Nano and Biomaterials Research Lab

Our research is focused on the development of supercritical CO₂-based processes to create nanoscale building blocks and their self-assembly into novel materials. Besides being a “green solvent,” supercritical CO₂ offers several unique physical properties such as low ultra-low surface tension, low viscosity, and tunable polarity that are ideally suited for fabrication of nanoscale building blocks.

We design processes that take advantage of these properties to fabricate a broad variety of nanostructures from a range of materials. Specifically, we have developed a modified RESS process to create stable molecular clusters of organic molecules and a Sc-CO2 based nebulization process for the creation of nano-scale wires and 3-D meso-scale porous structures for a large class of inorganic materials and alloys.