To date, trial and error strategies guided by intuition have dominated the identification of materials suitable for a specific application. We are entering a data-rich, modeling-driven era where such Edisonian approaches are gradually being replaced by rational strategies which couple predictions from advanced computational screening with targeted experimental synthesis and validation. Consistent with this emerging paradigm, we propose a strategy of hierarchical modeling with successive down-selection stages to accelerate the identification of polymer dielectrics that have the potential to surpass `standard' materials for a given application. Specifically, quantum mechanics based combinatorial searches of chemical space are used to identify polymer repeat units that could lead to desirable dielectric properties, followed by configurational space searches to determine the 3-dimensional arrangement of polymers (and their properties) built from the desirable repeat units. Successful synthesis and testing of some of the most promising identified polymers and the measured attractive dielectric properties (which are in quantitative agreement with predictions) strongly supports the proposed approach to material selection.

Modern industry demands advanced materials with enhanced properties. To expand a range of available materials the covetic alloy is studied. Covetic is a novel alloy invented and patented by Third Millennium Metals, LLC (TMM). This is a new hybrid material made of a carbon and a metal, where the carbon forms a super lattice structure inside a metal. The base metal can be copper, aluminium, lead, tin or other low-melting point metals. In normal conditions the metal does not wet and does not form chemical bond with the carbon. However, the amount of carbon in the covetic alloy exceeds carbon solubility in the metal by several orders of magnitude. Such a composition is achieved by supplying a current to a volume of molten metal while it is being blended with micron size carbon particles. The alloy is prepared in vacuum.

The process of covetic formation is influenced by chemical composition of the base metal, a cast volume temperature change rate, external electric and magnetic fields, compound viscosity, surface and interphase tension coefficient, density, and thermal and electric conductivities of the metal and carbon particles. A part of the process of covetic alloy formation, which involves carbon particles dissolving, can be compared to phenomena occur in dust plasma. This assumption provides a possibility to visualise processes of microparticles spatial distribution and decomposition into single atoms with subsequent formation of a carbon supper lattice inside the metal lattice.

The current work focuses on: the electric current influence on the alloy structure formation and carbon atoms distribution inside the metal; copper covetic hardness, conductivity, and tensile strength change as a function of carbon composition; and a phenomenological model for covetic alloy formation.

Solid phase microextraction (SPME) is a solventless, fast, easy and relatively inexpensive sample preparation technique that integrates sampling, extraction and preconcentration of samples such as food, waste water, air, and biological fluids in one step. However, commercial SPME coatings may be expensive, show relatively short lives, extract limited numbers of compounds, and have relatively low thermal and mechanical stability. The aim of this study is to develop an SPME device that is thinner, robust, long lasting, has higher mechanical strength, greater thermal and solvent stability, and is devoid of the other drawbacks of commercial coatings. We describe a new method for the preparation of nanoporous SPME coatings via the oblique-angle sputtering of silicon and subsequent functionalization with silanes. The thickness of the sputtered coatings was controlled by varying the sputtering time. To increase the density of –OH groups on the surfaces, the coatings were treated in piranha solution and then reacted with n-octadecyldimethylmonomethoxysilane to render the surfaces hydrophobic. The coatings were robust and were characterized at each step in the process using XPS, water contact angle goniometry, spectroscopic ellipsometry, and scanning electron microscopy. Our sputtered, silanized fiber yielded comparable and/or better extraction efficiencies than a commercial 7 μm PDMS fiber, especially for higher molecular weight species. In the case of a series of primary alcohols, and aldehydes, our fiber outperformed the commercial PDMS fiber by a factor of 2 – 3. In the evaluation of two real world samples: a sea water extract and beer, our fiber showed unique selectivity. Our 1.1 µm fiber yielded comparable signals to 65 µm PDMS-DVB and 85 µm CAR-PDMS commercial fibers for higher molecular weight analytes. For a ~2.2 µm fiber, the performance of our fiber increased substantially.