Abstract: Graphene is a single layer networks of atoms and provides ballistic transport of charge carriers. This is essentially an attractive feature for low power electronic devices. These devices require deposition of thin uniform dielectrics between two semiconducting layers. However, graphene surface is considered to be less-reactive, thus the dielectric layer selectively nucleates on defect sites or step edges rather than all over the surface uniformly. It is however possible to overcome this difficulty via depositing a reactive seed layer without perturbing the graphene electronic properties. Another important application of functionalized graphene surface is in energy applications. We will discuss three different applications of functionalized graphene surfaces: (i) as an anhydrous proton transport membrane for fuel cell operations (ii) a Pt-free electro catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) occurring at the cathode side of any hydrogen fuel cell and (iii) a single-metal active catalyst for methane activation process.
Bio: Prof Choudhury completed his B Tech from IIT Bombay, M Tech from IIT Roorkee and Ph.D. from University of South Florida, all in Chemical Engineering. He was also a post-doctoral research associate at University of Pittsburgh and Center for nanoscale materials at Argonne National Lab. Currently he is an associate professor in the department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at New Mexico Tech. Professor Choudhury's research interests involve multi-scale theoretical calculations, particularly as it applies to develop advanced materials with desired properties to address some key problems related to energy, electronic, thermoelectric and high entropy alloy materials.
This seminar is compulsory for students registered for course CL 702 or CL 704.