Topics

KEMP Student Research Application 2016 for Undergraduate Students interested in Materials Science Research and Education.

• Xianhui Bu:

  Our research area includes the synthesis, structural, and property characterization of crystalline inorganic or inorganic-organic hybrid materials. We seek to correlate structural features with physical properties and to design synthetic methods to prepare functional materials and to tune their structures and properties. We worke with a wide range of solid state materials. Many techniques are available for structure and property characterizations. The following are some areas of research we are currently interested in.

  • Homochirality generation and biomimetic chiral phenomena in inorganic and inorganic-organic hybrid solids
  • Synthetic design of crystalline porous materials (CPM) for energy and environmental applications
  • Development of new synthesis methods including novel solvent systems in materials synthesis and design

• Shahab Derakhshan

  Our research group is interested in synthesis, crystal structure determination, electronic structure calculations and physical properties measurement of some functional materials. The major focus is devoted to the energy related functional Materials (Thermoelectrics, Hydrogen Production Photo-catalysts, Fuel Cells), and exotic magnetic properties in extended solids. A good understanding of the connections between crystal structure, electronic structure and physical properties will lead us to rationally design and produce these functional materials. The crystal structure (elemental composition, bonding characteristics and connectivity) determines the electronic structure, which in turn explains the physical properties.

• Thomas Gredig:

  Phthalocyanine thin films have many important applications in gas sensors, photoconductors, dyes, and photovoltaic devices. In our lab we deposit phthalocyanine thin films and characterize the morphology, the charge transport properties, as well as optical and magnetic properties. The properties of metallo-phthalocyanine can be tuned by choosing the appropriate metal as the central ion.

• Michael Peterson:

  My group studies strongly correlated quantum systems–one of the most exciting, challenging, and rewarding areas in all of physics. Areas of particular interest are (in no specific order):

  • The fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE)
  • Topological quantum phases – and – applications of those topological phases to topological quantum computation
  • Quantum phases of ultra-cold atom systems, especially in optical lattices
  • Thermoelectrics in strongly correlated materials and models
  • Composite Fermion theory of the FQHE
  • Lattice models of strongly correlated systems, i.e., Hubbard and t-J models

  We utilize computationally heavy numerical methods such as Monte Carlo, exact/Lanczos diagonalization, and parallelization using high performance computer clusters and often supplement the work by analytics.

• Young-Seok Shon (principal investigator):

  My research focuses on three general areas: 1) unsupported ligand-capped metal nanoparticles for catalytic applications and enzyme mimics, 2) nanoparticle-dendron hybrids as multifunctional theranostic/drug delivery systems, and 3) engineered nanoparticle hybrids for heterogeneous catalysis and structural stability analysis.

  • Fine tuning of structure and composition of hybrids to understand of structure-function relationships
    • metal nanoparticulate materials with high activity and selectivity
    • supporting nanostructures with high surface area to mass ratio, good electrical conductivity, and mass transport of reactants
  • Preparation methods and catalytic properties of nanoparticle-two dimensional nanosheets
  • Potential new hybrid materials for heterogeneous catalysis: creation of a novel research area
  • Biomass conversion and biofuel applications: advanced
    • maximized activity
    • low cost and light weight  use of less materials
  • Important other potential applications in solar cells (Dr. Gredig), transparent electric conducting films (Drs. Derakhshan and Peterson), biological and environmental sensing, and biomedical materials