Advanced Materials

General Information About our Research Group

The LSU materials thrust includes diverse research projects that focus on advanced materials for the microelectronic, MEMS and specialty chemicals industries. Research involves using electrochemical techniques, chemical vapor deposition and wet chemical processing methods to deposit thin films, .nanowires, nanoparticles and bulk forms. The resulting materials are useful for a variety of applications, including heterogeneous catalysis, fuel cell technology, biological and chemical sensing, and magnetic storage. Research is interdisciplinary with collaborations within the Center for BioModular Multi-Scale Systems and through a NSF-IGERT for macromolecular studies. Unique facilities exist at LSU to support materials research including a synchrotron radiation source at the Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices (CAMD), providing x-ray lithography facilities and surface science analyses (e.g. XANES, EXAFS). Microscopy facilities are also available in the Materials Characterization Facility in the College of Engineering. Currently both graduate and undergraduate students are actively engaged in research and present their results at national/international meetings sponsored, for example, by AIChE, ECS and MRS.

Professors Involved:

Dr. Kerry M. Dooley

We are working on the development of new catalysts, materials
and reactors for the hydrogenation/dehydrogenation of polymers and
oligomers, the reforming of heavy molecules such as diesel, strong acid
catalysis, and the rapid decomposition of hydrogen peroxide.

Current research projects:

• Palladium catalyts for hydrogenation/dehydrogenation of polymers and
  oligomers.
  
  
• Mesoporous mixed rare earth oxides for reforming catalysis.
  
  
• Polymer-encapsulated strong acid catalysts.
  
  
• Rapid decomposer for hydrogen peroxide (with Ralph Pike).
  

Dr. John C. Flake

Professor Flake's research group focuses on materials and materials processing. See John Flake's research web page for more information. Current research projects include:

• Silicon Nanowire Fabrication and Processing
  
  
• 3D Through-Silicon Via Processing
  
  
• Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS)
  
  
• Surface Chemistry, Wafer Cleaning, Chemical Mechanical Polishing
  
  
• Corrosion and Electrochemical Etching

Dr. Gregory L. Griffin

Current research project:

• Chemical vapor deposition of palladium seed layers for copper electroless deposition
  
  An area of interest to the microelectronic industry is the use of a very thin Pd layer (< 3 nm thick) to act as a seed layer for depositing copper interconnect wires on ultra-large scale integrated circuits (e.g., microprocessors and advanced memory chips). We have developed a batch CVD process for uniformly depositing small amounts of a metalorganic Pd precursor over large areas of an inert substrate. Future work aims at improving the mechanical and electrical properties of the copper electroless film (e.g., adhesion and resistivity), to study Pd deposition on different substrate materials of interest as copper diffusion barriers, and to examine the batch CVD process for depositing other noble metals.

Prof. Francisco R. Hung
Nanoporous materials and confined systems, liquid crystals, self- and
directed assembly at the nanoscale, computational modeling and
molecular simulation.