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Physics Colloquium
Nanocomposite Formation for Coatings, Flexible Photovoltaics Cells and Field Emission Devices
On, Wednesday, Oct. 4, The University of Texas at Dallas will host a Physics Colloquium featuring Professor Seamus Curran. Dr. Curran is currently a professor in the physics department at New Mexico State University. The colloquium will be located in Founders North 2.102 from 4-5pm.
The research initiated at New Mexico State University has focused on developing nanocomposites to build more interesting and novel devices. This has been achieved by combining a wide variety of polymer hosts both conjugated and nonconjugated and then adding different nanofiller materials. The fillers have included nanotubes, fullerenes, quantum dots and organic -- based dye molecules. This has been done in a controlled manner by using the latest techniques in near --field optical microscopy, proximal probe methodologies and understanding the vibration changes that occur in the formation of these nanocomposites. The results have led to the development of nanocomposites with conductivities of 35 s/m at loadings of 0.9 wt% (from multi-walled nanotubes), photovoltaic cells with efficiencies(η)beyond 5%, and new flexible field emission devices with enhancement factor(β)of 19,100 at a turn -- on voltage of below1V/μm2.
About the Speaker
Dr. Curran received his Ph.D. from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland in 1995. He was awarded several European fellowships and spent two years at Rensselaer’s Nanotechnology Center before joining NMSU. Dr. Curran received the "New Mexico All Star in Micro and Nanotechnology" award and his results were featured in The National Science Foundation’s "best of the best" research nuggets for 2005-2006. Dr. Curran's research interests include spectroscopy and fabrication of nanomaterials and devices on their basis.
Updated: 2006-09-29
