Nanotechnology

Process engineering for functional nanomaterials is the theme underlying research activities pursued by Venugopal and coworkers. Novel processes for high throughput, room-temperature synthesis of noble metal nanoparticles have been developed based on an understanding of nanoparticle growth and aggregation mechanisms involved in standard batch protocols. These insights have been successfully extended for generation of functional nanostructured thin films using additive manufacturing approaches. Using a print-expose-develop process nanostructured conductive silver films have been formed on flexible substrates with an office inkjet printer. Product development efforts with the goals of point-of-use pesticide detection, low-cost electrocatalyst layers for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), wearable electronics and ubiquitous sensing are being actively pursued.

Gupta and co-workers use population balance approaches to investigate the role of various mechanisms, such as nucleation, growth, coagulation, capping, and ripening of nanoparticles in influencing particle size distribution to develop better and efficient nanoparticle synthesis methods. Nucleation of metal nanoparticles mediated by organizer molecules is emerging as an alternative pathway. Novel technologies are being pioneered for high throughput synthesis of metal nanoparticles and semiconductor nanowires in large scales. Spinning disc spinning bowl reactor is an outcome of these efforts. Researchers in the Ayappa laboratory are applying molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations to understand the structure and dynamics of fluids confined to the nanoscale.