Plasmonic metasurfaces are leading the development of next-generation optical devices with unprecedented compactness and functionality. In contrast to bulk refractive optics, these planar surfaces manipulate light with rationally designed subwavelength building blocks. This thesis focus on how emerging materials and design methods advance the eld of metasurfaces. Chapter 1 reviews...
Organic semiconductors are an active area of research with great promise for delivering next generation electronics and clean energy technologies. As the field matures, understanding the connection between molecular structure, materials’ properties, and device performance will be critical in finding the right material for an intended application. An effective strategy...
Increasing industrialization and the resulting negative environmental impacts highlight the need to develop alternative renewable energy sources. The Sun is a massive source and organic solar cells are a growing field of study. As new materials are synthesized, the efficiencies of organic solar cells continue to grow, but without an...
One of the grand challenges in materials chemistry and nanochemistry is the development of functional materials through ordered, hierarchical structures using synthetic building blocks. Nature has done this through evolution of molecular components such as nucleic acids, saccharides, lipids, amino acids, and inorganic crystals. The precise spatial positioning of these...
This thesis centers around the development and application of novel high throughput lithography tools. These advances help: 1) establish the field of nanocombinatorics, where massive libraries (termed megalibraries) of materials can be prepared in a positionally encoded manner and then screened for functional activity, and 2) advance stereolithographic 3D printing...
Functional electronic materials are difficult to design due to the complex interplay among chemistry, atomic structure, and electrical properties. This dilemma is further amplified in transition metal compounds which can defy the band-theory description of non-correlated electrons. Exploring the vast possible design space completely with experiments or first-principles simulations is...
Biomaterials have immense potential for studying fundamental biological processes and developing therapies to help regenerate or replace the structure and function of injured tissues. In order to accomplish this, they need to be designed to mimic the structure and function of Nature’s most important material, the extracellular matrix (ECM) surrounding...
The dissertation systematically delineates the mechanically-guided deterministic assembly of three-dimensional (3D) mesostructures by compressive buckling, covering topics from mechanics concepts, design and analysis, fabrication techniques, to application opportunities. The development of approaches to form complex 3D functional mesostructures in advanced materials is a topic of broad interest, thanks to the...
SAMDI-MS (Self-Assembled Monolayers for MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry) couples the use of chemically-defined self-assembled monolayers of alkane thiolates on gold surfaces with MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry for rapid characterization of the surfaces. Reactions performed on the surfaces can be quantified directly by detection of the reaction substrates and products. This rapid detection...
Electrostatic interactions mediated by ionic environments play a central role in physical processes across materials science, chemistry and biology. Key biological phenomena, such as the condensation and packaging of DNA, ion transport across cellular membranes and the enzymatic action of proteins, rely on the complex interplay between nanoscale electrostatic, osmotic...