2022 MRS Fall Meeting & Exhibit: Science as Art Competition

Congratulations to our winners! 

Nanostructured Carbon Leviathan

Gerardo Pagano, Politecnico di Milano/Istituto Italiano di Tecnologiaes

The image was taken during an SEM analysis of a nanostructured carbon thin film. During the annealing the film peeled away taking with it some pieces of the silicon substrate.

 

Walking in a Wolfram Wonderland

Alexander Sredenschek, The Pennsylvania State University

This scanning electron microscope (SEM) image was taken with the electron beam tilted at an angle of 45° with respect to the sample stage normal. The image shows a perspective view of the step edges and dendritic growth in the tungsten carbide crystals, transferred onto SiO2/Si, that resemble snowflakes with fractal-like patterns and quasi six-fold symmetry.

 

O Christmas Ti, O Christmas Ti, How Lovely Are Thy Defects

Kate Reidy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

This tree-mendous TEM image shows titanium (Ti) dislocation networks on graphene. Imaged by Themis Z microscope at MIT.nano in high angle annular dark field (HAADF) mode. Scale bar 100 nm. Image credits: Kate Reidy, George Varnavides, and Aubrey Penn. 

 

MXene Dragon

Anupma Thakur, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

MXene dragon is born from the MAX dragon, and is watching from its realm! This image shows a multi-layered titanium carbide MXene flake visualized as a dragon. If you want to conquer the MXene world, you best have dragons! The imaging technique is field emission scanning electron microscopy, and the image width is about 10 micrometers.

 

Tiny GaN Village with Graphene River Passing Through

Hyunseok Kim, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The gallium nitride (GaN) buildings, or nano-rods, are grown on top of wet-transferred graphene on GaN by remote epitaxy. The river corresponds to folded graphene, a common defect created during wet transfer. Image was taken by scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

 

On the Beach of the Lithium Sea

Yue Deng, Cornell University (not pictured)

A scanning electron microscopy image showing the edge of a lithium deposit. The tides and sea as seen in this image are electrochemically deposited lithium, and the beach is a polished copper current collector. This image reveals the low-density structure at the edge of an electrochemically deposited lithium. Scale bar is 100 um.