16th Annual Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Forum – NanoDay! 10/14/15 – Keynote Speaker – Nate Lewis, CalTech

16th Annual Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Forum
Wednesday, October 14, 2015

BUTTRICK HALL
1:10 – 1:25  Welcome Sandra Rosenthal, Chemistry
1:25 – 2:15 New tools in VINSE: Laser Writer, Leon Bellan, MERLIN Scanning Electron Microscope, Anthony Hmelo, Oxford Reaction Ion Etch, Jason Valentine, Dual Beam Focused Ion Beam, Deyu Li, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, Bridget Rogers

FEATHERINGILL HALL
2:25 – 3:10   POSTER SESSION
3:10 – 4:20 KEYNOTE SPEAKER – Sunlight-Driven Hydrogen Formation by Membrane Supported Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting, Nathan Lewis, Caltech, Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beckman Institute and Kavli Nanoscience Institut
4:20 – 5:00 POSTER SESSION
5:00 – 5:20 Understanding the Nanoscale Response of Complex Optical Structures, Jordan
Hachtel
, Graduate Student Physics
5:20 – 5:40 Environmental Applications of Nanomaterials, Shihong Lin, Civil Engineering
5:40 – 6:00 Studying two-dimensional materials using multidimensional collaborations at
VINSE,
Kirill Bolotin, Physics
6:00 RECEPTION AND POSTER AWARDS

Abstract. We are developing an artificial photosynthetic system that will utilize sunlight and water as inputs and will produce hydrogen and oxygen as outputs using a modular, parallel development approach in which the three distinct primary components-the photoanode, the photocathode, and the product-separating but ion-conducting membrane-are fabricated and optimized separately before assembly into a water-splitting system. The design principles incorporate two separate, photosensitive semiconductor/liquid junctions that will collectively generate the 1.7-1.9 V at open circuit to support both the oxidation of H2O (or OH) and the reduction of H+ (or H2O). The photoanode and photocathode will consist of rod-like semiconductor components, with attached heterogeneous multi-electron transfer catalysts, needed to drive the oxidation or reduction reactions at low overpotentials.  The high aspect-ratio semiconductor rod electrode architecture allows for the use of low cost, earth abundant materials without sacrificing energy conversion efficiency due to orthogonalization of light absorption and charge-carrier collection.  Additionally, the high surface-area design of the rod-based semiconductor array electrode inherently lowers the flux of charge carriers over the rod array surface relative to the projected geometric surface of the photoelectrode, lowering the photocurrent density at the solid/liquid junction and thereby relaxing demands on the activity (and cost) of any electrocatalysts.  Flexible composite polymer film will allow for electron and ion conduction between the photoanode and photocathode while simultaneously preventing mixing of the gaseous products.  Separate polymeric materials will be used to make electrical contact between the anode and cathode and also provide structural support.  Interspersed patches of an ion conducting polymer will maintain charge balance between the two half-cells.  The modularity design approach allows each piece to be independently modified, tested, and improved, as future advances in semiconductor, polymeric, and catalytic materials are made.  This work will demonstrate a feasible and functional prototype and blueprint for an artificial photosynthetic system, composed of inexpensive, earth-abundant materials while simultaneously efficient, durable, manufacturably scalable, and readily upgradeable.

Bio. Dr. Nathan S. Lewis is the George L. Argyros Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology and the Scientific Director of the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, the DOE’s Energy Innovation Hub in Fuels from Sunlight.  Professor Lewis is Principal Investigator of the Beckman Institute Molecular Materials Resource Center.  His research interests include artificial photosynthesis and electronic noses. Nate continues to study ways to harness sunlight and generate chemical fuel by splitting water to generate hydrogen. He is developing the electronic nose, which consists of chemically sensitive conducting polymer film capable of detecting and quantifying a broad variety of analytes. Technical details focus on light-induced electron transfer reactions, both at surfaces and in transition metal complexes, surface chemistry and photochemistry of semiconductor/liquid interfaces, novel uses of conducting organic polymers and polymer/conductor composites, and development of sensor arrays that use pattern recognition algorithms to identify odorants, mimicking the mammalian olfaction process.

  1. Bacterial Sepsis Therapeutic Design Guided by a Nanoparticle-Based Model
    Presented by: Sinead Miller, Biomedical Engineering (Giorgio)
  2. Defect luminescence from wurtzite CuInS2 nanocrystals
    Presented by: Alice Leach, Interdisciplinary Materials Science (Macdonald)
  3. Modeling Carbide-Derived Carbons with ReaxFF
    Presented by: Matt Thompson, Chemical Engineering (Cummings)
  4. Pre-fabricated surfaces for high-throughput analysis of biological samples using Imaging Mass Spectrometry
    Presented by: Faizan Zubair, Chemical Engineering (Laibinis/Caprioli)
  5. Silicon-Vanadium Dioxide Ring Resonator for Optical Modulation
    Presented by: Kevin Miller, Interdisciplinary Materials Science (Weiss)
  6. Synthesis of Monolayer MoS2 Via Chemical Vapor Deposition
    Presented by: Ahmad Iffat Alias, Chemical Engineering (Xu)
  7. Progress towards complete photocatalytic water splitting utilizing hybrid nanoparticles
    Presented by: Andrew La Croix, Chemistry (Macdonald)
  8. Tunable Transition from Hydration to Monomer-Supported Lubrication in Zwitterionic Monolayers
    Presented by: Christoph Klein, Chemical Engineering (McCabe/Cummings)
  9. Development of RNAi Nanotechnology to Selectively Inhibit mTORC2 in Breast Cancer
    Presented by: Thomas Werfel, Biomedical Engineering (Duvall)
  10. Size-Dependent Cellular Uptake of DNA Functionalized Gold Nanoparticles
    Presented by: Alexis Wong, Chemistry (Wright)
  11. pH Dependent Electron Transfer Rate of Water-Soluble Monolayer-Protected Gold
    Presented by: David Crisostomo, Chemistry (Cliffel)
  12. Thermal Conductivity Enhancement of Double Nanoribbons with a VDW Interface
    Presented by: Matthew Gerboth, Interdisciplinary Materials Science (Walker)
  13. Molecular Dynamics Study of the Degradation of Alkylsilane Monolayers Under Shear
    Presented by: Andrew Summers, Chemical Engineering (McCabe/Cummings)
  14. Thermal conductivity of electrospun polyethylene nanofibers
    Presented by: Qian Zhang, Mechanical Engineering (Li)
  15. An external shape memory support to prevent vein failure
    Presented by: Tim Boire, Biomedical Engineering (Sung)
  16. On-the-fly Pseudopotentials
    Presented by: Casey Brock, Interdisciplinary Materials Science (Walker)
  17. Investigation of Photoluminescence Optimization in Indium Phosphide Quantum Dots Using Correlated Fluorescence and Electron
    Presented by: Kemar Reid, Interdisciplinary Materials Science (Rosenthal)
  18. Ultrafast Sodium Ion Cointercalation in Highly Crystalline Few-Layered Graphene
    Presented by: Adam Cohn, Mechanical Engineering (Pint)
  19. Controlled Surface Chemistry for the Directed Attachment of Cu2S Nanoparticles
    Presented by: Evan Robinson, Chemistry (Macdonald)
  20. PEG-PCL Copolymers Reinstating Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell potency: Study of Structure-Function Relationship
    Presented by: Daniel Balikov, Biomedical Engineering (Sung)
  21. Functionalization of Carbon Silica Composites with Active Metal Sites for NH3 and SO2 Adsorption
    Presented by: Dushyant Barpaga, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering (LeVan)
  22. Smart Nanocomposites Enable Activity of Therapeutic Peptide Nucleic Acids In Vivo
    Presented by: Kelsey Beavers, Interdisciplinary Materials Science (Duvall/Weiss)
  23. Nanoelectrode Array Designed to Monitor Cellular Bioenergetics and Evaporation for Organ-on-a-Chip Systems
    Presented by: Anna Davis, Chemistry (Cliffel)
  24. Thiols in nanocrystal synthesis: Capping ligands that are more than skin deep
    Presented by: Michael Turo, Chemistry (Macdonald)
  25. Molecular Dynamics Study of Alkylsilane Monolayers on Realistic Amorphous Silica Surfaces
    Presented by: Jana Black, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering (McCabe/Cummings)
  26. Oligoproline-Derived Nanocarrier for Dual Stimuli-Responsive Gene Delivery
    Presented by: Mukesh Kumar Gupta, Biomedical Engineering (Sung)
  27. The Talbot effect in graphene
    Presented by: Jorge Salas, Physics (Varga)
  28. Functionalized Zinc Oxide Nanowire-Based Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy of Organic Molecules in Fluids
    Presented by: Andrew Cook, Biomolecular Engineering(Giorgio)
  29. Iron Pyrite Nanocrystals with Crystal Bound Thiols for Solar Energy Capture
    Presented by: Jordan Rhodes, Chemistry (Macdonald)
  30. Composite Membrane with Asymmetric Wettability for Anti-Oil-Fouling Membrane Distillation
    Presented by: Zhangxin Wang, Civil Engineering (Lin)
  31. Solvent-free assembly of Photosystem I-polypyrrole composites for efficient biohybrid photovoltaics
    Presented by: Maxwell Robinson, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering (Jennings)
  32. Probing interactions between siRNA polyplexes and serum albumin for optimizing micelle corona chemistry and improving in vivo performance
    Presented by: Meredith Jackson, Biomedical Engineering (Duvall)
  33. Synthesis and Characterization of Au2S—Cu2S nanoparticles
    Presented by: Summer Arrowood, Chemistry (Macdonald) 

    1st year IGPMS rotation posters submissions

1RS. Non-proliferation Paint: Applying the photoluminescence properties of Tetrakis, Eu(DBM)3, in the tracking of special nuclear material
Presented by: Andrew Tonigan, Interdisciplinary Materials Science (Walker)

2RS. Development of 3D Gelatin-Based Hydrogels As A Platform For Spatiotemporal Control of Morphogen Gradient
Presented by: Brian O’Grady, Interdisciplinary Materials Science (Rosenthal)