Grant goes to UNT Professor to Study and Develop Nanotailored Multifunctional Materials
Dr. Nandika D'Souza, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at the University of North Texas (UNT) has received a more than half a million dollar federal grant to study and deploy nanotailored multifunctional materials. These are substances that have multiple characteristics thanks to nanotechnology, which involves the combination of materials science, engineering, chemistry, biology and physics to explore matter at the atomic and molecular levels.
The three-year cooperative agreement came from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to examine how nano particles of different substances could be used in with polymers to form new composites, dispersions or thin films.
“A material like that could be very beneficial in the microelectronics field,” said Dr. D'Souza. “The whole issue here is multifaceted, how materials relate to and react with each other. This grant feeds into the other activities we are doing here at the College of Engineering.”
Work on the project will be performed at both UNT and NIST.