Tags: Materials Chemistry and Nanoscience Seminar

Lead halide perovskite nanocrystal (PNC) materials have garnered much attention lately because of their fascinating optical and optoelectronic characteristics. These characteristics make them excellent candidates for photovoltaic applications with high power conversion efficiencies for solar cell applications. However, degradation during thermal treatment and poor stability against moisture and UV light are common problems for PNCs. Hence, for…

MXenes, as a class of two-dimensional materials, have emerged as promising candidates for next-generation microelectronics and energy storage devices due to their excellent electrical conductivity, solution processability, structural tunability and outstanding electrochemical performance. In 2019, the Beidaghi group reported the fabrication of all-solid-state micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) via three-dimensional (3D) printing of additive-free and…

Polyhydroxyalkanoates, a class of biodegradable polyester made by fermentation, are explored via extrusion with various additives for the goal of improving mechanical properties. Two types of PHA are used, poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) with 6% hexanoate and 8% hexanoate, to understand how copolymer ratios affect properties. The two PHAs undergo blending and reactive extrusion with additives such as radical peroxide initiator, PLA…

Synthesis of complex solids is often a bottleneck of the materials by design concept. The limitations of conventional synthetic approaches resulted in inability to synthesize predicted materials in ternary and quaternary systems with drastically different reactivities of the constituent elements. Several strategies to advance synthesis and produce challenging phases will be discussed, such as averaging precursor reactivity by atomic mixing of…

Chemical Vapor Transport (CVT) is a useful synthetic method for low-dimensional nanomaterials. This seminar will discuss how we’ve used it to achieve high-quality 1-D and 2-D material synthesis at high yields and larger scales than previously reported for transition metal chalcogenides and transition metal chalcohalides, and how CVT has been used for the controlled growth of several uranium and thorium chalcogenides. With polymorph control…

Creating and curating new data appends the way we approach materials science. In additive manufacturing (AM), the fabrication of parts and objects with high complexity and high performance is advantageous over other methods. Using nanocomposites enables highly improved properties even with “commodity polymers” that do not need to undergo high-temperature processes or extensive reformulation. With artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/…