Congratulations to Grace Han, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Landsman Career Development Chair in the Sciences. She has been awarded funds from the Department of Defense to purchase a bench-top X-ray diffraction instrument. This award is part of the DoD’s Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) that will provide $59 million in FY 2023 to purchase research equipment at 77 institutions across 30 states.
Changes in the properties of organic materials undergoing transition between solid and liquid phases are employed in a variety of applications, including thermal energy storage, cooling, and actuation. The ability to regulate such phase transitions by light opens up new opportunities to achieve functions with a high spatial precision, triggered by the rapid, remotely applied, and non-invasive stimulus. This capability enables novel applications including photo-controlled heat storage, adhesion, actuation, and catalyst recovery, which the Han group investigates.
The DURIP award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) and the Department of Defense (DoD) will enable the Han team to build a new research capability on campus. A non-ambient, benchtop X-ray diffractometer, equipped with light sources and a heating/cooling stage, will allow the group to study how molecules change their geometry and intermolecular interaction in response to irradiation and temperature change. This will yield a deep understanding of photoswitch designs that undergo facile structural changes in solid phase, assisting the discovery and development of light-responsive functional materials.
Science at Brandeis 