Inorganic, materials, and physical chemistry: Synthesis and surface-functionalization of materials, assembly of nanostructured interfaces, spectroscopic characterization of photoinduced electron transfer.
Materials synthesis; Surface chemistry; Photochemistry; Electron transfer processes; Spectroscopy
Our research involves materials chemistry, surface chemistry, photochemistry, and spectroscopy. We synthesize nanostructured inorganic materials, functionalize their surfaces with molecules and nanoparticles, and study photoinduced charge transfer at the resulting interfaces. Our goals are (1) to synthesize nanostructured materials architectures with intriguing light-harvesting properties and charge-transfer reactivity and potential applications in energy conversion, and (2) to develop, through our fundamental studies, structure-property-reactivity relationships pertaining to surface functionalization and electron transfer at nanostructured interfaces.
Current research projects focus on (1) the synthesis of quantum dot-molecule-semiconductor interfaces and the interrogation of their photoinduced charge-transfer reactivity, (2) electron injection from organic dyes to metal oxide semiconductors, and (3) fundamental studies of monolayers and mixed monolayers of adsorbates on porous metal oxide films.
Students working in our research group develop skills in synthetic materials chemistry, materials characterization techniques, surface chemistry, time-resolved spectroscopy, photochemistry, and electrochemistry.
Google scholar profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=sJNoYE8AAAAJ