Abstract:
Materials Synthesis Using Low Temperature Plasmas – from energy storage to superconductivity
Plasmas comprise of a quasi-neutral assembly of gaseous ions and electrons which exist at high temperatures (fusion) or low pressure (sputtering, fluorescent lamps etc.), has been the workhorse for manufacturing semiconductor materials in the last 50 years. This talk will introduce a different, ‘non -equilibrium’ plasma system which works at ambient pressure where the electrons are decoupled from ions and neutral atoms, known as low temperature or atmospheric pressure plasma, which has gained increasing attention in the last decade. Such systems are commercially used in ozone generation, PFAS remediation and dental applications. In particular, low temperature plasmas offer a versatile, economic and scalable method for fabricating materials that are difficult using standard techniques like sputtering, e- beam evaporation, MOCVD or ALD. I will focus on two synthesis applications;
- complex oxides used in batteries, supercapacitors and other energy storage applications
- synthesizing nanocomposites with metal in layered materials like graphene and Boron Nitride which gives rise to disordered superconductivity
Finally I will conclude with some thoughts and observations on materials synthesis under extreme ‘non-equilibrium’ conditions which can allow synthesis and stabilization of phases that normally occur at pressures in the earth’s core.
Research is funded by NSF, ONR and ARO.
Bio: Shomeek Mukhopadhyay is currently a research scientist in Chemical engineering at Yale University. He received his PhD in Physics from Duke University in 2008. After postdoctoral positions at Levich Institute, Columbia University and UC Riverside he joined Yale University in 2012 working with Eric Brown in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. His main research interests are in nanomaterials synthesis with applications in catalysis, superconductivity, energy storage and quantum sensing with Lisa Pfefferle. One of the central themes in the current work is to understand and harness the role of strain in 2D and layered materials. The work on plasma based material synthesis is a collaborative effort with York Plasma Institute, Britain’s largest center for Plasma Research. In addition to research and teaching, he also founded three startups focused on Synthesis, PFAS remediation and Additive Manufacturing respectively and holds 5 patents. His work is funded by DOE, NSF, ARO and ONR and collaboration with York funded by the Royal Society.