The continuing increase in atmospheric CO2 to concentrations exceeding 400 ppm has attracted considerable attention from both scientists and policymakers. Industrial fossil fuel consumption generates a significant amount of CO2 emissions, and in particular, energy-intensive molecular separations that require thermal processes, such as distillation, drying, or evaporation, are responsible for...
The demand for low cost, unconventional electronics requires new materials with unique characteristics that the traditionally used silicon-based technologies cannot provide. Metal oxide semiconductors, such has amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO), have made impressive strides as alternatives to amorphous silicon for electronics applications. However, to achieve the full potential...
Nanoparticle synthesis is capable of producing particles with any combination of structure, chemistry, size, shape, and surface. All of the different combinations of these physical properties can produce nanoparticles with almost countless materials properties suited for many applications. Given this interest in using nanoparticles in so many different fields, including...
The era of quantum information science (QIS) can usher revolutionary new capabilities ranging from quantum computation to quantum sensing. At the core of these technologies is the fundamental unit of QIS, the quantum bit or qubit. The power of qubits over their classical counterparts lies in their ability to be...
As the pursuit for higher performance and lower cost photovoltaics, and for new applications of optoelectronic devices moves beyond crystalline silicon, there are many unique opportunities for materials research into hybrid organic-inorganic, and organic semiconductors. This dissertation focuses on both hybrid organic-inorganic materials and organic materials for optoelectronic applications. In...
Transition metal oxides (TMOs) like perovskites are known to be versatile for functional properties such as ferroelectricity, magnetism, optical properties, and high-temperature superconductivity, because of their sensitive coupling between atomic structure and properties. By studying and understanding the fundamental structure-property relationships present in TMOs, it is possible to strategically engineer...
The Controlled, Site-Isolated Synthesis of Polyelemental Nanostructures in Polymer Nanoreactors Pengcheng Chen Polyelemental nanoparticles are an attractive class of materials due to their potential applications, which span the fields of catalysis, plasmonics, electronics, magnetics, targeted drug delivery, and bio-imaging. However, conventional synthetic methods for such structures are limited, especially when...
The halide perovskites AMX3 (A = large cation, B = Sn or Pb, and X = halide) have been the subject of intense investigation due to their outstanding optical and electronic properties, which have enabled high solar cell efficiencies thanks to a beneficial electronic structure and long charge carrier lifetimes....