Research

Materials Synthesis & Crystal Growth

Inorganic crystals with nanoscale dimensions are important functional materials and building blocks to larger devices. The properties of nanocrystals depend on physical parameters that include crystallite size, shape, composition, and architecture and tremendous achievements have been made regarding the synthesis of structurally well-defined nanocrystals. Even with these advances, fundamental questions about nanocrystal formation remain and many materials have yet to be synthesized as high-quality nanoscale samples or using scalable technologies. We work to provide general synthetic routes to high-quality nanomaterials.

Plasmonics & Electrocatalysis

Metal nanomaterials show interesting optical and catalytic properties that depend on particle size and shape. We use our synthetic methods to achieve novel metal nanostructures and then study how their composition and structure contribute to these properties.

Solar-to-Fuel Conversion and Separations

Local structure, nanoscale structure, and macroscale structure contribute to the properties of materials for solar-to-fuel conversion processes and for those used as catalyst supports and in separations. Our synthetic advances are enabling students to study materials for these diverse applications.