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Saeed Moradi, Ben Zahiri and Paul V. Braun just published findings that are taking us a step closer to practical solid-state rechargeable batteries that, unlike previous efforts, don’t require high pressure to hold the solid components together during charge and discharge cycles. The team made novel experimental observations of how electrodes expand and contract during battery cycling, and used the resulting insights to design solid-state batteries that can operate for thousands of cycles at low pressure.

Professor Qian Chen led a multi-university team in developing a technique to pattern gold nanoparticles with atomic-level precision, published in Nature. The breakthrough uses halide atoms as molecular masks to create "patchy" particles that can self-assemble into novel structures for electronics, optics, biomedicine and metamaterials.

Founder Professor Axel Hoffmann has received a promotion to director of the Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (I-MRSEC). He is taking over for Professor Harley Johnson, who is stepping down to focus on serving as executive director and CEO of the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park in Chicago.

Assistant Professor Antonia Statt has joined a multi-institutional team awarded NSF DMREF funding to develop advanced photoresist materials for next-generation chip manufacturing. Using computational modeling, the team will design materials compatible with extreme ultraviolet lithography to enable smaller, more powerful semiconductors.

Professor and Racheff Faculty Scholar Cecilia Leal is contributing her expertise in biomembrane structure and characterization to a $2 million NSF project led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The research aims to revolutionize separation membrane manufacturing. The interdisciplinary collaboration seeks to replace the decades-old toxic chemical process with biology-inspired membranes that mimic how human cells naturally filter molecules. Leal's work is critical to replicating the structural complexity that makes biomembranes so effective at selective transport, with potential applications in water purification, desalination and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Researchers, led by Assistant Professor Yuecheng "Peter" Zhou during his postdoctoral work at Stanford University, demonstrated how to optimize electrochromic polymers — materials that change color in response to voltage — as non-invasive sensors for recording electrical activity in biological systems. By tailoring the polymer chemistry to specific systems like cardiac tissue and neurons, the team achieved sensitivity matching conventional electrode sensors without damaging cells. Zhou  is continuing to develop these polymer-based recording methods for practical use in biological research.