CBE - Characterization of Porous Composites for Sustainable Technologies

Porous nanocomposite materials are being developed for various technologies, including refrigerant separations, dehumidification, and coatings for more efficient data center cooling. New metal-organic supercontainers are chemically tunable cages with porosity on the molecular scale. Depending on their environment (dry state, solvent matrix, polymer matrix) these metal-organic supercontainers assemble in different ways (solubilized, disordered aggregates, ordered aggregates with varying crystal lattices). The structure of the supercontainers within the composites affects their performance. In this research, we are trying to understand how the composition of the composite affects molecular interactions and therefore the structural assembly. There is a need to implement high-throughput material characterization and data analysis methods. 

This project currently has multiple subparts with varying tasks, including: i. processing of a large number of X-ray scattering datasets already acquired at the Argonne National Laboratory Advanced Photon Source with newly developed data analysis tools based on Python and other platforms to characterize structure, ii. acquisition and analysis of optical spectroscopy data (i.e., Raman, FTIR) to elucidate molecular interactions, and iii. development of methodology for high-throughput Raman spectra acquisition. The student should specify what part(s) of the project that they are interested in participating in.

This research is part of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub (NSF ERC EARTH). This collaborative research center includes 11 research groups at Notre Dame and researchers at 8 other academic institutions. 

Students should be interested in continuing research for multiple semesters. During the academic year, the large majority of students in the group participate in research for credit (which may not count towards graduation requirements). Paid opportunities may be available for the summer.