Professor:Lena F. Kourkoutis
Project Description:Many nanostructured materials and devices are inherently three-dimensional (3D) and require 3D structural characterization at the nanometer scale. Electron tomography is a powerful technique to study such 3D structures in materials for battery and photovoltaic applications as well as in biomaterials. As part of this summer program, you will use cryogenic electron tomography to image the 3D structure of organic/inorganic materials and composites. Hybrid organic/inorganic materials, nano-composites with organic and inorganic components intimately mixed, have attracted great interest due to their potential in a range of applications including catalysis, energy storage and conversion, sensing and nanomedicine. Understanding and controlling the formation pathways of these hybrid materials will ultimately allow us to engineer new materials with tailored properties.