Mckittrick group

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Materials Science and Engineering Program

Research Focus

The McKittrick group has major interests in two broad areas:

 

Luminescent materials

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rare-earth doped Nitride Alloy Synthesis

 

ZnO Bandgap Engineering

 

 

Biomaterials

 

Structure and mechanical behavior of natural biological materials

 

Structural biomaterials such as mollusk shells, bones, teeth, tusks, arthropod exoskeletons, antlers, horns and turtle shells have remarkable strength and toughness given their low densities.

 

Biomimetic fabrication of tough ceramics

 

Synthetic composites/laminates based on the natural materials but using engineering materials can result in materials that have superior mechanical properties compared to other composites.

 

Bone demineralization and deproteinization

 

Bone can be demineralized (removing all of the mineral phase hydroxyapatite) or deproteinated (removing all the biopolymer phase, collagen).  The synergistic effect of the mineral/biopolymer can be determined through studies of each component.

Professor Joanna McKittrick

jmckittrick@ucsd.edu

 

Maintained by: Jonathan Tao

jtao@ucsd.edu

 

 

 

To contact us:

Luminescent materials fluoresce under activation of an external energy source such as an electron beam, photons or an electric field.  These materials have applications in display devices (flat panel displays and CRTs), in solid state lighting (white-emitting LEDs) and as remote temperature sensors (thermographic phosphors).  Our research on luminescent materials is currently in two directions: