Ph.D. Student Babak Anasori and Colleagues Win "People's Choice" Award in Science and NSF Visualization Challenge

A micrograph by materials Ph.D. students Babak Anasori and Michael Naguib (advisor:  Michel Barsoum) and Professors Yury Gogotsi and Michel Barsoum has won the "People's Choice" award in the Science Magazine and National Science Foundation 2011 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge. The image received the most votes from the general public to garner the honor.

The picture, entitled "The Cliff of the Two-Dimensional World," resembles a red-rock bluff and depicts ultrathin layers of titanium-based compounds as viewed under an electron microscope. The image is the first to be captured of these materials, discovered at Drexel, in 2D. The layers depicted in the image, which the researchers have named MXenes, are thin enough to be considered two-dimensional. MXenes can be used to produce energy storage devices, sensors, and solar cells, among other applications. This research was featured as the cover article in the October 4, 2011 (Volume 23, Issue 37) issue of Advanced Materials.

News about the awards has appeared in National Geographic, BBC, MSNBC, and Wired.