Group News

This project focuses on the discovery of design principles for safe, fast-charging, and long-lasting Li-ion battery materials. In coordination with the Natural Sciences Education Outreach Center, we will develop low-cost microscopes with experiential learning activities tailored to different age groups to promote microscopy education in the State of Colorado.

We welcome Justin Toole and Dani Lustig to our team! Justin will advance our understanding of 2D materials and Dani will advance our understanding of energy flow between nanocrystals and molecules. 

The lab’s photoelectrochemistry work on 2D materials will be supported for the next five years by DOE’s Early Career Research Program. See Lauren Brigandi’s article here.

Congrats to 4th year PhD student Zach Nilsson for earning a 2020 Chemical and Molecular Sciences PRSE summer research fellowship from Colorado State University’s OVPR. 

Travis Varra successfully defended his MS thesis. Travis advanced two projects in the group: (1) a homemade smart phone microscope for microscopy education, and (2) chemical vapor deposition of monolayer MoS2. Congrats Travis!

Congrats to 4th year PhD students Colby and Zach on their papers being accepted to ChemElectroChem and ACS Energy Letters. Colby’s work focuses on electrochemical energy storage and Zach gave his perspective on single molecule imaging techniques in the field of photoelectrochemistry. Postdoc Li Wang’s work focuses on the optical and photoelectrochemical properties of monolayer MoS2 in interdigitated array electrodes (ACS Appl Mater Interfaces).

Undergraduate students Travis (now MS student!), Amy, and Benton developed a cool microscopy activity (now online here). Students build a TIRF microscope and use it to image single nanoparticles. The activity helps students observe the optical diffraction limit, which was the subject of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.