[UNL News] NSF award aids Sinitskii’s nanoribbon research

Graphene has garnered much attention for its potential to improve electronics, solar cells and other devices. A University of Nebraska-Lincoln chemist is using his breakthrough graphene production technique to put the promising nanomaterial to the test.

Alexander Sinitskii, assistant professor of chemistry, has earned a five-year, $538,477 Faculty Early Career Development Program Award from the National Science Foundation to investigate graphene’s properties. These prestigious grants, known as CAREER awards, support pre-tenure faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research.

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Photo by: Craig Chandler | University Communications


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Tim defends a Ph.D. thesis, Gilbert defends a Master thesis

Timothy Vo is awarded a Ph.D. in Chemistry. He successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis “Solution-Based Synthesis of Atomically Precise Graphene Nanoribbons“. Congratulations, Dr. Vo!

Gilbert Mbah defends a Master thesis “Three-dimensional scaffolds of graphene, carbon nanotubes and transition-metal oxides for applications in electronics, sensors and energy storage“. Congratulations, Gilbert!


Paper in 30 most accessed articles in Journal of Materials Chemistry C in 2014

A paper by Peter Wilson et al. Three-dimensional periodic graphene nanostructures is one of the 30 most accessed articles in Journal of Materials Chemistry C in 2014. This study demonstrates the possibility of fabricating complex 3D graphene nanostructures by growing graphene on pre-synthesized nanostructured metal templates by chemical vapor deposition and then etching away the metal. Congratulations, Peter!



[UNL News] Study shows graphene can protect nanotechnology from heat

A paper by Peter Wilson et al. was published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. This study shows that graphitic coatings, which consist of multilayer disordered graphene sheets, can be used for the thermal protection of delicate metal nanostructures. We studied cobalt slanted nanopillars grown by glancing angle deposition that were shown to melt at temperatures much lower than the melting point of bulk cobalt. After graphitic coatings were conformally grown over the surfaces of Co nanopillars by chemical vapor deposition, the resulting carbon-coated Co nanostructures retained their morphology at elevated temperatures, which would damage the uncoated structures. Thermal stabilization was also demonstrated for carbon-coated Ti nanopillars. The results of this study may be extended to other metallic and possibly even nonmetallic nanostructures that need to preserve their morphology at elevated temperatures in a broad range of applications.

Great job, Peter!

UNL Communications has published a press release about this study.



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Two papers in ACS journals


A good start to the year 2015! Two papers from our group have been published by ACS journals in January. Alexey’s paper on electropolymerization of poly(phenylene oxide) on graphene was published in Chemistry of Materials, and Peter’s paper on thermal stabilization of metallic nanostructures by graphene coatings was published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Alexandra, Tim and Adam also contributed to these studies. Congratulations!


[UNL News] Researchers engineer improvements of technology used in digital memory

The improvements in random access memory that have driven many advances of the digital age owe much to the innovative application of physics and chemistry at the atomic scale.

Accordingly, a team led by UNL researchers has employed a Nobel Prize-winning material and common household chemical to enhance the properties of a component primed for the next generation of high-speed, high-capacity RAM.
The team, which published its findings in the Nov. 24 edition of the journal Nature Communications, engineered and tested improvements in the performance of a memory structure known as a ferroelectric tunnel junction.

Photo by: Craig Chandler | University Communications


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[UNL News] Team develops chemical solution for graphene challenges

A paper on the bottom-up solution synthesis of atomically precise graphene nanoribbons by Timothy Vo et al. was published in Nature Communications. This study demonstrates a novel bottom–up approach that yields gram quantities of high-aspect-ratio graphene nanoribbons, which are only ~1 nm wide and have atomically smooth armchair edges. These ribbons are shown to have a large electronic bandgap and can be potentially used for the fabrication of electronic devices.

Great job, Tim!

UNL Communications has published a press release that is available at the link below.



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