Publications

Apr, 2026

Journal

Membrane-based Solvent Extraction for the Recovery of Rare Earths from Phosphate Mining Process Streams

This study reports on the capture of rare earth elements (REEs) from phosphate industry process streams, including phosphoric acid (PA) sludge and phosphogypsum (PG), using a membrane solvent extraction (MSX) process. While MSX has been proven effective for a relatively concentrated feed, its effectiveness for dilute REEs solutions remains unexplored. Investigated PA-sludg…

Feb, 2026

Journal

Protein Adhesion on Semi-Fluorinated Polystyrene Surfaces in Static and Dynamic Measurements

Reducing protein adhesion is a critical strategy in fouling-resistant material innovation, with broad applications spanning biomedical and healthcare devices, biosensors, industrial and environmental systems, and other important technological domains. In this study, we elucidated protein adhesion behavior on polystyrene-based thin films by neutron reflectometry (NR) and qu…

Jan, 2026

Journal

Tunable structure and reinforcement of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogels using fungal chitin particles

Polysaccharides, including chitin, are one of the most abundant biopolymers in nature and are increasingly recognized as a sustainable alternative to petroleum-derived plastics and synthetic fillers in polymer composites. Traditionally sourced from crustacean shells, chitin offers mechanical strength and biocompatibility with limitations also in processability and function…

Dec, 2025

Journal

Nonequilibrium Synthesis of TiO2 Nanoparticle “Building Blocks” for Crystal Growth by Sequential Attachment in Pulsed Laser Deposition

Nonequilibrium growth pathways for crystalline nanostructures with metastable phases are demonstrated through the gas-phase formation, attachment, and crystallization of ultrasmall amorphous nanoparticles as building blocks in pulsed laser deposition (PLD). Temporally and spatially resolved gated-intensified charge couple device (ICCD) imaging and ion probe measurements ar…

Dec, 2025

Journal

Defect Engineering in Large-Scale CVD-Grown Hexagonal Boron Nitride: Formation, Spectroscopy, and Spin Relaxation Dynamics

Recently, numerous techniques have been reported for generating optically active defects in exfoliated hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), which hold transformative potential for quantum photonic devices. However, achieving on-demand generation of desirable defect types in scalable hBN films remains a significant challenge. Here, it is demonstrated that formation of negative bo…

Aug, 2025

Journal

Focused Helium Ion Beam for Direct Patterning of Monolayer MoS2 Nanoribbon Field Effect Devices

The helium ion microscope (HIM) focused ion beam (FIB) has emerged as a powerful tool to directly pattern nanostructures below 10 nm due to its high-resolution capabilities and the inert nature of the ion source. These attributes make HIM FIB particularly interesting for patterning 2D materials such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) to investigate transport phenom…

Aug, 2025

Journal

Nanoscale Editing of Multi and Single Layer Tungsten Disulfide via Gas-Assisted Focused Electron Beam Induced Etching for Device Prototyping

Focused electron beam induced etching (FEBIE) with XeF2 (xenon difluoride) precursor is conducted on multi-layer exfoliated WS2 (tungsten disulfide) and monolayer WS2 grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The films are characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy post-etching. The etch rates/efficiencies are reported…

Mar, 2025

Journal

Thin film combinatorial sputtering of TaTiHfZr refractory compositionally complex alloys for rapid materials discovery

Many applications from advanced nuclear reactors to aerospace and automotive industries require materials to operate in extreme environments. In search of new materials that can operate in these extremes, the present work explores this space whereby: (1) guided by atomistic and thermodynamic calculations we utilize thin film combinatorial synthesis to rapidly explore mecha…

Aug, 2024

Conference Paper

Direct Visualization of Metal Sintering and Powder Bed Fusion of 316 Stainless Steel Powders via In Situ Scanning Electron Microscopy

Jul, 2024

Journal

Selected Area Manipulation of MoS2 via Focused Electron Beam-Induced Etching for Nanoscale Device Editing

We demonstrate direct-write patterning of single and multilayer MoS2 via a focused electron beam-induced etching (FEBIE) process mediated with the XeF2 precursor. MoS2 etching is performed at various currents, areal doses, on different substrates, and characterized using scanning electron and atomic force microscopies as well as Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopies.…

Jan, 2024

Journal

Direct Visualization of Charge Migration in Bilayer Tantalum Oxide Films by Multimodal Imaging

Inspired by biological neuromorphic computing, artificial neural networks based on crossbar arrays of bilayer tantalum oxide memristors have shown to be promising alternatives to conventional complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) architectures. In order to understand the driving mechanism in these oxide systems, tantalum oxide films are resistively switched by con…

Dec, 2023

Journal

Selected Area Deposition of PtCx Nanostructures: Implications for Functional Coatings of 3D Nanoarchitectures

We report that selected area deposition of 3D nanostructures is induced via a pyrolytic laser chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process where selected area heating results from the unique photothermal transport regime that is intrinsic to 3D nanostructures. PtCx composite nanostructures were deposited by focused electron beam-induced deposition (FEBID) and used as 3D templat…