Nanomaterials for Energy & Environmental Sustainability

We study the surface chemistry of organic species on catalyst, electronic materials, and engineered nanomaterials. We explore how catalyst reactivity trends are controlled by the molecular structures and molecular orientations of species at the surface. We are also interested in heterogeneous processes of liquid hydrocarbons and in proton coupled electron transfer reactions on carbon substrates such as monolayer graphene. We also investigate the ordering of organic molecules at interfaces of liquids and gases with organic thin films (transistors and transducers) to yield enhanced electronic device performances. More recently, we have begun working on energy conversion. 

Selected Publications:

“Lipid Corona Formation from Nanoparticle Interactions with Bilayers”
Laura L Olenick, Julianne M Troiano, Ariane Vartanian, Eric S Melby, Arielle C Mensch, Leili Zhang, Jiewei Hong, Oluwaseun Mesele, Tian Qiu, Jared Bozich, Samuel Lohse, Xi Zhang, Thomas R Kuech, Augusto Millevolte, Ian Gunsolus, Alicia C McGeachy, Merve Dogangun, Tianzhe Li, Dehong Hu, Stephanie R Walter, Aurash Mohaimani, Angela Schmoldt, Marco D Torelli, Katherine R Hurley, Joe Dalluge, Gene Chong, Z Vivian Feng, Christy L Haynes, Robert J Hamers, Joel A Pedersen, Qiang Cui, Rigoberto Hernandez, Rebecca Klaper, Galya Orr, Catherine J Murphy, and Franz M. Geiger
Chem, 4, 1-15 (2018) and ChemRxiv.5512996 (2018)

“Hydrogen Bond Networks Near Supported Lipid Bilayers from Vibrational Sum Frequency Generation Experiments and Atomistic Simulations”
Merve Dogangun, Paul Ohno, Dongyue Liang, Alicia McGeachy, Ariana Bé, Naomi Dalchand, Tianzhe Li, Qiang Cui, and Franz M. Geiger
J. Phys. Chem. B, 122, 4870-4879 and ChemRxiv.5946556.v2 and arXiv:1803.01202 (2018)

“Apopinene as a biorenewable monomer for ring-opening metathesis polymerization”
Regan J. Thomson, Benjamin Strick, Franz M. Geiger, and Massimiliano Delferro
US Patent 9850340 (2017)

“Aqueous Proton Transfer Across Single Layer Graphene”
Jennifer L. Achtyl, Raymond R. Unocic, Lijun Xu, Yu Cai, Muralikrishna Raju, Weiwei Zhang, Robert L. Sacci, Ivan V. Vlassiouk, Pasquale F. Fulvio, Panchapakesan Ganesh, David J. Wesolowski, Sheng Dai, Adri C. T. van Duin, Matthew Neurock, and Franz M. Geiger
Nature Communications, 6, 6539 (2015).

Synthesis and Characterization of Chemically Pure Nanometer-Thin Zero-Valent Iron Films and Their Surfaces”
Franz M. Geiger and D Faurie-Wisniewski
J. Phys. Chem. C, 118, 23256-23263 (2014)