Materials Science Laboratory Research Articles

Acceptance of augmented reality for laboratory safety training: methodology and an evaluation study

This paper presents a proof-of-concept Augmented Reality (AR) system known as “SMARTLab” for safety training in hazardous material science laboratories. The paper contains an overview of the design rationale, development, methodology, and user study. Participants of the user study were domain experts (i.e., actual lab users in a material science research department, n = 13), and the evaluation used a questionnaire and free-form interview responses. The participants undertook a virtual lab experiment, designed in collaboration with a domain expert. While using the AR environment, they were accompanied by a virtual assistant. The user study provides preliminary findings about the impact of multiple dimensions, such as Performance Expectancy, Emotional Reactivity, and Spatial Presence, on SMARTLab acceptance by analyzing their influence on the Behavioral Intention dimension. The findings indicate that users find the approach useful and that they would consider using such a system. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the SMARTLab assessment data suggests that a) AR-based training is a potential solution for laboratory safety training without the risk of real-world hazards, b) realism remains an important property for some aspects such as fluid dynamics and experimental procedure, and c) use of a virtual assistant is welcome and provides no sense of discomfort or unease. Furthermore, the study recommends the use of AR assistance tools (a virtual assistant, an attention funnel, and an in-situ arrow) to improve usability and make the training experience more user-friendly.

Promoting hands-on science learning globally with low-cost lab kits through Women Supporting Women in the Sciences

Women Supporting Women in the Sciences (WS2)-ws2global.org-is an international initiative unifying and supporting graduate- and professional-level women and allies in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), while providing outreach to elementary- and secondary-level students. WS2 has been involved in the development of professional development workshops intended to empower university women and promote STEM careers. In their most recent venture, WS2 distributed low-cost physics and materials science lab kits that were designed virtually by international teams. These kits are relevant to elementary and secondary school students across the world, with initial focus on local schools in eastern Africa. In this Backstory, part of the WS2 leadership team (Dr. Joyce Elisadiki, Dr. Cecilia Rolence China, and Dr. Jill Wenderott) discusses how the Lab Kit Initiative came together and highlights outcomes and lessons learned from this project.

Low-cost physics and materials science lab kits foster next generation of women scientists

Low-cost physics and materials science lab kits foster next generation of women scientists

Facile characterization of metallic impurities in detonation nanodiamonds through selective combustion using standard techniques

Detonation nanodiamonds are sp3 carbon nanomaterials with narrow diameter distribution. They have high potential of application in various fields like nanomedecine, advanced composites and lubricants, photocatalysis. Detonation nanodiamonds unfortunately contain metallic and inorganic impurities of diverse nature which can act as “Trojan horses” and even at weak content, they can significantly impact the nanodiamonds efficiency and the searched performances. Detection and quantification as well as subsequent removal of these impurities is highly difficult due to the lack of tools available by scholars. In this work, we propose a useful approach to detect and identify the inorganic impurities in detonation nanodiamonds. Our method which consists in a selective combustion of the nanodiamonds results in concentrating these impurities is a one-step and simple method. This approach, transferable to other kinds of carbon nanomaterials, is proved to be a valuable way allowing analysis of detonation nanodiamonds by standard characterization techniques such as X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infra-Red and Raman spectroscopies or Powder X-Ray Diffraction, available in any material science laboratory.

Automated, High-Throughput Screening of Hybrid Elastin-like Polypeptide/Polysaccharide Multilayer Film Deposition.

The self-assembled layer-by-layer technique has attracted a great deal of attention as a method for engineering bio-functional surfaces under mild chemical conditions. The production of multilayer films, starting from newly designed building blocks, may be laborious, considering the inherent limitations for anticipating how minimal changes in the macromolecular composition may impact both film deposition and performance. This paper presents an automated, high-throughput approach to depositing polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) in multiwell plates, enabling the screening of nearly 100 film formulations in the same process. This high-throughput layer-by-layer (HT-LbL) method runs in an affordable, fully commercial platform using Python-coded routines that can be easily adapted for the materials science lab settings. The HT-LbL system was validated by investigating the deposition of polysaccharide-based films in multiwell plates, probing the absorbance signal of ionically stained polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) prepared in one single batch. The HT-LbL method was also used to investigate the deposition of PEMs with a small library of genetically engineered elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) with different levels of ionizable and hydrophobic amino acid residues. The deposition of ELP/chitosan films was assessed based on the signal of fluorescently labeled species (chitosan or ELP-mCherry), demonstrating that both electrostatic and hydrophobic residues are essential for film buildup. The growth and surface properties of ELP-mCherry/chitosan films also seemed susceptible to the assembly pH, forming a higher film growth and a rougher and more hydrophobic surface for both polyelectrolytes deposited under a low ionization degree. Overall, this study illustrates the challenge of predicting the growth and properties of multilayer films and how the HT-LbL can accelerate the development of multilayer films that demand high levels of testing and optimization.

Building Community Consensus for Scientific Metadata with YAMZ

ABSTRACTThis paper reports on a demonstration of YAMZ (Yet Another Metadata Zoo) as a mechanism for building community consensus around metadata terms. The demonstration is motivated by the complexity of the metadata standards environment and the need for more user-friendly approaches for researchers to achieve vocabulary consensus. The paper reviews a series of metadata standardization challenges, explores crowdsourcing factors that offer possible solutions, and introduces the YAMZ system. A YAMZ demonstration is presented with members of the Toberer materials science laboratory at the Colorado School of Mines, where there is a need to confirm and maintain a shared understanding for the vocabulary supporting research documentation, data management, and their larger metadata infrastructure. The demonstration involves three key steps: 1) Sampling terms for the demonstration, 2) Engaging graduate student researchers in the demonstration, and 3) Reflecting on the demonstration. The results of these steps, including examples of the dialog provenance among lab members and voting, show the ease with YAMZ can facilitate building metadata vocabulary consensus. The conclusion discusses implications and highlights next steps.

MSLE: An ontology for materials science laboratory equipment – Large-scale devices for materials characterization

This paper introduces a new ontology for Materials Science Laboratory Equipment, termed MSLE. A fundamental issue with materials science laboratory (hereafter lab) equipment in the real world is that scientists work with various types of equipment with multiple specifications. For example, there are many electron microscopes with different parameters in chemical and physical labs. A critical development to unify the description is to build an equipment domain ontology as basic semantic knowledge and to guide the user to work with the equipment appropriately. Here, we propose to develop a consistent ontology for equipment, the MSLE ontology. In the MSLE, two main existing ontologies, the Semantic Sensor Network (SSN) and the Material Vocabulary (MatVoc), have been integrated into the MSLE core to build a coherent ontology. Since various acronyms and terms have been used for equipment, this paper proposes as an approach to use a Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) to represent the hierarchical structure of equipment terms. Equipment terms were collected in various languages and abbreviations, and coded into the MSLE using the SKOS model. The ontology development was conducted in close collaboration with domain experts and focused on the large-scale devices for materials characterization available in our research group. Competency questions are expected to be addressed through the MSLE ontology. Constraints are modeled in the Shapes Query Language (SHACL); a prototype is shown and validated to prove the value of the modeling constraints.

HistoEnder: A 3D printer-based histological slide autostainer that retains 3D printer functions

Automated microscope slide stainers are usually very expensive and unless the laboratory performs heavy histological work it is difficult to justify buying a 2000-10000€ machine. As a result, histology and pathology labs around the world lose thousands of working hours for following procedures that could be easily automated. Herein, we propose a simple modification of an open-source 3D printer, the Creality Ender-3, into an automated microscope slide autostainer, the HistoEnder. The HistoEnder is cheap (less than 200€), modular, and easy to set up, with only two 3D-printed parts needed. Additionally, the 3D printer retains its full functionality, and it can be reverted back into 3D printing in less than 1 min. The g-code associated with the procedure is extremely simple, and can be written by anyone. The HistoEnder can also be used in chemistry and material science laboratories for automating surface modifications and dip coating.

Microstructure Analysis of Al-7 wt% Si Alloy Solidified on Earth Compared to Similar Experiments in Microgravity

During ground-based solidification, buoyancy flow can develop by the density difference in the hypoeutectic type of the alloys, such as Al-7 wt% Si alloy. Buoyancy flow can affect the thermal field, solute distribution in the melt, and the position and amount of the new grains. As solidification is a very complex process, it is not very easy to separate the different effects. Under microgravity conditions, natural convection does not exist or is strongly damped due to the absence of the buoyancy force. Therefore, experiments in microgravity conditions provide unique benchmark data for pure diffusive solidification conditions. Compared to the results of the ground-based and microgravity experiments, it is possible to get information on the effect of gravity (buoyancy force). In the framework of the CETSOL project, four microgravity solidification experiments were performed on grain refined (GF) and non-grain refined Al-7 wt% Si alloy onboard the International Space Station in the Materials Science Laboratory. These experiments aimed to study the effect of the solidification parameters (solid/liquid front velocity vSL, temperature gradient GSL) on the grain structure and dendritic microstructures. The microgravity environment eliminates the melt flow, which develops on Earth due to gravity. Four ground-based (GB) experiments were performed under Earth-like conditions with the same (similar) solidification parameters in a vertical Bridgman-type furnace having four heating zones. The detailed analysis of the grain structure, amount of eutectic, and secondary dendrite arm spacing (SDAS) for different process conditions is reported and compared with the results of the microgravity experiments. GB experiments showed that the microstructure was columnar in the samples that do not contain GF material or in case the solid/liquid (vSL front velocity was slow (0.02 mm/s)). In contrast, in the sample which contained GF material, progressive columnar/equiaxed transition (PCET) was observed at vSL = 0.077 mm/s and GSL = 3.9 K/mm. The secondary (SDAS) dendrite arm spacing follows the well-known power law, SDAS=K[t0]13, where K is a constant, and t0 is the local solidification time for both GB and µg experiments.

Development of a fatigue strength testing machine

A profound engineering design and modeling of fatigue strength machine for testing the failure which occurs when a metallic material is subjected to cyclic stresses is presented. The main goal is developing a locally made fatigue strength machine that can be used in material science laboratory. A major direction in this development of the machine is the ability to thread on the path of technology transfer and dominance by concentrating on the building of indigenous capacity. In carrying out the machine development, engineering design formulae were applied and Computer Aided Design modeling was developed. The developed fatigue strength testing machine had a designed machine capacity of 18875Nmm that sustained a motor power of 5.93kw.The machine shaft diameter determined to be 9.88mm developed an equivalent torque and bending moment of 45799.8Nmm and 40890Nmm respectively. The machine designed critical speed of 23.52rad/s had belt tensions on the tight and slack sides to be 139.02N and 44.65N respectively. The fabricated machine has the ability to record low and high fatigue cycles.

Development and Performance Evaluation of a Mini-potentiostat for Corrosion Experimentations

The exorbitant cost of laboratory equipment is chiefly responsible for the dearth of corrosion characterization equipment in material science laboratories of Universities from Sub-Saharan Africa and that of other developing countries across the globe. It has therefore become germane to exploit available resources for development of affordable potentiostat within the university community. In this work, detailed procedure and working principles for design, fabrication and performance evaluation of a portable and inexpensive microcontroller-based potentiostat are presented. PROTEUS® software was used for the design of the parent circuit board. Graphical User Interface (GUI) developed using Visual Studio and Origin PRO Software was used for acquisition of experimental results. Performance evaluation of the potentiostat was implemented by performing corrosion experiments in 5 wt.% NaCl solution using mild steel as a working electrode (WE). Ag/AgCl reference electrode (RE) was used as well as Platinum wire as the counter electrode (CE). The analysis of the working electrode potential against the log of current-density plot at a scan rate of 10 mV/s of the fabricated potentiostat revealed a Tafel plot that is in conformity with results from commercially available potentiostats.

Influence of Solidification Parameters on the Amount of Eutectic and Secondary Arm Spacing of Al–7wt% Si Alloy Solidified under Microgravity

During the solidification of hypoeutectic Al–7% Si alloy, density differences develop in the melt due to variations in concentration and temperature. On Earth, melt flow can occur due to gravity, which then affects the solidification process. The microgravity environment strongly eliminates convection in the melt and allows investigation of the solidification process in purely diffusive circumstances. In this study, four solidification experiments were performed on grain-refined and non-grain-refined Al–7 wt% Si alloy on-board the International Space Station (ISS) in the Materials Science Lab (MSL) to study the effect of solidification parameters (solid/liquid front velocity (v) and temperature gradient (G)) on the grain structure and dendritic microstructure. The grain structure has been analyzed in detail in some earlier studies. The aim of this work was to carry out detailed analysis of the macrosegregation caused by the diffusion of Si from the initial mushy zone during the homogenization step and the subsequent solidification phase of the experiments as well as the correlated distribution of eutectic along the solidification direction. The secondary dendrite arm spacing (SDAS) for different process conditions was also studied. For these two issues, microgravity experimental results were compared to simulation results. The macrosegregation was calculated by the finite difference method. Because the steady-state solidification conditions were never reached, the solidification process was characterized by the average front velocity and temperature gradient. Considering the actual liquidus temperature (TL) caused by macrosegregation, the SDAS was calculated as a function of the average processing parameters and the actual liquidus temperature with the classical Kirkwood’s equation. As a result, good agreement was obtained between the calculated and measured SDAS.

The Negligible Impact of Lecture Videos on the Learning Progress in a Laboratory Course during the Covid-19 Pandemic

During the covid-19 pandemic semesters of 2020/21 material science laboratory courses at HTW-Berlin had to be taught fully online to first year students of mechanical engineering and automotive engineering. Specially produced lecture videos are assigned and guide students through the laboratory routine prior to class. Students regard these lecture films as easy to use, supportive to individual study routines and scientifically helpful during self-study periods. They rated tasks and questions aligned with the learning outcome of the lecture videos as highly beneficial and –surprisingly- did not prefer face-to-face time. However, grades are much lower and much more students failed the class. This was directly related to the negative input of solemn studying, lack of human interaction, scientific discussions, lack of the possibility to fail and regain self-attentiveness as well as permanent online time. Otherwise highly supportive teaching material became negligible during the full online-semesters.

Engineering fiber anisotropy within natural collagen hydrogels.

It is well known that biophysical properties of the extracellular matrix (ECM), including stiffness, porosity, composition, and fiber alignment (anisotropy), play a crucial role in controlling cell behavior in vivo. Type I collagen (collagen I) is a ubiquitous structural component in the ECM and has become a popular hydrogel material that can be tuned to replicate the mechanical properties found in vivo. In this review article, we describe popular methods to create 2-D and 3-D collagen I hydrogels with anisotropic fiber architectures. We focus on methods that can be readily translated from engineering and materials science laboratories to the life-science community with the overall goal of helping to increase the physiological relevance of cell culture assays.

The Nexus of Art and Science: Creating Art Medals in the Chemistry Lab, Using Graphite Molds

Abstract The idea of graphing what is called the lead-tin eutectic point when alloys are produced from elemental lead and tin metals may be very common and established in chemistry and materials science laboratories. Producing art medals from the alloys that are made in such experiments is decidedly not. We will present how the lead-tin eutectic experiment can be performed in the chemistry lab, and how graphite blocks can be used as both mold and heat sink for the creation of art medals, utilizing metal alloys produced by students in the laboratory. The process brings together art, science and engineering in a single experience. We conclude that this has been found to be beneficial for students, yet is a technique that can be utilized by virtually any person who wishes to experiment and create with low-melting metal alloys.

Study of the kinetics of gas evolution of a polymer composite under the influence of vacuum and VUV

The paper presents data on the effect of high vacuum and vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) on a polymer composite based on polyimide track membranes. Polyimide track membranes were filled with POSS structures. For comparison, we also used pure polyimide films without filler. Exposure in high vacuum and surface treatment of the developed VUV composite were carried out in the imitation chamber of near-Earth space, located in the Space Materials Science Laboratory of BSTU named after V.G. Shukhov (Russia, Belgorod). The high resistance of the composite to high vacuum and VUV has been established. The total weight loss of the composite by 24 hours was 0.26 wt. % (after holding in vacuum) and 0.28 wt. % (after VUV).

An Introduction To Conventional Tensile Testing: Constructionism Approach For Constructivism Learning

Constructivism learning theory recommends the act of allowing students to create knowledge through their experiences. Very often, it is difficult to build such an investigative framework within material science laboratory sessions that assist students in acquiring the knowledge. This paper focuses on the use of constructivism principles that was established by a constructionism process to allow students acquire cognitive knowledge through manual calculation and manipulation of measured data from a tensile testing experiment. Using a conventional tensile laboratory testing, undergraduate material science students succeeded in using their self-acquired skills to determine the toughness of the plastics, the elastic modulus, yield stress and strains, and the ultimate stresses from the measured graphs. The students were also able to describe the deformation mechanisms involved even though the focus was not on the accuracy of the results. This paper reinforces the need to involve constructivism principles in material science teaching that enhances the learner’s knowledge acquisition.

Material-Driven Textile Design (MDTD): A Methodology for Designing Circular Material-Driven Fabrication and Finishing Processes in the Materials Science Laboratory

In the context of the circular economy, materials in scientific development present opportunities for material design processes that begin at a raw state, before being introduced into established processes and applications. The common separation of the scientific development of materials from design intervention results in a lack of methodological approaches enabling designers to inform new processes that respond to new material properties. This paper presents the results of a PhD investigation that led to the development and application of a Material-Driven Textile Design (MDTD) methodology for design research based in the materials science laboratory. It also presents the development of the fabrication of a textile composite with regenerated cellulose obtained from waste textiles, resulting from the MDTD methodology informing novel textile processes. The methods and practice which make up this methodology include distinct phases of exploration, translation and activation, and were developed via three design-led research residencies in materials science laboratories in Europe. The MDTD methodology proposes an approach to design research in a scientific setting that is decoupled from a specific product or application in order to lift disciplinary boundaries for the development of circular material-driven fabrication and finishing processes at the intersection of materials science and design.

Confirmation of Anomalous Nucleation in Zirconium

Pure, low-oxygen zirconium samples have been observed to nucleate a solid phase under conditions during which the sample was expected to remain liquid. This phenomenon was first seen during Spacelab Mission MSL-1R (materials science laboratory) experiments and has since also been observed in the International Space Station (ISS) electromagnetic levitation (EML) facility on a different sample. Current work has been able to replicate these anomalous solidification events under a range of conditions in the ISS MSL-EML facility. The solidification events are not well explained by classical homogeneous or heterogeneous nucleation. The current theory is that collapsing voids in the melt create a local region of high pressure that results in local material being deeply undercooled and a strong driving force for solidification.

From Metallic Lead Films to Perovskite Solar Cells through Lead Conversion with Polyhalide Solutions.

Solutions of methylammonium and formamidinium polyhalides (AX1+n, A = MA, FA, X = I, Br) in isopropanol are introduced as novel versatile precursors for the fabrication of APbX3 hybrid perovskite thin films via oxidation of metallic Pb. The polyhalide solution with adjustable reactivity is distributed over a metallic Pb layer followed by iodine vapor postprocessing to tune the morphology and composition of the film using only the elements inherently present in the perovskite. This method is easily reproducible in any materials science laboratory with equipment commonly used for perovskite solar cell fabrication and resulted in power conversion efficiencies of 16.2 and 17.2% for planar solar cells using MAPbI3 and MA0.25FA0.75PbI2.75Br0.25 perovskites, respectively, as a proof of concept. Implementation of metallic lead thin films as the single Pb-containing precursors reduces a number of in-lab handling hazards compared to classical PbI2 powder and solutions and provides a variety of scalable deposition options.