Faculty Profiles
   
 

Elizabeth C. Dickey

Associate Professor of Materials Science
and Engineering
Associate Director, Materials Research Institute
208 MRL Building
814-865-9067
dickey@matse.psu.edu

 
Biographical Sketch:
Professor Elizabeth Dickey is an Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and the Associate Director of the Materials Research Institute at the Pennsylvania State University. She received her B.S. in Materials Engineering in 1992 from the University of Kentucky and then pursued her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University under an NSF graduate research fellowship. Upon receiving her Ph.D. in 1997, Dr. Dickey returned to her home state to join the faculty of the Chemical and Materials Engineering Department at the University of Kentucky. In 2001 she moved to Penn State, where she is now an Associate Director of the Materials Research Institute. Her academic and research interests include nanomaterials for electrical and sensing applications, interface materials science, high-temperature ceramic composites, transmission electron microscopy and residual stress analysis in textured composites. She has over seventy journal publications in these areas and currently serves as an editor for Microscopy and Microanalysis and an Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Ceramic Society. In 1999 she received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). She is currently a John T. Ryan, Jr. Faculty Fellow in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State.
Research Interests:
• Interface Materials Science
• Nanomaterials
• Electron Microscopy
• Residual Stresses 
Areas of research:
Professor Dickey is engaged primarily in developing atomic-level structure/property relationships for internal interfaces, correlating interface structure and chemistry with physical properties.  One NSF-funded research program aims to develop predictive models for grain boundary segregation in ionic materials.  Her group is developing continuum thermodynamic models that take into account multiple driving forces for segregation and that couple with ab-initio calculations performed by collaborators at the University of Florida and Queen’s University Belfast.   The theoretical development is guided and validated by model experimental studies on rutile TiO2, in which local grain boundary defect chemistry is measured by analytical transmission electron microscopy.  Her group is also interested in understanding atomic mechanisms of electrochemically-induced interfacial phase transformations in metal-ceramic and ceramic-ceramic composites.  She has several research programs related to this topic within the Penn State Center for Dielectric Studies (CDS).   Also under the auspices of the CDS, she is leading a thrust area on electrolytic capacitors.  This project aims to correlate the structure and chemistry of dielectric layers formed by electrochemical anodization with dielectric behavior.  In the area of structural composites, Professor Dickey has research programs funded by AFOSR and Army on directionally solidified ceramic eutectics for ultra-high temperature and armor applications.  Finally, she has several collaborative programs on nanostructured materials, in which she applies advanced electron imaging and spectroscopy techniques to study statics and dynamics of novel nanomaterials.
Technology impacted by research:
Capacitors, electroceramics, structural ceramics, nanoelectronics

Journal Articles and Publications:

1. (2007) X. Zhang, K.-K. Lew, P. Nimmatoori, J.M. Redwing, E.C. Dickey, "Diameter-Dependent Composition of Vapor-Liquid-Solid Grown Si1-xGex Nanowires, " Nanoletters, 7 (10), 3241-3245.

2. (2007) H. Deng, E.C. Dickey, Y.Paderno, V. Paderno, V. Filippiov, "Interface Crystallagraphy and Structure in LaB6-ZrB2 Directionally Solidified Eutectics, " submitted to Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 90(8), 2306-2609.

3. (2007) Q.Wang, O. Varghese, C.A. Grimes, E.C. Dickey, "Grain Boundary Blocking and Segregation Effects in Yttrium-doped Polycrystalline Titanium Dioxide, " Solid State Ionics, 178 (3-4), 187-194.

4. (2007) A.V. Polotai, G.-Y. Yang, E.C. Dickey, C.A. Randall, "Utilization of Multiple Stage Sintering to Control Ni Electrode Continuity in a Ultra-Thin Ni-BaTiO3 Multilayer Capacitors, " Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 90 (12) 3811-3817.

5. (2007) G.Y. Yang, P.Moses, E.C. Dickey, C.A. Randall, "Localized Detection and Analysis of Heterogeneous Electrical Leakage in Thin-Layer Capacitors, " Journal of Materials Research, 22 (12) 3507-3515.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
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