Farewell Dr. Dewan

We would like to say goodbye and congratulations to Shalaka Dewan, a post-doctoral student studying the Role of β carbon in the ethanol oxidation reaction on Platinum catalysts. She has accepted a position at IPG Photonics as a Laser Engineer....
Read More

Master’s Graduates

We would like to say goodbye and congratulations to our two recently graduated master’s students, Matthew Gonzalez and Jerome Fineman. Both of these bright minded members will be moving on to bigger better things. Matt will be pursue his PhD at University of California: San Diego in the lab of Dr. Ping. Jerome has accepted an offer with Accenture as a Technology Consultant....
Read More

Raciti Paper Published in Nano Energy

David’s paper on Pt3Re alloy nanoparticles as electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction been published in Nano Energy. The paper uses a nanoparticle Pt3Re system to study the catalytic enhancement of the oxygen reduction reaction due to ligand effect. Congratulations to David! Read it here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=rk_ukIYAAAAJ&citation_for_view=rk_ukIYAAAAJ:9yKSN-GCB0IC  ...
Read More

Raciti Paper Published in Nanoletters

David’s paper on highly dense Cu Nanowires for Low Overpotential CO2 Reduction has been published in Nanoletters. The paper uses thermal growth of CuO nanowires to synthesize an array of CuO nanowires from a Cu mesh substrate. These CuO nanowires are then reduced via two techniques and applied as catalysts for CO2 reduction. Congratulations to David! Read it here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=rk_ukIYAAAAJ&citation_for_view=rk_ukIYAAAAJ:d1gkVwhDpl0C...
Read More

Wang Chosen for AFOSR’s Young Investigator Research Program

Chao Wang, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, has been selected by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to receive a 2014 Young Investigator Research Program grant. The Young Investigators Program recognizes engineers and scientists who have received their PhDs or equivalent degrees within the last five years and who show exceptional ability and promise for conducting basic research. The program aims to foster creative basic research, as well as to enhance early investigators’ career development. Chao, whose research focuses on the development of advanced nanomaterials and nanotechnologies to address global challenges such as renewable energy and green chemical engineering, is supported for his work in tailoring magnetic nanomaterials for electromagnetic wave absorption....
Read More

A New Breed of Catalysts

The idea is simple: Capture the carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere by gasoline-and-oil-burning vehicles, factories, and power plants, and convert it into fuel, preventing the CO2 from contributing to climate change and creating a sustainable, eco-friendly cycle. But doing so is not as easy as it sounds. Why? Because it takes an enormous amount of energy to transform CO2 into useful fuels such as methanol. The key lies in catalysts: substances that speed up chemical reactions. Under a $1 million National Science Foundation grant, Timothy Mueller and Chao Wang are teaming up in search of a new breed of catalysts. They are taking a two-pronged approach to designing nanoparticle-sized alloy catalysts that they contend have the potential to be both more stable and more powerful than the single-material catalysts currently used to convert CO2 to methanol. “We are using a combined computational-experimental approach to tackle this challenge,” says Mueller, an assistant professor of materials science. He and Wang, an assistant professor of...
Read More