Multiscale Origami for new photonics, energy conversion

??The NSF's (National Science Foundation's) EFRI (Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation) office has awarded 15 grants in FY 2012 They address three projects in photosynthetic biorefineries and four in flexible bio-elelectronic systems. But the majority of the awards, eight in total, are for ODISSEI (Origami design for integration of self-assembling systems for engineering innovation). One project, Multi-scale Origami for Novel Photonics, Energy Conversion, will be led by Max Shtein in collaboration with Sharon Glotzer, John Hart, Nicholas Kotov, and Pei-Cheng Ku, all of the University of Michigan. This project will investigate how folding planar materials can produce novel functional structures, ranging from millimeter- to nanometer-scale, where many materials behave differently. The researchers will create thin films and membranes that are etched and perforated to enable folding into complex shapes, and that can be programmed to respond to temperature, humidity, light, or other phenomena. The researchers will study the fundamental principles governing the transformation of sheets into 3D structures using experiments and modelling, with a focus on how size influences folding dynamics. This knowledge should help resolve significant challenges of materials integration into complex and robust 3D structures, such as the control of light propagation in energy conversion devices, scalable fabrication of optical and electromagnetic meta materials, and engineering of reconfigurable "smart" surfaces powered by changes in ambient conditions. Background work Growth, Kinetics and Morphology of Multi-Layered Organic Thin Films via LE-SIMS, Low-Energy Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry Project partners at the University of Michigan are responsible for the growth of optoelectronic samples—Max Shtein's group—and the development of molecular dynamic (MD) simulations dedicated to the study of ion bombardment during LE-SIMS (low-energy dynamic SIMS)—John Kieffer's group. CRP-GL is responsible for the development of LE-SIMS for organic multi-layered samples and is also involved in the development of the MD simulations. National Science Foundation EFRI-ODISSEI: Multi-scale Origami for Novel Photonics, Energy Conversion abstract