Purdue University SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING GRADUATE SEMINAR SERIES Prof. Talid Sinno Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering University of Pennsylvania "Using Energy Landscapes to Study Microstructure in Crystalline Materials" October 7, 2014 9:00-10:15 a.m. FRNY G140 Reception at 10:15-10:45 a.m. in Henson Atrium Abstract: The notions of potential energy landscapes and inherent structures are in routine use in the thermodynamic and kinetic analysis of glasses and supercooled liquids but, to date, have been only sparsely applied in the context of defect and microstructure thermodynamics in crystalline materials. Using crystalline silicon as a backdrop, the aim of this talk is to apply these concepts to study the high-temperature thermodynamics and structural characteristics of crystalline imperfections. It is shown that (configurational and vibrational) entropy plays an important role in setting the behavior of defects, sometimes in a surprising fashion. Connections to melting phenomena of crystalline materials will also be discussed Bio: Talid Sinno is Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Science. He received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from MIT in 1998 and joined the faculty at Penn in 1999. His laboratory develops and uses a wide variety of computer simulation techniques to study aggregation and clustering phenomena in range of systems that include atomic semiconductor and metallic materials, colloidal assemblies, and blood flow.