EChem Nanowires Educational Foundation, Inc. Information

This educational foundation was established to create opportunities for high school and college students by engaging them in nanotechnology research and stimulating them into wanting to make discoveries of their own. The foundation was closed in 2015 as part of my leaving Wisconsin, but I am feeling the urge to help develop new educational opportunities. The foundation builds upon the Electroplate and Lift Lithography technology with the development of a kit that contains everything needed with the exception of water and the chemicals. As part of a class exercise, students can be one of the first few hundred students in the world to make copper microwires. The kit and supporting documentation guide students through necessary steps to grow and characterize microwires and even nanowires on our unique ultrananocrystalline diamond templates with the supplied tools including a full 3-electrode, web-enabled electrochemical potentiostat, a USB powered 700X microscope and a color Android tablet. The goal is to enable students with skills and the right tools to be the first person in the world to use the Electroplate and Lift Lithography technique for making new compositions of patterned nanowires. The experiments are set up to give confidence with the skills needed to make their own discoveries. After submission of promising preliminary data, the student would be invited to our laboratory or the laboratory of a collaborator to use more advanced techniques such as scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy to confirm they are truly the first in the world to make that type of nanowire. Future plans are to support high achieving student’s efforts to gain entrance to the colleges of their choice and to assist students in finding scholarships that will help their dreams for making future discoveries to come true. Email for more information and whitepaper.