2003 MRS Fall Meeting Presents Advancements and Emerging Fields in Materials Research
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2003 MRS Fall Meeting Presents Advancements and Emerging Fields in Materials Research The 2003 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting brought together an array of revelations in which materials design is built upon nature’s design, from synthesized diamond and facilitation of the growth of vital organs to the combination of organic and inorganic components in nanotechnology. Held December 1–5 at the Hynes Convention Center and Sheraton Boston Hotel and Towers in Boston, Mass., the Meeting captured areas of continuing growth as well as emerging fields in materials research. Meeting chairs Paula T. Hammond (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Rommel Noufi (National Renewable Energy Laboratory), Fred Roozeboom (Philips Research), and Susan Trolier-McKinstry (The Pennsylvania State University) divided the 38 technical symposia into eight clusters: Integrated Device Technology; Organic, Soft, and Biological Materials; Nano- to Microstructured Materials; Inorganic Materials and Films; Photonics; Energy Storage, Generation, and Transport; Information Storage Materials; and Design of Materials by Man and Nature. The Meeting included six days of scientific and technical talks, poster sessions, the awards ceremony, a plenary session, tutorials, special events, an exhibit, and other activities, with more than 4200 papers presented in oral and poster sessions to over 4800 attendees. Technical Talks Typically, nature is mimicked in materials research in order to inform technology; in the field of gems, the design is copied in the manufacture of diamonds for jewelry. In Symposium II, rival technologies were presented on the synthesis of diamonds by the use of high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) annealing—particularly using split-sphere technology (R. Abbaschian of the Univ. of Florida)—and by chemical vapor deposition (B. Deljanin of the European Gemological Laboratory in Vancouver and EGLUSA in New York). The scientists argued that their techniques offer an economically viable way to synthesize large diamonds. Since HPHT annealing can be used to change the color of undesirable diamonds, M.S. Hall of the Gemological Institute of America discussed ways to distinguish diamonds that have been HPHT-annealed from untreated diamonds. Different techniques are used to obtain different colors. The introduction of B impurities will impart a blue color, and N a yellow color. However, other colors are produced by impurities coupled with irradiation and/or heat or pressure treatments. Deljanin has fabricated diamonds in a range of colors, including pink. This is significant because intensely colored diamonds are extremely rare in nature. Alternatively, technology utilized in materials research is used to identify the source of mined gems. At the Basel Fair 182
in Switzerland two years ago, a highquality emerald was identified by its owners as originating in Colombia. Later, it was revealed that it had actually come from a mine in Afghanistan. A. Cheilletz and P. de Donato (CNRS) described the
use of infrared microscopy in
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