retention, and degree attainment of minority students through collaboration with TSU and Fisk.

TSUFI students are developing cross-disciplinary collaborations and skills to address cutting-edge challenges in materials science, particularly related to developing new flexible sensor technology. TSUFI is addressing the PREM pathway by creating strategic research opportunities and exchanges, structured within a supportive framework of education, career preparation, and cross-institutional mentoring, that will 1) increase access of advanced materials facilities and training to underrepresented minority (URM) undergraduates; and 2) build recruitment pathways to increase the enrollment of URMs in materials-related graduate programs at TSU, Fisk, and UIUC, ultimately increasing the number of minority science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates prepared for materials science careers in industry, government, and academia.

TECHNICAL DETAILS: The TSUFI PREM research collaboration combines the strengths of TSU and Fisk in the areas of ferroelectric polymeric materials synthesis and sensory fabrication with the I-MRSEC expertise on active interfaces between highly deformable nanomaterials and magnetism. The interdisciplinary teams are uniquely focused on the combination of deformable, widely adaptive, highly functional ferro-, magneto- and optoelectronic materials in low dimensions interfaced with 2D materials to enable new flexible devices with enhanced sensing functionalities.

The teams have identified two major thrust areas: 1) Low-dimensional (nanofibers and films) polymeric materials synthesis and characterization, and 2) Production and modeling of heterostructures with 2D materials. The combined fundamental research and technology efforts stands to produce emergent mechanical, electronic, and chemical behavior distinct from the individual constituents.

The heterogeneous interface research and engineering are opening opportunities to explore a new regime of 1D, 2D, and 3D hybrid systems and architectures. Anticipated are findings that lead to breakthroughs in our understanding of deformable interfacial science which create new avenues for technology.

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.