[Pinned Quote] “If you allow ambiguity to filter into what you’re trying to do, suddenly you lose control of the agenda. Having a very clear strategy and vision and a few beacons of the progress you are making that you can use to reinforce that vision is incredibly important.”

4/11/2024

[Group] Our group is growing! 4 new B4 plus Syo join our team!

4/1/2024

[News] Kanrin got the offer from Keyence (https://www.keyence.com/)!! Congratulations.

4/1/2024

[News] Hayato has been awarded with the TSMC Summer Internship. He will work with the inline characterization team to develop the cutting-edge thermal transport microscope in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Congratulations!

2/2/2024

[Publication] Our collaboration with Prof. Yu-Jung Lu (Academia Sinica) on the topic entitled “Enhancing Photogating Gain in Scalable MoS2 Plasmonic Photodetectors via Resonant Plasmonic Metasurfaces“ has been accepted for publication in ACS Nano. Congratulations to Stanley and all other co-authors.

2/5/2024

[Graduation] 冨永 and Sunhao have successfully defended their Master thesis. They are the first two Master’s students from the Tung Lab. Next, 冨永 will take his new role as a researcher at 住友化學 while Sunhao will continue his Ph.D. study on April 1.

1/27/2024

[Group] We took a group trip to 越後 湯澤 for snow boarding!

1/22/2024

[Visit] It was great to co-host Prof. Peidong Yang from UC Berkeley Chemistry with Prof. Takanabe. His vision into the sustainable production of renewable chemical fuels will profoundly impact the world.

1/1/2024

[News] 謹賀新年 From 2D Materials Lab.

12/7/2023

[News] It was great to see friends, colleagues, and collaborators at the annual NTU-UTokyo Joint Symposium. Until next time in Tokyo!!

11/7/23

[News] I am honored to address an invited talk in the NatureConference 'Functional 2D Materials' conference in Korea this November. Excited to explore the landmark breakthroughs by a remarkable array of fellow researchers.

9/26/23

[News] Dr. Sanna Gull from Prof. Han-Yi Chen’s group at the National Tsing Hua University will join us as a visiting postdoctoral researcher on October 1! Welcome!

9/22/23

[News] De-Chain (Ph.D.) & Zhen-Jie (Visiting Ph.D.), from Prof. Kevin Wu at NTU ChemE, join the 2D Materials Lab to work on epitaxy growth of 2D graphdiyne-based semiconductors. Welcome!

9/7/23

[News] Yoshiki, Soki, and Shunsuke passed the entrance examination for the Master's Program at the Chemical System Engineering Department. Congratulations!!

9/7/23

[News] Sunhao has passed the Ph.D. entrance examination and will enter the Ph.D. program next April. The number of Ph.D. students at 2D Lab is growing rapidly. We welcome qualified students to apply!

9/7/23

[News] 洸平 has concluded his internship at 2D Materials Lab. We wish him the best in pursuing the MS degree at National Yangming Chiao-Tung University. Cheers

8/26/23

[News] Areej`s first corresponding author paper is now published online in ACS Materials Letters. She has become an inspiring model for many Saudi female students to look up to. Congratulations, and we look forward to working with you in the near future.

8/22/23

[News] Kohei has been awarded the MERIT-WINGS Fellowship by the 文部科學省 to support his MS and Ph.D. study at the 2D Materials Lab. Congratulations!!

8/1/23

[News] Officially finished my first academic year at the University of Tokyo. Before sharing the bitter-sweet stories, let’s embrace the first day of summer vacation!

7/27/23

[News] Vincent presented Stanley's breakthroughs on symmetry-directed orientation of 2D TMDs on the C-plane sapphire, published in Nature Nanotechnology, at 2023 TSMC-UTokyo Semiconductor Technology Research Symposia, Cheers

7/10/23

[News] It was incredible to see old friends, meet new collaborators, and, most importantly, present our latest work at Advanced Epitaxy for Freestanding Membranes and 2D Materials (AEFM) 2023. See everyone again in Tokyo, 2024!!

7/1/23

[News] Prof. Tung formally parts ways with KAUST on July 1, 2023. "It's not goodbye, but a pause until we meet again. Grateful for the memories we've shared, the laughter that echoed, and the challenges we overcame. Each one of you has enriched this journey in a unique way. Here's to cherished moments, lifelong friendships, and infinite possibilities. Keep shining, and stay connected. Onward & upward, Zheng, Usman, and Mariam!

6/30/23

[News] Vincent is invited to address a talk at the 2D TMDs held at the Cambridge University. Thank you, Manish for the invitation and looking forward to meet friends, colleagues, and editors.

5/10/23

[News] Dr. Yichen Cai, our very own research scientist, is featured in this issue of Nature. She talks about her vision of “mimicking human skin to build wearable sensors”

4/16/23

[Graduation] Mingjie, co-advised with Prof. Anthopoulos, defended his Master's thesis today! His thesis, entitled “High-performance monolithic perovskite/organic tandem solar cells”, provides elegant insights into introducing a new passivation layer and connecting organic and perovskite photovoltaics with a new interconnecting layer. Well done, Mingjie! Congratulations.

4/1/23

[Student] 洸平 from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (陽明交大, Prof. 鍾添淦) joins 2D Materials Lab as a visiting student. Welcome!!

3/24/23

[Award] Our very own 南條 航平, Kohei, has been awarded the 工学部長賞, the highest honor to undergraduate students at the University of Tokyo. We can not be more proud of you, Kohei!

3/24/2023

We're proud to celebrate the graduation of our first wave of 2D Materials Research Group students, a talented cohort poised to shape the future of 2D Materials research. This milestone marks the beginning of their exciting journey as they apply their expertise and drive innovation in uncharted territories. Notably, they accomplished their B4 projects less than 9 months. All their results are either submitted or under-preparation. It is truly a blessing to mentor you all as my first students at 東大.

3/5/2023

As material chemists, we strive to provide 2D TMDs with the highest quality, e.g., single crystallinity and low defect density, for our collaborators. Here is another great example of how quality matters in applying 2D TMDs in next-generation memory devices! Thank you, Deep, for including us in this fabulous collaboration just accepted in Nature Nanotechnology. Congratulations, Areej and Yi!!

3/2/2023

[Conference] Vincent delivered a plenary talk at the FNTG64 in Nagoya, Japan. It was great to see old friends and to meet new collaborators.

2/28/2023

[Funding] Extremely honored to receive a JSPS 基盤 A Grant to engineer the symmetry of epitaxy substrates. A big thanks to my team members, colleagues and mentors who've supported me in this process!

1/23/23

[Publication] Our collaboration with MIT, Harvard, and NIMS has been accepted for publication in Nature Nanotechnology. Congratulations to all the collaborators. This is a 3-year postdoctoral work for Hill and Hao2 to synthesize large-scale SnSe for optical applications!

1/2/2023

We have been slow to update the content of our website due to the lab construction. AFM and Witec Raman will be installed before the end of Feb. Please stay tuned for more exciting news from the 2D Materials Lab in 東京! Here is a sneak peek of our first step toward the change.

1/1/2023

Happy New Year 謹賀新年 from 2D Materials Lab!! We have many great news to share in the coming weeks. Please stay tuned!

12/16/2022

Chemical System Engineering 忘年会 2022開催！！Hope we will hold the part in person starting in 2023!

11/24/2022

Happy Thanksgiving from 2D Materials Lab! Wish you all a cheerful gathering with your family and loved ones.

10/01/2022

[Funding] Nadeem did it again! His proposal entitled “Point-of-care smart-patch for monitoring corrosion under repair composite wrap“ has been selected for funding by the Aramco oil co. This is the third funding that Nadeem has brought in to 2D Materials Lab. Thank you for all the hard work.

09/21/2022

[Publication] Yichen and Jie’s work on epitaxy growth of amorphous graphidyne for skin-compliant sensors is now published online in ACS Nano! The proof-of-concept strategy provides an alternative route for the design of next-generation wearable organic bioelectronics with multiple electronic functionalities. Congratulations!

09/01/2022

[News] Congratulations to our B4 students, Kanrin To (董 翰霖), Kohei Nanjo (南條 航平), and Hayato Sugisaki (杉崎 隼斗), for sailing through the Master’s entrance examination! We are all very proud of your hard work and looking forward to more good news from you.

08/26/22

[Publication] Xuan’s work is finally accepted for publication in Nature Communications. It was by far the most challenging project! We started the elucidation of the complex patterns of 3D MoS2 foam driven by the evaporation-induced printing. This engineering feat is particularly appealing because of the ability to join the evaporation-like simplicity of geometric patterns to the complexity of hierarchical architectures in a scalable fashion. Congratulations to Xuan and all the co-authors. Also, I am indebted to Prof. Han-Yi Chen at National Tsing-Hua University (Taiwan) for her patience and excellent work that unambiguously clarifies the reaction mechanism. Cheers, and more to come.

07/17/2022

[Hiring for Tokyo Branch] FY2023 JSPS Postdoc Fellowships are open for application! We are looking to hire postdocs with experience in low-temperature 2D epitaxy, van der Waals (vdW) electronics, and 3D IC integration. Details can be found here https://jsps.go.jp/english/e-ippan/appliguidelines.html If you are interested, contact me by email. Come join our expanding team in the magnificent Tokyo!!

07/04/2022

[Publication] Our collaboration with Prof. Jing Kong has been published in Advanced Materials. In this work, Ang-Yu from Jing’s group at MIT unraveled the correlation between Raman and photoluminescence in monolayer MoS2 through machine learning mode, a step closer to guiding the synthesis of 2D TMDs with Artificial Intelligence (AI).

07/04/2022

[Publication] Liang and Linus’s manuscript has been accepted for publication in ACS Materials Letters and is featured as a Back Cover! Congratulations and keep it rolling!

07/02/2022

[Publication] Yi’s work on suppressing the defect density during the epitaxy growth of WS2 has been accepted for publication in Nature Communications! We are an inch closer to achieving electronic grade 2D wafers. Thanks, Lance for providing the great opportunity to work together.

07/01/2022

[Publication] Jie and Yichen’s work on “Fast water transport and molecular sieving through ultra-thin ordered conjugated-polymer-framework membranes” has been officially accepted for publication in Nature Materials. It was a 3-year of hard work that finally comes to fruition. Another great collaboration with Prof. Yu Han.

07/01/2022

[News] Welcome to 2D Materials Lab, “Again”! Stanley has been appointed as an Assistant Professor by Chemical System Engineering at the University of Tokyo. He has been with PI Tung since the very beginning in California. Congratulations and looking forward to working with you on pushing the limit of epitaxy growth. Cheers!

07/01/2022

[News] A new journey of 2D Materials Lab has begun.

06/09/2022

[News] Jie (Prof. Yu Han group) and Yichen’s work is in principle accepted in Nature Materials. 3 years of “Hard Work” and I am so proud of them to piece everything together. Congratulation on this incredible achievement by this amazingly talented couple! Can not wait to share more exciting results from them.

05/25/2022

[News] We are taking new students for the summer! Several students from the UTokyo and KAU will join our team and work on the epitaxy growth of strained bilayers. Please apply if you are interested in joining the 2D Materials Lab.

05/20/2022

[Publication] We not only synthesize an electronic grade MoS2 wafer but also work on catalytically active MoSx! A great collaboration between Jeremy and Prof. Magnus Rueping from KAUST Catalyst Center (KCC) and our very own Areej is now published in Nature Catalysis.

05/12/2022

[Publication] Congratulation to Jing-Kai, Sean (UNSW), Lance (HKU) and our very own Dr. Yi Wan for the collaborative work published in Nature entitled “High-k PVSK membranes for 2D TMD electronics”

05/11/2022

[News] We are saddened by the news that Ibrahim passed away on Tuesday, May 10th, 2022, after a battle with depression. Death at a very young age is always a shock and I am more devastated by the loss of a young and visionary rising star. I still vividly remembered the day Ibrahim and I had a vision to reform the Saudi Arabia with breakthroughs in 2D mono-layered semiconductors. He will be dearly missed. As the 2D Lab mourns his passing, I want to take the opportunity to reflect on what Ibrahim has brought to us, remember on what Ibrahim has been through and support on each other during this great pandemic for the new normal. More information on Ibrahim, including plans for a memorial service, will be posted as soon as finalized.

05/09/2022

[News] Vincent and Stefaan together with staffs at KSC successfully held the KAUST Research Conference: Accelerating Solar Energy Research towards meeting Vision 2030 Goals. We were honored to have a stellar list of invited speakers, including Prof. Yang Yang (UCLA), Prof. Antonio Facchetti (Northwestern), Prof. Christopher Barbec (Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen Nürnberg), Dr. Laura Schelhas, Dr. Nancy Haegel and Dr. Peter Hacke (NREL), etc.

05/08/2022

[News] It was such a pleasant surprise to see my two Ph.D. advisors (Prof. Yang Yang and Prof. Richard Kaner) at KAUST. A small UCLA re-union after a decade (I completed my Ph.D. in 2010!). Hope to see you both on the other side of the globe soon!!

04/28/2022

[News] Tim has been admitted to the Ph.D. program with a full scholarship at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M. He will be under the supervision of Prof. Qing Tu. Congratulations!!

04/27/2022

[Graduation] We are saddened by the departure of Stanley! His last day with us was 05/10. He has been one of the pillars that underpin the epitaxy growth of 2D Materials Lab since 2019. His uplifting, unselfish and dedicated attitude always empowers people around him, creating a tremendous sense of of camaraderie since day 1! Stanley has accepted the Assistant Professor position at the Department of Chemical System Engineering, The University of Tokyo. Hearty congratulation to you, Stanley!

01/12/2022

[Publication] Yi and Stanley’s insights into atomic engineering at edges for wafer-scale epitaxy of single-crystal electronic grade 2D TMDs has been published in Chem. Soc. Rev. Another collaborative work with Prof. Lance Li, and Prof. Yumeng Shi! PDF here <—

01/01/2022

[2022] Happy New Year!! May 2022 be the beacon of hope and innovation. Stay tuned and some BIG NEWS from 2D Lab will be announced!

12/20/2021

[PhD Defense] Today, Rehab and Stanley have successfully defended their Ph.D. degrees. Rehab is under the co-supervision and has completed studies in both epitaxy and DFT of 2D TMDs, a rare combination for a PhD candidate. While still room for improvement, she received a round of applause from the audience. On the other hand, Stanley did particularly well as he flawlessly and smoothly showcased his research that straddles the solution-based exfoliation and vapor-solid based epitaxy. All his committee members, including Prof. Thomas Anthopoulos, Prof. Andy Huang, Prof. Kazuhiro Takanabe (U of Tokyo), and Prof. Lain-Jong Li (Lance, Hong Kong University), unanimously gave their approvals to Stanley’s stellar presentation and his prolific research in scalable synthesis of 2D TMDs and their heterostructures. A job well done!!

11/23/2021

[Publication] The perspective entitled “The development of integrated circuits based on two-dimensional materials” led by Prof. Mario Lanza has been accepted for publication in Nature Electronics. Here are some of our thoughts on building integrated circuits via 2D materials. Congratulation to Mario, Husam and Xixiang!

11/1/2021

[Funding] Our research scientist, Nadeem, has set forth a collaboration with Saudi Aramco on the detection of volatile traces of flammable chemicals. The research grant will explore 2D atomically thin semiconductor films as the sensing components for next-generation sensors. Congratulations!

10/21/2021

[Seminar] Thank you to Prof. Yimo Han at MSNE, Rice University for hosting my visit this week! I had a great time sharing 2D Materials Lab work on wafer-scale synthesis of single crystal TMD nanoribbons for quantum information.

10/06/2021

[Seminar] It is a privilege to host Prof. Yang Yang at KAUST. This will be the first in-person seminar since March 2020. He will address a talk focused on the recent progress of Organic and Perovskite PV at UCLA. Here you can join us remotely (https://kaust.zoom.us/j/98534014385) to learn about the seminal discoveries in pushing the limits of both OPV and PVSK made possible by the UCLA Team!

08/27/2021

[News] We welcome Mingjie He (3+2 Program, SCUT), Kai Qi (XJTU), and Memo (veteran from Derya group, KAUST) to join 2D Materials Lab. Excited to embrace waves of new ideas that will potentially become the disruptive technologies for AI and ML. Meanwhile, Hang will join Prof. Xu Lu’s group to simultaneously pursue research in 2D TMDs and CO2RR.

07/23/2021

[Eid Break] Eid Mubarak, everyone!!

07/01/2021

[News] Linus has parted ways with the 2D Lab and will pursue his Ph.D. study under the guidance of our long-time collaborator/friend, Prof. Lance Li at the Hong Kong University. He has been the cornerstone for the epitaxy growth of monolayer, single-crystal TMDs. It has been an absolute pleasure to have Linus for the last two years (albeit 1 year at the Shenzhen University due to the disruption of COVID-19). Your witty humor will be missed and come visit us any time if you crave some sushi and sake, LOL!!!

05/27/2021

[News] Here is to the class 2021 of 2D Lab (Stanley, Xuan, Areej, Merfat, and Yi). We all know the path toward completing the Ph.D. is very tortuous and the pace toward complying with my demand is like a rollercoaster ride with lots of ups and downs. Yet, you have done exceptionally well. Admittedly, you are the most unique class with the unmatched combination of perseverance, resilience, and patience during the construction of my nascent 2D lab at KAUST and the prolonged disruption of pandemics. I am forever indebted to you for your contributions to and outstanding performance at the 2D Lab. Wish you all the best in your future endeavors in both Science and Engineering.

Photo credit to Linus: From Left to Right, Stanley, Xuan, Areej, and Yi.

05/12/2021

[Publication] It truly takes years to come to fruition when conducting research at atomically thin interfaces and at wafer-scale. This multicampus collaboration may be the best example that features complimentary expertise across three continents (US, Taiwan, and Saudi Arabia). An engineering feat that addresses one of the most formidable challenges in monolayer electronics publishes today in Nature. Led by Prof. Jing Kong (MIT) and Prof. Lance Li (HKU and formerly TSMC), take a look at how the team comes up with the strategy of using semi-metal to tailor the metal-semiconductor interfaces at the atomic limit.

“Ultralow contact resistance between semimetal and monolayer semiconductors” Nature 593, 211–217 (2021)

05/11/2021

[PhD Defense] It is always sentimental to see students successfully defend their Ph.D. thesis. Today, Xuan and Yi have completed the last step of their Ph.D. study in 2D Materials Lab. Congratulations to both of you and wish you the best in your future endeavour in science and technology. We are indebted to the committee members, including Prof. Lance Li (HKU), Prof. Thomas Anthopoulos (KAUST), Prof. Andy Huang (KAUST), Prof. Boon S. Ooi (KAUST), Prof. Han-Yi Chen (NTHU) and Prof. Sean Li (UNSW), for all the constructive feedbacks! Special Thanks to Thomas for chairing the Ph.D. defense TWICE!!!!

05/02/2021

[PhD Defense] Today, Merfat will defend her PhD degree. She will be the second Ph.D. graduated from the 2D Materials Lab (1st Co-advised PhD student). Looking forward to hearing the discoveries made possible by combining epitaxy growth of core-shell catalyst with control over chemical compositions at nanoscale. Committee members include Prof. Zhiping Lai (KAUST), Prof. Lance Li (Director of Corporate Research, TSMC and the University of Hong Kong), Prof. Andy Huang (KAUST ChemS), and Prof. Yu Han (KAUST ChemS).

04/25/2021

[News] More news on featuring Yichen and Jie’s Science Advances work! Thank you Wired Magazine for spending time with us discussing the a widespread applications of this e-skin made by layer-by-layer van dew Waals (vdW) integration.

New Link: https://wired.me/science/health/this-saudi-arabia-made-e-skin-could-actually-save-your-skin/

04/19/2021

[News] Yichen and Jie’s work on e-skin (published in Science Advances) is featured as the front page of KAUST Portal! This is how we “Sensing the Future” through the integration of atomically thin 2D materials!

News Link: https://www.kaust.edu.sa/en/news/sensing-the-future

04/18/2020

[MRS] Kicking off the MRS Spring 2021. Thanks for the kind invitation from the organizers of NM07, Prof. Thomas Kempa (Johns Hopkins) and Prof Deep Jariwala (UPenn), to present our work on ledge-directed epitaxy growth of continuously single-crystal 2D TMDs nanoribbons. It was such a pleasure to introduce KAUST Innovations to the 2D communities. Cheers!

04/15/2021

[Publication] Cheng-Wei’s work in collaboration with KAUST 2D Materials Lab has been accepted for publication in ACS Nano Letters! Congratulations to Cheng-Wei and thank Ric to include us in this perspective entitled “Conducting Polyaniline for Ultrafiltration Membranes: Solutions and Challenges”.

04/01/2021

[Personnel] Welcome Dr. Zheng Yang to join 2D Materials Lab! Dr. Yang earned his Ph.D. from Sungkyunkwan University and we are excited about the upcoming exploration in 2D Soft Single-crystal Electronics. Cheers!

03/24/2021

[Seminar] It was an absolute pleasure to meet up with colleagues at RCAS, Academia Sinica (Taiwan). I was honored to deliver an invited talk on our recent progress on how the ledge directs the epitaxy growth of 2D TMDs and beyond. Thanks to Prof. Yuri Lu for hosting! Cheers.

03/16/2021

[Publication] ACS Materials Letters will feature Yi’s work on strain-modulated growth of TMD bilayers as the cover! Congratulations!!

02/11/2021

[Publication] Yi’s work on strain-modulated growth of TMDC bilayers has been accepted in ACS Materials Letters at the first day of the Chinese New Year of Ox!! Congratulations to Yi and more of her works will be published very soon! Stay tuned.

01/28/2021

[News] Tim and Hang have finally arrived on campus! They were admitted in Fall 2020 but their plans to join 2D Lab were disrupted by the pandemic. Welcome to KAUST!

01/26/2021

[News] Vinoth has presented his findings in unassisted PEC via the use of PVSK-Si tandem solar cells at the KSC semi-annual review. His work provides the tantalizing prospect of leveraging the advantageous features of tandem PVSK-Si PVs in renewable energy conversion. A great collaboration with Prof. Stefaan De Wolf and his KPV Team. Cheers!

01/14/2021

[Ph.D. Defense] Today, Areej has successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis and officially becomes the first-ever Ph.D. from the 2D Materials Lab! All the committee members, including Prof. Jeehwan Kim from MIT (an acclaimed pioneer in epitaxy growth and non-Si electronics), Prof. Lance Li from HKU and formally the Director of Corporate Research at TSMC (world-leading innovator in monolayer electronics and the founder of 2D Materials Lab), Prof. Yu Han (the esteemed imaging expert of novel nanoarchitectures), and Prof. Thomas Anthopoulos whose work holds the tantalizing prospect for realizing the next-generation electronics for 6G communications, were deeply impressed by her works that are at the forefront of the epitaxy growth and characterizations of 2D single-crystal monolayer materials. Importantly, all the committee members unanimously recommended the highest approval of her Ph.D. degree and enthusiastically agreed that her Ph.D. work at KAUST has set a very high bar for any Ph.D. students in the field of MSE. Congratulations to Dr. Areej Aljarb and all the best for your future endeavors in the field of epitaxy growth of monolayered electronics.

01/06/2021

[Publication] Our first publication of 2021 is finally online. Check out our perspectives toward self-healing wearable energy storage devices on Materials Today, another collaboration with Prof. Yuanlong Shao at Soochow University and Prof. Richard Kaner at UCLA! Cheers!

01/01/2021

[News] We are off to a great start to 2021 ! ! Our very own Areej will defend her Ph.D. degree on January 14. She will be the very first Ph.D. graduate from the 2D Materials Lab. Looking forward to hearing the breakthroughs and finds in epitaxy growth of single-crystal 2D TMDs via controlling the orientations. Committee members include Prof. Jeehwan Kim (MIT), Prof. Lance Li (Director of Corporate Research, TSMC and the University of Hong Kong), Prof. Thomas Anthopoulos (KAUST MSE), and Prof. Yu Han (KAUST ChemS).

01/01/2021

[Hiring] Dr. Nadeem Qaiser officially joins 2D Materials Lab as a Project Research Scientist. He brings the rich experiences in COMSOL simulation and device fabrications in flexible electronics and sensors. Welcome!!

12/24/2020

[Merry X’Mas] Dear members (past and present) of 2D Materials Lab, 
As 2020 comes to a close, I want to thank you all for being an integral part of the 2D Materials Lab and for your unmatched dedication, patience and cooperation as we have worked to navigate the year's challenges.  We wish all of you a healthy and happy holiday season and look forward to working with you in the coming 2021!

12/22/2020

[Festive season] Happy Winter Solstice!! A traditional Taiwanese cuisine to warm up your heart in this darkest winter.

12/19/2020

[Funding] We are very pleased to announce that our 2020 Research Translational Proposal has been selected for funding. We have the team; we have the solution; more importantly, we have the vision. Thank you, President Chan, VPR Bradley, and VP Dr. Cullen for helping us bring in transformative KAUST material innovation in leading-edge epitaxy for next-generation monolayer semiconductors.

12/19/2020

[Equipment] New toy in the house! ASPEC has approved the acquisition of PEMTRON SEM!

12/7/2020

[News: Updated] Yichen and Jie’s e-skin went viral and was covered by a myriad of news outlets! Here are the some links.

• Mirror

• The Tribune

• The Science Time

• The Engineers UK

• The GIZBOT

12/2/2020

[News] Yichen and Jie’s pioneering work on van der Waals integration of mix-dimensional composites for e-skin are featured by KAUST Discovery and Nature Middle East. Go check them out!

12/2/2020

[Seminar] Vincent will present 2D Lab’s findings in epitaxy growth of single-crystal 2D monolayer TMDs at the 361th open seminar in the Department of Chemical System Engineering, the University of Tokyo, Japan.

11/30/2020

[Updated: Hiring] We are hiring!! 2D Materials Lab has 1 opening for epitaxy growth of single crystal layered materials. Please see the “Available Positions” section for more details. Please send me (a) 1 page research plan and (b) your CV that includes 5 most compelling publications.

11/15/2020

[Farewell] Hao-Ling and Hill will leave 2D Materials Lab for Applied Materials, CA after 2 years of leading the Lab’s CVD epitaxy. A Zoom farewell and we will toast to their dedicated contribution while cherishing the ever-lasting friendships that will blur the physical boarder. We wish them well in her future endeavors

11/11/20

[Proposal] Our user proposal entitled “Epitaxy growth of 2D Graphdiyne nanoribbons" has been approved for working at the Molecular Foundry Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab! Looking forward to reconnecting old friends while meeting new colleagues at the Molecular Foundry. Cheers!

11/1/2020

[Publication] Our collaboration with Prof. Yuanlong Shao and Prof. Jingyu Sun from Soochow University has been accepted for publication in Advanced Functional Materials. Cheers!!

10/24/2020

[Publication] Our collaboration with Soochow University and Prof. Richard Kaner at UCLA has been accepted for publication in Materials Today. In this review, we provide our perspectives, reviews and visions of “Self-healing flexible/stretchable Energy Storage Devices” Cheer!

10/23/2020

[Farewell] It is sad to say goodbye to our group members while being happy to see them established their individual careers after the KAUST journey. Cheng-Wei has decided to take up the postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA Chemistry under the guidance of Prof. Richard Kaner. It could have been a greater year without the disruption of COVID-19 outbreaks. We will always remember his witty comments, insightful tips and structured thoughts at 2D Materials Lab, KAUST. Our joinery together may be parted way for now but our path will come across again for sure. All the best to your next scientific endeavors in sunny California!

10/05/2020

[Publication] Nothing is better than receiving a delightful acceptance on a gloomy Monday morning. Congratulations to Yichen and Jie for their work to be accepted in Science Advances!! Congratulations!!! 👏👏👏

09/23/2020

[Saudi National Day] In observance of the Saudi National Day, we will close our 2D Materials Lab for the long weekend. Happy Birthday to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia!!

09/21/2020

[News] Our 2D Materials Lab is growing not only in the number and impact of findings but also the members! Welcome to the world Little One 👶 (and congratulations to Dharma and Nivetha!!). ✌✌✌

09/11/2020

[Publication] Chih-Wen, Hao-Ling, Yi and Hill’s work on epitaxy growth of topological insulator, Bi2Te3, on 2D monolayer WSe2 and the associated determination of band alignment has been accepted in ACS Materials Letters. The finding here provides a well-defined example of the epitaxy growth paradigm, the interlayer coupling-electronic properties relationship, for this emerging 2D TI/TMDs vertical heterojunctions. 👉PDF

Special thanks to Hill who directed experimental design and led the team to complete the beautiful work. A job well done!!

09/09/2020

[Publication] An intriguing "phase-off" in 2D TMDs in aberration-corrected STEM imaging is identified in ScienceAdvances. A collaborative work between KAUST CoreLab, Dr. Vladimir Roddatis, Dr. Tobias Meyer, Lance, and Prof. Yimo Han at Rice University. Congratulation to Areej, Yi and Stanley for another great collaborative work done! 👏👏👏

Please check the news coverage by KAUST Discovery.

09/07/2020

[Publication] Our Nature Materials is finally on-line today! For decades, scientists have sought to grow 2D single-crystal semiconductors on insulators, and this work demonstrates that controlling the ledges of the substrate is the key. We may still steps away from wafer-scale single crystal films; however, the finding here illuminates the pathways toward realizing this bold vision. 👏👏👏

Please check the news coverage by KAUST Discovery.

09/01/2020

[Welcome] We welcome both the returning and incoming MS/PhD students from far and near to join our 2D Materials Lab. On the first day of the school, we are on the hot start to get three manuscripts accepted in Nature Materials, Science Advances and ACS Materials Letters!! All the credits go to our fabulous team members, including Areej, Stanley, Chih-Chan, Yi, Hill, Hao-Ling, Sergei, Chih-Wen, Mariam, Rehab, and our great collaborators both locally and internationally, Prof. Thomas Anthopoulos, Director Lance Li (TSMC, Taiwan), Prof. Jeehwan Kim (MIT, USA), Prof. Jing Kong (MIT, USA), Prof. Yimo Han (Rice, USA), Prof. Andy Huang and Prof. Wen-Hao Chang (NCTU, Taiwan). Admittedly, we are stronger together to overcome the disruptions of this extraordinary time. 🤜🤛

07/21/2020

[Publication] Stanley’s findings on 3D printed van der Waals homo- and heterostructures are featured on the front page of Communications Materials! Million thanks to the editor-in-chief, Dr. John Plummer!

07/13/2020

[Publication] We present our finding on Artifacts and Practical Applications of 3-fold Astigmatism on atomically thin 2D layered materials. The work is formally accepted in Science Advances. Cheers!

07/04/2020

Happy Fourth of July to all the faculty, staffs, and students from the USA! Hope this will be the turning points where people of the USA prioritize science over the false claims. The end of pandemic is nowhere near in sight.

06/28/2020

[Publication] Our KAUST-MIT-TSMC collaboration finally bears fruit. Stay tuned for our first joint work at Nature Materials.

06/16/2020

[Schedule] Presentation schedule is posted here for group members, starting 06/30/2020.

1 -> Hongpo Liu 06/30/2020
2 -> Rongyu Lin
3 -> Vinoth Ramalingam
4 -> Chih-Wen Yang
5 -> Ming-Hui Chiu
6 -> Cheng-Wei Lin
7 -> Areej A. Aljarb
8 -> Merfat M. Alsabban
9 -> Liang Cai
10 -> Hao-Ling Tang
11 -> Yichen Cai
12 -> Yi Wan
13 -> Rehab M. Albaridy
14 -> Zhang Xuechun
15 -> Xuan Wei
16 -> Ci Lin
17 -> Dharmaraj P
18 -> Chien-Chih Tseng
19 -> Jui-Han Fu
20 -> Marim A. Hakami
21 -> Ruofan Sun

06/10/2020

One of the most important part of participating in conferences is the serendipitous encounters between sessions and speakers, which is where a lot of collaboration normally happens. My own thoughts.

06/09/2020

[Publication] Our collaboration with Dr. Zhaodong Chu and Prof. Keji Lai entitled”” has finally and officially on-line at PNAS. We contribute to the material synthesis of high quality 2D TMDs which is our unique expertise!! Congratulation to Hao-Ling and Areej!!

06/08/2020

[Publication] Stanley’s ACS Nano is formally published online! Here is the sneak peak! 👏 👏 👏

06/06/2020

[People] We welcome Ibrahem Nami to join our 2D Materials Lab. Ibrahem graduated with Bachelor of Science in Physics from MIT, class 2019. Welcome! 🤙 🤙 🤙

06/06/2020

[People] Hang Liu will join our lab as the Ph.D. student. He will join our CVD team for a collaborative project with Director Lance Li. Welcome! 🤙 🤙 🤙

06/05/2020

[People] We welcome Dr. Vinoth Ramalingam to join our group! We're excited for the novel photo-electrochemical CO2 reduction to work on! He will be on board effective on June 1. 🤙 🤙 🤙

06/04/2020

[Funding] Our proposal entitled ”3D printed catalysts for cracking and HDS” has been approved for funding by Aramco Oil! This embodies a step forward toward scalable implementation of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) catalysts through additive manufacturing. We are indebted to the KAUST Catalyst Center for looping us to the funding opportunity. Thank you, Director Jorge Gascon, Anissa, Ming-Ming, Ola and Dr. Wei Xue!!

06/03/2020

[Teaching] KAUST Summer 2020 session will be moved on-line for distant learning while the Fall 2020-21 teaching remains unknown. Professors, administrators, and students have worked very hard to keep learning alive; nevertheless, these efforts are unlikely to provide the quality of education that’s delivered in the classroom.

06/02/2020

[News] As we gradually enter the phase II of reopening of KAUST, some reminders should be still kept in mind. These practices will help create a safe working environment for all the researchers and students in lab.

Avoid MEN

• M - Mouth shut

• E - Eyes contact

• N - Nose covered

Instead, follow WOMEN

• W - Wash your hands

• O - Obey social distance

• M - Mask up

• E - Exercise and eat well

• N - No unnecessary traveling.

06/01/2020

[Publication] A good start of Monday as well as June! Our ACS Nano manuscript entitled “3D Crumpled Ultra-Thin 1T MoS2 for Inkjet Printing of Mg-Ion Asymmetric Micro-Supercapacitors” is now officially online. Here is a sneak peek for the just-accepted PDF. It is a fun project that we explore the utility of this strained 2D MoS2 sheets for inkjet printing of asymmetric µ-supercapacitors. Similar to 3D printing, the unused crumpled inks can be dried, and stored in a solid form and can be re-dispersed into ink when printing. The finding of the re-dispersibility-and-reusability of these crumpled inks is fortuitous and may shed light on the scalable manufacturing of µ-supercapacitors. We are indebted to all the collaborators who contributed immensely to make this work happen! Special thanks to Prof. Atif Shamim, Prof. Luigi Cavallo, Prof. Yu Han, and Prof. Richard Kaner. 👏 👏 👏

05/28/2020

[People] We welcome Dr. P, also know as Dharmaraj, to join our group! We're excited for the large-area flexible 2D projects to work on! He will be on board effective on June 1. 🤙 🤙 🤙

05/28/2020

[News] Stanley has successfully presented his plan toward the Ph.D. study. He will focus on the systematic study of thermodynamic and kinetic controls for wafer scale synthesis of high mobility transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). Congratulations and well done!! Immense thanks to the committee members, Prof. Andy Kuo-Wei Huang and Prof. Thomas Anthopoulos. 👍 👍 👍

05/27/2020

[Announcement] KAUST official has announced the “Reopening plan: Phase 2” begins on 05/28/2020. Following the May 22 announcement indicating the University was preparing a phased reopening plan, the KC3 would like to inform the community that Phase 2 will begin on Thursday, May 28.

A number of changes will take effect from tomorrow, Thursday, May 28, including :

• Lifting of the curfew

• Allowing outdoor gatherings of 5 people or less

• Tamimi resuming normal opening hours (7:00 a.m. – 11:00 p.m. daily)

• Restarting of some recreation activities

• The quarantine period will revert to 14 days

However, research labs will remain closed until further notice! Stay tuned and be patient!!

05/20/2020

[News] Areej Aljarb will be featured in the recent News Letter of KAUST Solar Center. In this interview, Areej tells us about her journey toward research excellence in 2D Materials Field and her multifaceted roles spanning family, research institution and teaching. It is truly inspiring and surely serves as a model for many Saudi female scientists and engineers to look up to. Congratulations Areej, another compelling story to your ever expanding chapters. 🙏 🙏🙏

05/18/2020

[Publication] Big congratulations to Stanley on his work to print out van der Waals 3D/3D heterostructures for catalysis applications! The project started with some random sketches on the white paper and later is realized into a beautiful work that allows us to create 3D/3D hierarchical van der Waals heterostructures by design. The work is accepted in Communications Materials, Nature! It is always a pleasure to work with Prof. Jing Kong at MIT, Dr. Stanley Chou at Sandia National Lab and Prof. Jessica Krogstad from UIUC. 👏👏👏

05/16/2020

[Publication] We have a long history with Director Lance Li at the Corporate Research, TSMC on many fronts of 2D TMDs, specially on the exploring of novel growth mechanisms. Here is the latest collaboration on “Steam-Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition of Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework” accepted in ACS Materials Letters. Congratulation to Yi and all the co-authors who make this work possible! Cheers👏👏👏

05/14/2020

[Publication] Our collaborative work with Prof. Keji Lai at UT Austin on “Spatiotemporal dynamics of photo-excited carriers in atomically thin semiconductors” has been accepted in PNAS! Congratulations to Hao-Ling and all our collaborators at UT Austin! Congratulations! 👏👏👏

05/12/2020

[Publication] Big congratulations to Yuanlong and Stanley for their work entitled “3D Crumpled Ultra-Thin 1T MoS2 for Inkjet Printing of Mg-ion Asymmetric Micro-Supercapacitors” to be accepted in ACS Nano! An intriguing idea to crumpled up 2D sheets as a 3D ink for inkjet printing of micro-supercapacitors. More surprisingly, the 3D crumpled inks can be recycled, re-dispersed, and re-used!! The collaboration with Prof. Ric Kaner at UCLA is always a breeze !!! 👏👏👏

03/27/2020

[News] Today Xuan Wei sailed through her Ph.D. proposal examination and becomes the Ph.D. candidate of MSE program. She has followed Vincent from the beginning and determined to conduct her Ph.D. study at KAUST. The nature-inspired manufacturing approach was both fortuitous and forthcoming! Xuan discovered the phenomenon and later implemented the unique porous structures into battery applications. She did it from scratch and learn from the basics! Her journey toward becoming a Ph.D. candidate is truly inspiring and sets an example for many of the female engineers to look up to! Congratulations, Xuan. We look forward to reading the discovery in transition metal dichalcogenides based battery. Many thanks to Prof. Kuo-Wei Huang and Prof. Thomas Anthopoulos for their helpful comments that will shape Xuan’s study to define a general strategy for high performance battery. 👏👏👏

03/23/2020

[News] Yi Wan has successfully sailed through the Ph.D. proposal examination and now become the Ph.D. candidacy. This is the very first time that everyone, including the dedicated committee members, has to participated virtually and remotely. Yi has demonstrated a very ambitious and coherent plan for her Ph.D. study in a very structured fashion! Congratulations and million thanks to Prof. Kuo-Wei Huang and Prof. Thomas Anthopoulos for their helpful comments that help shape Yi’s presentation into a more complete project. 👏👏👏

03/16/2020

[Urgent order] KAUST has announced ramped-down in all school operations and will close all essential research labs, facilities, and non-essential recreation services, effective immediately. The CCMT and the Coronavirus Taskforce continue to meet regularly to proactively appraise the current COVID-19 situation. As it continues to develop, we are stepping up preparations to mitigate any potential spread, should a case be confirmed in KAUST. These measures are precautionary at this stage, but we are trying to remain proactive in our approach and whilst they will impact our community for a short period, they will help ensure we minimize the risk overall.

02/11/2020

[News] Today, Yasser, a.k.a. Chih-Chan, will finish his exchange student training at KAUST and leave for Taiwan. 😥😥😥 Words can not express the gratitude from the members of 2D Materials Lab, especially from LDE sub-group. He worked relentlessly on establishing the protocols of FET fabrication as well as the determination of electronic characteristics of miniaturized 2D electronics. Within 6 months, we are able to shift the work from niche discoveries to potentially technological transformative platforms for next generation, non-Si electronics. Here is to Yasser, thank you for everything! All the best for defending your master degree and hope we will see you soon at the MIT-KAUST initiative!

01/01/2020

[Definition] A crystalline material is defined as one in which the atoms are situated in a repeating or periodic array over large atomic distances; that is, long-range order exists. If the periodic and repeated arrangement of atoms is perfect or extends throughout the entirety of the specimen without interruption, the result is single crystal. Synthetic alternatives should carefully examine the crystallinity through SAED (local-) and LEED (global-structure), in tandem with electronic and optical properties through a detailed device fabrication and experimental determination.

12/09/2019

[Award] Merfat presented her work on the “design and mechanistic study of highly-durable carbon coated cobalt diphosphide core-shell nanostructure electrocatalyst for efficient and stable oxygen evolution reaction” at the 18th Asian Chemical Congress in Taipei, Taiwan. Her work highlights the importance of incorporate geometric factors and compositional diversities into the design of electrocatalyst and is recognized by the committee with the best of the best prizes for poster. Congratulation! 👏👏👏

11/04/2019

[Publication] Prof. Zhiping Lai included us in his recent publication entitled “ Asymmetric Cathode Membrane with Tunable Positive Charge Networks for Highly Stable Li–S Batteries”. We contributed the instrumental support to jointly explore the role of asymmetric cathode membrane in Li-S batteries. Congratulation to Prof. Lai and his team members for the great work! Cheers! 👏👏👏

10/27/2019

[News] It is happening! The very first MIT-KAUST-TSMC Workshop on Ai-USE Center will be held at MIT, Boston USA. VPR Donal Bradley, Prof. Boon Ooi, Prof. Thomas Anthopoulos, Prof. Jr-Hau He from KAUST along with Prof. Jeehwan Kim, Prof. Gang Chen, Prof. Evelyn Wang, Prof. Michael Strano, Prof. Xuanhe Zhao, Prof. Tomas Palacios, and Prof. Shao-Horn Yang from MIT will join us to discuss the potential partnership and strategies for a concerted, joint-up and forward-thinking vision for future Ai applications driven by the technological innovations and scientific discoveries at MIT and KAUST. Meanwhile, Director Lance Li from Corporate Research at TSMC will provide unique insights from industrial perspectives, thus allowing us to form a solid yet practical feedback loop. It is truly an honor to organize such a workshop that allows the convergence of expertise and complementary strengths to drive future Ai. 🤜🤛

10/17/2019

[People] Dr. Cheng-Wei Lin from Chemistry at UCLA joins VCT 2D Materials Lab as our newest postdoctoral researcher. He earned his MS. at MSE, Northwestern University (Prof. Jiaxing Huang) and his Ph.D. under the guidance of Prof. Ric Kaner. He will work on an international collaboration with Prof. Ric Kaner with the topic of “Conjugated Tetraaniline and 2D Materials”. Welcome!! 🤝🤝🤝

10/12/2019

[Visit] Prof. Hang-Yi Chen from Department of Materials Science & Engineering at National Tsing-Hua University visited us at KAUST. Great to see alumni from my National Tsing-Hua University. More importantly, Prof. Chen will help elucidate the underlying mechanism of printable MoS2 with structural hierarchy for Li- and Na-ion batteries. Cheers!💁💁💁

10/01/2019

[People] We welcome Tac from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Chien-Chih to join our team for collaboration on next generation non-silicon electronics. They will work on new and scalable manufacturing routes toward realizing the wafer-scale synthesis of 2D TMDs and beyond. Excited to see the team with complementary expertise and diverse backgrounds that will converge to pursue the bold mission and vision of non-silicon electronics for driving the emerging IoT. Welcome to 2D Materials Lab!!

9/30/2019

[KCC event] We recently visited Aramco at Dammam and presented our work on how atomically thin materials can have far-reaching implication on macro-scale catalysis of crude oil to chemical commodities. A very fruitful discussion with exciting funding opportunities!! Many thanks to Director Jorge Gascon who organized the trip along with colleagues, Magnus, Javier, Pedro and Anissa. Cheers!

9/27/2019

[Seminar] We are honored to invite Prof. Paul S Weiss from UCLA Chem as the Division Distinguished Speaker. We truly enjoyed Paul’s talk, witty conversations, and look forward to the collaboration on nano-needles based projects. More news to follow!

9/23/2019

[Publication] Yuanlong has helped contribute the realization of “Printable Mg-ion quasi-solid-state asymmetric supercapacitors for flexible solar-charging integrated units”. The manuscript is officially accepted in Nature Communications for publication. Congratulations!

9/17/2019

[Publication] The collaborative work with Prof. Thomas Anthopoulos, Prof. Frederic Laquai, and Prof. Iain McCulloch, entitled 17.2% Efficient Organic Solar Cells Enabled by Liquid Exfoliated WS2 as the Hole Transport Layer, has been accepted for publication in Advanced Materials. We played a small part of it to study how atomically thin 2D TMDs can be utilized as an efficient hole transport layer (HTL) and thus set the new record for organic solar cells! Cheers!

9/11/2019

[Invited talks] Vincent is invited to address talks at Westlake University, the newest addition to the elite higher education networks in China and first private university ever built at the heart of silicon valley, Hangzhou, and at Sandia National Lab. We will focus on two fronts, 1. combined CVD-MOCVD growth on self-evolution substrates and 2. catalytic properties at atomically thin interfaces.

9/9/2019

[Group outing] Another casual Thursday night for VCT lab on the golf driving range!

9/9/2019

[People] Linus joins our lab as the newest Ph.D. student! Linus got his B.S. from Manchester University, England, and is engaged with liquid exfoliation of graphitic layered materials. He will join Chih-Chan, our visiting student and device guru from National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, to explore the frontier of wafer scale synthesis of aligned TMDs for flexible electronics. Welcome!

9/1/2019

[News] It is with a heavy heart yet a great pleasure that our research scientist Dr. Yuanlong Shao will join Soochow University as the Professor for College of Energy Science! He will be the first ever alumni of VCT lab to become a faculty member. We are blessed to have him joined my nascent group at KAUST from University of Cambridge after moving from University of California in September, 2018. In less than a year, he has single-handedly built the printable electronics for energy storage from scratch. We are indebted to his dedication, focus, and commitment toward research excellence and wish him all the best in the new chapter of his scientific careers! Big congratulations and I am sure that our path will cross again in the near future for the joint research toward realizing the printable 2D materials for a sustainable world. Last but not least, his group is now recruiting for postdocs with competitive salaries and compensation for housing! If interested, please refer to the following link.

http://mob.muchong.com/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=13622021&_from=share&u=429709&h=318b0b16&from=timeline&isappinstalled=0

8/18/2019

[People] It has been a very busy yet productive summer for VCT Lab. We can not wait to share many new breakthroughs that combine cutting-edge growth and advanced multi-scale engineering strategies to drive innovation in 2D materials. Stay tuned! Here, we want to welcome Chih-Chan Hsu from National Tsing-Hua University as a visiting student for VCT Lab. With his E.E. background, Chih-Chan will engage in the nano-fabrication and device fabrication of an array of new 2D materials for next generation, non-silicone electronics. Welcome!

8/10/2019

[Collaboration] It is always a pleasure to visit our collaborators, Prof. Jing Kong and Prof. Jeehwan Kim at MIT, striving for pushing beyond experimentation to deliver 2D material impact at scale !

8/8/2019

[Publication] Our collaboration with Dr. Soohyung Park and Prof. Norbert Koch on “Demonstration of the key substrate-dependent charge transfer mechanisms between monolayer MoS2 and molecular dopants” has been accepted for publication in Communication Physics, Nature. Congratulation to Areej!

6/6/2019

[Recruitment] 2D lab is expanding beyond our expectation! We welcome Rongyu Lin as a co-advised student in 2D Lab! Rongyu graduated from B.S. in Physics, Southern University of Science and Technology with Honor: Summa Cum Laude Graduate. He will work on collaborative projects with Prof. Xiaohang Li at CEMS. Welcome!

5/31/2019

[Recruitment] We welcome Ibrahim Alnami who obtained his B.S. from MIT to join our group as the KGSP MS/PhD student! Ibrahim will be our first KGSP student and will join Areej, Stanley and Chien-Chih on exploring the synthesis and physics of 2D layered materials. Welcome!

5/20/2019

[Recruitment] It was a great pleasure to meet Lance, and faculty members from NTNU, NTHU and NTU during this recruitment trip to Taiwan 🇹🇼. We are thrilled to reach initial agreements that will help establish the pipeline for future MS/PhD students to KAUST as well as forming collaborations with top MSE/Chem/ChemE programs at National Taiwan University. More news to come!

5/10/2019

[Publication] Our collaboration with Lance, and Prof. Zhang has been accepted for publication in Advanced Materials! Here is the preview. Congratulations.

5/1/2019

[Publication] Merfat’s manuscript entitled “Design and Mechanistic Study of Highly-durable Carbon Coated Cobalt Diphosphide Core-shell Nanostructure Electrocatalyst for the Efficient and Stable Oxygen Evolution Reaction” has been accepted for publication in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces! Congratulations!

4/30/2019

[Fellowship] Areej’s Ph.D. fellowship has been approved for extension, allowing her to tackle the challenges in synthesis of wafer-scale 2D TMDs with single crystallinity! Congratulations!

3/24/2019

[People] We welcome Chien-Chih to join 2D research lab as a visiting consultant. Chien-Chih has been the cornerstone of 2D lab before he left for National Chiao-Tong University to pursue his professional carrier. He will work on large-scale synthesis of single crystalline 2D TMDs for wafer-scale and atomically thin circuit applications. Welcome!!

3/18/2019

[Publication] Hill and Hao-Ling’s work on Metal Guided Selective Growth of 2D TMDs will be featured as a back cover for Advanced Materials! Congratulations and here is the sneak peek of the beautiful image.

3/13/2019

[Presentation] It was very honored to present our work on Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) through the use of structurally deformed TMDs at the KAUST Catalysis Center weekly seminar!

3/13/2019

[Group] Our 2D Lab is growing! Still missing Areej, and Xuan!

3/8/2019

[International women day] Here is to all the strong women out there: Happy International Women’s Day from KAUST, VCT Lab. :)

3/1/2019

[People] We welcome Ruofan to join our lab. Ruofan graduated Southern University of Science and Technology, ranked #1 in the rising university in the world! He continued his M.S. study with Prof. Sahika Inal and will work on synthesis of 2D active materials for electrochemical storage and actuator applications. Welcome!

2/28/2019

[Publication] Ming-Hui (Hill) and Hao-Ling’s manuscript entitled “Metal-Guided Selective Growth of 2D Materials: A Demonstration of Bottom-Up CMOS Inverter" has been accepted by Advanced Materials! In this work, they demonstrate the concurrent growth of p-/n- types of monolayer TMDs with location selectivity over the entire wafer, a step closer to a fully integrated atomically thin circuit. Congratulations!

2/21/2019

[Seminar] it was such a pleasure to invite Yi from the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab to address an invited seminar at MSE. His talk entitled “Tuning Structure and Ordering for Charge Transport in Frameworks of Organic Semiconductors” enlightens the path toward the realization of organic semiconductors. Thank you Yi!

2/20/2019

[Group outing] We almost had the whole theater to our group! Ph.D. Students and postdocs enjoyed the “Aqua Man” at the one and only Campus Movie Theater in the Kingdom!

2/15/2019

[People] We welcome Dr. Liang Cai join our group as the postdoctoral researcher. Dr. Cai was a chemist by training and later moved to University of Wisconsin, Madison for his exchange Ph.D. program under the guidance of Prof. Song Jin. He will cement the conceptual design of new electrochemical catalysts for energy harvesting, storage and waste-to-commodity transformation. Welcome!

2/14/2019

[Invited Seminar] We are honored to have Prof. Jeehwan Kim from MIT to address an invited talk at KAUST MSE Seminar Series. His talk entitled “Material Challenges and Opportunities in Next Generation Electronics: From Non-Silicon Electronics to Artificial Neural Net” covers the synthesis, processing, and integration of wafer scale 2D materials for next generation of IoT and Artificial Neural Net.We also formally initiate a KAUST-MIT collaboration on wafer scale synthesis of next generation non-silicon atomically thin circuits. Cheers!

2/7/2019

[People] We welcome Oliver Lin from UCLA MSE (Prof. Yang Yang’s group) as a visiting Ph.D. student at 2D lab, KAUST. Oliver will bring rich experience and extensive solar cell device fabrication skills to combine with the fundamental study of 2D TMDs as an enabling platform to study charge carrier transport across the atomic interfaces. Welcome!!

1/19/2019

[People] We welcome Yi Wan join our group as the Ph.D. student. Yi gets her master degree under the guidance of Prof. Lance Li at KAUST. Her project on strain modulated WSe2 growth has been at the forefront of 2D materials community. We welcome her to join the 2D lab and are excited to work together to push the limit of new materials for next generation non-silicon electronics.

1/11/2019

[Collaboration] We are pleased to establish collaboration with Dr. Steve Jonas (UCLA David Geffin Medical School) and Prof. Paul Weiss (UCLA Chem & Chief Editor at ACS Nano) to explore the bio-versatility of 2D atomically materials through nanostructured interfaces. Cheers!

11/27/2018

[Highlight] Dr. Ming-Hui (Hill) Chiu is featured on the front page of KAUST as a recognition of his research excellence in the field of 2D materials. Hill earned his Ph.D. from MSE Program, PSE Division at KAUST this past May under the guidance of Prof. Lance Li. He then started as a postdoc in our group as a lead for our CVD team. Congratulations Hill! More good news to come.

11/16/2018

[Funding] Our User Proposal entitled “Understanding the ion transport in multi-scale architectured MoS2 foam," to the Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL), has been approved. This proposal will forge ahead the bridge between the LBNL and KAUST, allowing Ph.D. students from 2D Lab to access unique and usually one-of-a-kind instrumentation, such as Advanced Light Source. We hope the humble beginning will lightening the path toward higher education and research excellence for students at the Kingdom. Cheers!

[Collaboration] A great visit to SABIC Innovation Center and had an absolutely pleasure to meet with Dr. Hicham Idriss. The research innovation that aims to explore scalable, feasible and renewable energy sources not only inspires research direction at KAUST but also fuels the education of cultivating next generations of Saudi Scientist. We hope to be part of it and contribute our design of 2D TMDs with hetero-junctions. Cheers!

11/13/2018

[KCC Center] We are beyond excited to learn about the New Micro-XPS readily installed at KAUST Catalysis Center. Many thanks to Director Gascon who spearheaded the effort to get the proposal approved by the senior leadership. In X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, solid state specimen is bombarded with soft X-rays in ultra vacuum condition, to eject electrons from the outermost atomic layers of the surface, allowing us to identify the chemical states of each element, to quantify the atomic concentrations (with lower limit of approximately 0.1 at%) and to determine chemical bonding between elements present in the layers.

11/12/2018

[Center Affiliation] Vincent has formally joined KAUST Catalysis Center and will contribute the research at understanding the growth, and catalytic mechanisms of 2D TMD based electrochemical catalysts for HER, ORR, and NH3 reduction. Cheers!

11/11/2018

[Hire] Dr. Liang Cai from University of Science and Technology China & University of Wisconsin, Madison (Under the guidance of Prof. Song Jin) has accepted the offer to join 2D lab at KAUST. Dr. Cai will bring new perspectives of synthesizing new 2D material-based electrochemical catalysts for CO2 and NH3 reduction. Welcome!

11/08/2018

[Seminar] We are honored to have Dr. J Nathan Holman, staff scientist from Molecular Foundry Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, to address an invited talk at MSE Seminar on “Engineering Dimensionality in Excitonic Low-Dimensional Silver MOCHAs (Metal-organic Chalcogenolate Assemblies)”. More collaboration with Dr. Holman and 2D lab built upon the recently awarded User Proposal will be out soon. Stay tuned !!

11/07/2018

[People] We have come a long way from California to Saudi Arabia with a hope to transform the world energy infrastructure away from the reliance of fossil fuels. I will not be able to realize this ambitious vision without the help from my group members. It is still hard to imagine our group has grown so fast within 2 months after arrival at KAUST.

11/05/2018

[Seminar] Prof. Song Jin from Department of Chemistry, University of Wiscosin, Madison as well as the senior editor at ACS Energy Letters visited KAUST and addressed an invited talk about his seminal work on the design, synthesis, assembly, and applications of nanomaterials for energy harvesting and storage. It was an honor to have him on campus and discuss the prospect and future of 2D layered materials.

10/24/2018

[News] Ph.D. student, Areej Aljarb, from 2D research lab is featured on the front page of KAUST in recognition of her research innovation and unmatched dedication to promote the scientific education among Saudi Arab female researchers. Congratulations! https://www.kaust.edu.sa/en/news/student-focus-areej-aljarb 

10/10/2018

[Lab] Today we celebrate the National Day of Taiwan via a big feast at the hidden gem in Jeddah. It was absolutely a pleasure to hang out with fellow Taiwanese students and researchers who pursue their dream here in the Kingdom. Of course, my awesome group members will not miss the feast. Until next time! Happy Birthday, Taiwan!

10/01/2018

[Lab] Things are getting busier than ever in our 2D research lab as our research scientist, Dr. Yuanlong Shao from Cambridge, and Dr. Yichen Cai from Nanjing Tech, have just arrived. They will lead the research direction in the chemical synthesis, assembly, and characterization of bulk 3D composites in energy storage and harvesting.

09/18/2018

[Funding] Even not within the UC system, our team continuously works with leading scientists in the field of 2D materials for energy applications. Here is the exciting news regarding our recent collaboration with Dr. Stanley S. Chou from Sandia National Lab, and University of New Mexico to be funded by the Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) from Department of Energy (DoE). The proposal, entitled “Synthesis, Modeling and Kinetics of Rationally Designed Defects and Substitutions in 2D Materials” with Control Number: L059-1579. Congratulations!

09/13/2018

[Hiring] We welcome the veteran from 2D lab, Dr. Hill (Ming-Hui) Chiu to join our lab! Hill has been the foundation of 2D lab since day 1 and will continuously to lead the efforts in synthesis, characterization, and device applications of novel 2D mono- and bi-layered nanomaterials! Welcome!

09/10/2018

[Welcome, President Chan] It was a pleasure to finally meet President Chan in person.Before becoming the third president of KAUST, he was with NSF and was the dean of school of engineering at UCLA! With the leadership of President Chan, we are all confident that KAUST will continue to strive for excellence with clear vision and ambitious mission.

09/10/2018

[New blood] Dr. Hao-Ling Tang (aka Hao-Hao) joins VCT 2D lab as a postdoctoral researcher. Her rich experiences in fabrication and design of advanced electronics built upon novel 2D materials will help shorten the gap between prototype and industrial production. Welcome to KAUST! 

09/06/2018

[New blood] We welcome Areej to join VCT 2D lab at KAUST! Areej will bring along the rich experience in the growth, mechanistic study, and advanced characterization in large area, single crystalline 2D materials. Cheers! 

09/05/2018

[Group outing] This is how we roll at KAUST. Had a blast with my group member at Bowling on campus. Truly living in a dream to work with such a talented group of young researchers to transform the energy infrastructure away from the reliance of fossil fuel through our innovation, and ambition in 2D material research. 

09/01/2018

[Great and fresh start] Many have doubts about the environment, research capability, and support of this young campus located right next to Red Sea. I can not wait to tell you all how fantastic KAUST is! Falling in love with KAUST the second I stepped into the campus. Stay tuned for more of our work to come!!!

08/14-15/2018

[Presentation] It was absolutely a pleasure and honor to address an invited talk at Annual User Meeting at Molecular Foundry, LBNL. Joining the world class scientists to discuss the prospect, progress and vision for 2D materials research while meeting Prof. Yang Yang, Prof. Jinsong Huang, and Dr. Tze-Bin Song (4 generations at YY lab). Cheers! 

 07/15/2018

[Farewell] Vincent will take an Associate Professor position with tenure and the VCT Lab will move to King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) on 1 August. While we will surely miss some of the awesome colleagues and wonderful friends back in California, we look forward to contributing to the clear vision and ambitious mission of KAUST that focuses on addressing pressing and emerging needs in energy research. 

06/30/2018

[Reunion] It was great seeing you all today at Berkeley before embarking my new journey. I am really blessed to have you all as postdoc, Ph.D. and undergraduate researcher during the construction of nascent material lab at the newest UC campus. Cheers! 

06/25/2018

[Research] Look at these beautiful PVSK crystals synthesized by Oliver at UCLA. We are wrapping up few manuscripts to report the exciting discoveries of PVSK based detectors! We are blessed to have such a great team of world-class researchers from UCLA, UNM, LBNL, and Sandia National Lab. Cheers! 

06/14/2018

[Nano Art] Xuan, Christine, and Stanley have created some Nano-Art, terms "The Nano-Scream" which pays tribute to the master piece "The Scream" by Norwegian Expressionist artist Edvard Munch. Cheers!

06/07/2018

[Grant review] Vincent visited UCLA for the annual review of our joint DOE-LDRD grant with UCLA, and Sandia National Lab. It was great to meet lab alumni Oliver, Dr. Stanley Chou from Sandia National Lab, and Prof. Steve Jonas from UCLA Medical School.  Until next time!!

06/01/2018

[Conference] Vincent will address an invited talk  on our recent discovery, Dewetting induced self-organization of 3D monolith for efficient HER, at the Molecular FoundryUser Meeting, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Cheers!

05/18/2018

[People] Dr. Yuanlong Shao from Cambridge University will join VCT 2D lab as a research scientist in August. His research pioneers in the synthesis, fabrication and integration of 2D nanomaterial based flexible energy storage. Dr. Shao was part of the Prof. Richard Kaner's research group and jointly spearheaded the laser scribing induced reduction of graphene oxide for large area graphene based supercapacitor.  We are excited to welcome another familiar face from UCLA. Welcome! 

05/17/2018

[People] Dr. Segi Byun from Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) will join VCT 2D lab as a postdoctoral researcher in August. His research spans a gamut of 2D materials and their integration into composite materials. Specifically, he will bring new perspectives of solution processable 2D materials through interfacial assembly to our lab.  During Ph.D. study, he also joined Prof. Jiaxing Huang's lab as a visiting scholar at Northwestern University. Welcome! 

05/17/2018

[People] Dr. Yichen Cai from Nanjing Tech University will join VCT 2D lab as a postdoctoral researcher in August. Her research focuses on synthesis and integration of novel 2D materials for stretchable electronics and sensors. Yichen did her visiting scholarship at Prof. Lance Li's 2D research group at KAUST. Welcome! 

05/15/2018

[Grant] Our DoE-Molecular Foundry proposal is accepted for funding! We will work closely with Dr. Nate Holman to develop next generation 2D materials with electrically addressable interfaces, and chemically addressable surfaces. 

05/13/2018

[News] Had an absolute pleasure to discuss science and life at KAUST with these talented students! Look forwarding to visiting you all again and all the best to your next stops! 

05/11/2018

[News] We will begin our collaborative grants with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Here is the pic of meeting the head of Materials Science and Engineering, Prof. Xixiang Zhang. Many exciting works to come!!! 

05/05/2018

[Summer vacation] Finished my last lecture and final examination of ENGR045 at UC Merced. Time to embrace the summer vacation and pick up writings to publish our recent exciting discoveries in printable 3D metal dichalcogenides for electrochemical catalysis and energy storage. Feeling determined like King James!  

05/04/2018

[Fellowship] Bryan receives undergraduate fellowship to conduct summer research at UCSD! Congratulation, a job well done! 

05/01/2018

[Group] I am blessed to have a group of students that support me from day 1 at UC Merced. It is sad to say goodbye to some of you but I am sure our path will definitely cross again in the near future. All the best to your future endeavors in the field of science and engineering. Cheers!  

05/01/2018

[News] Kiana will join Prof. Jessica Yue Wang's group to pursue her Ph.D. in the field of printable bio-scaffolds. All the best and we will miss you a lot!  

04/18/2018

[Presentation] Vincent will address a talk at Lawrence Livermore National Lab about "deformed 2D materials for energy innovation" as part of the collaboration effort between UC and National Labs. More details will be provided later. Cheers! 

04/15/2018

[Funding] Obviously, Ph.D. students in our lab are not satisfied with the amount of funding we got. Here are some pictures that they expressed their wish numbers of future support. Cheers

04/03/2018

[Conference] Vincent is invited to address a talk at the Annual User Meeting of Molecular Foundry. He will talk about recent discoveries of structurally deformed 2D materials for energy harvesting and storage! Cheers.

04/02/2018

[Lab outing] A breath-taking view of cherry blossom from the Naka Meguro river, Japan. 

03/25/2018

[Personnel] Dr. Ali Han from University of Science and Technology (USTC) China and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) will join VCT Lab as a Postdoc in July. Her expertise on CVD growth of Novel 2D materials will help us further expand the horizon of emerging 3D heterostructures  for catalyst and energy storage. Welcome! 

03/18/2018

[News] The journal "Carbon" always holds a special place in my mind as our first manuscript was accepted and highlighted here. Here is the recognition of our contribution to the reviewer's work! Cheers! 

03/17/2018

[Lab outing] Kiana performed at the Iranian gathering to celebrate the Iranian New Year! Photo credit by Wu! 

03/14/2018

[Great News] Today, 3/14/2018/, marks the greatest day in VCT Lab that we formally request to withdraw from NASA MACEs Center. While the journey is bumpy and always filled with dramas, we appreciate the support of NASA on our printable PVSK solar cells. We wish all the best to the leadership of MACEs Center! R.I.P. 

02/17/2018

[Outing] VCT Lab experimenting on ordered assembly of hot pot foods during the Chinese New Year! Happy New Year everyone! 

02/02/2018

[Collaboration] Our new collaboration with Prof. Yang Yang at UCLA, and Dr. Stanley Chou at the Sandia National Lab will enable us to explore the unparalleled properties of PVSK solar cells and crystals! Stay Tuned! 

01/19/2018

[News] New school year begins so as the new collaboration. We will work with Dr. J Nathan Holman, the staff scientist at the Inorganic Division, the Molecular Foundry to explore the unconventional coupling between inorganic-organic hybrid 2D materials! 

01/02/2018

[Admission] Our very own undergraduate Beatriz will become a Ph.D. student at VCT Lab in June. Congratulations and glad you like to stick with us for the next phase of your research. Cheers! 

01/01/2018

[Note] Here is to the beginning of 2018 and flash back to 2017. Many downfalls have laid down the solid foundation for today's success. You are strong because you are imperfect. You are wise because you have doubts. Quotes from Winston Churchill! 

12/27/2017

Self-assembled nanostructures of MoS2 inspired from the Star War Movie "Last Jedi" Stay tuned!  

12/24/2017

Merry Christmas from VCT Lab! 

12/09/2017

[Presentation] Vincent addresses two talks at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, for the use of atomically thin 2D materials for electrocatalyst and battery applications.  

12/08/2017

[Trip] En route for new journey! Stay tuned for the major change of VCT Lab in 2018.

12/05/2017

[Fellowship] Xuan is selected to represent Biological Engineering and Small-scale Technology (BEST) graduate group to compete the highly competitive Graduate Student Mentor Fellowship! Congratulations! 

12/01/2017

[News] More news coverages of our deformed MoS2 for Hydrogen Evolution Reactions (HER) from Sciencedaily, and Materials Today! 

11/23/2017

[News] Our recent publication entitled "Structurally Deformed MoS2 for Electrochemically Stable, Thermally Resistant and Highly Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction" is featured on Sanida National Lab News Highlights  and Nature Asia News! Learn more about how we manipulate physical transformation to drastically enhance the catalytic property of an ordinary MoS2 for HER!!

11/20/2017

[Fellowship] Graduate student Som Sarang, co-advised with Prof. Ghosh at Phyics, is awarded with School of Natural Science Distinguished Scholars Fellowship to continue his study on both PVSK Photovoltaics and Low Dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (LDTMDs). Congrats!! 

11/16/2017

[Reunion] It is always a pleasure to catch up with old friends, especially from Northwestern University. Prof. Tae Hee Han stopped by the Molecular Foundry today! 

11/11/2017

[Funding] Our user proposal entitled "Synthesis of bulk nanostructured MoS2 foam for electrochemically stable and high power anode for pseudocapacitive charge storage" has been approved by Molecular Foundry, Research Hub supported by Department of Energy. Many thanks to graduate student, Xuan Wei, who spent countless hours to work on this project from ground ZERO!! Congrats!! 

10/25/2017

[Publication] Glad to see our contribution to the "Cover Hallway" of Organic & Macromolecular Division at the Molecular Foundry, LBNL. Congrats to Yen-Chang, Taka and many who have worked together to make this happen. 

10/18/2017

[Publication] Our collaboration with Prof. Goshi, Prof. Scheinber, and Prof. Jin Zhang (UCSC) entitled "Stabilization of Cubic Crystalline Phase in Organo-Metal Halide Perovskite Quantum Dots via Surface Energy Manipulation" has been accepted for publication in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. Congratulations! 

10/09/2017

[Publication] A sneak peak to our recently published paper entitled "Structurally Deformed MoS2 for Electrochemically Stable, Thermally Resistant and Highly Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction" will be highlighted in Advanced Materials and is also featured in the front page of UC Merced. Cheers! 

10/05/2017

[Grant] The grant kick-off meeting at Sandia National Lab. We will team up with staff scientists, Dr. Stanley Chou and Dr. Bryan Kaehr at Sandia National Lab, Prof. Hecht at University of New Mexico and Prof. Yang Yang at UCLA to explore the large scale employment of semiconducting crystals for neutron detection. Cheers!

09/25/2017

[Seminar] It was absolutely a pleasure to have former Kaner Group Member, Prof. Julio D'Arcy to address a talk on utilizing conducting polymers for energy storage application at our graduate seminar series. We of course took this opportunity to hold a small reunion. Cheers! 

09/06/2017

[News] Today marks the beginning of an end. Dr. Ishihara Hidetaka will leave our group for Panasonic/Tesla for battery production. Dr. Hidetaka has been the corner stone for VCT lab in the very beginning and has made numerous discoveries that transform the 2D materials into a whole new material paradigm. I am forever grateful to your invaluable dedication, devotion and contribution and am honored to call you my friend. Farewell and hope all the best to your endeavor in electric car. 

09/01/2017

[News] Honor to call you my best friend. Dr. (Soon to be Prof.) Steven Jonas, resident at UCLA Mattel Children Hospital and research fellow at Prof. Paul Weiss' lab at UCLA Chem receives an early career award from Hundai Wheel on Hope Foundation to recognize his contribution on fight pediatric cancer! 

09/01/2017

[Publication] Our collaborative work entitled "Structurally Deformed MoS2 for Electrochemically Stable, Thermally Resistant and Highly Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction" is accepted for publication in Advanced Materials [IF: 19.79] and will be featured as a cover article. Million thanks to Yen-Chang, Ang-Yu (MIT), Xiu-Lin, Lance (KAUST), Changming, Ian, Oliver (LBNL), Marina, Andre (Yale), Ping and Stan (Sandia). 

08/21/2017

[News] Xuan successfully sailed through her Ph.D. qualification! Many thanks to her committee, including Prof. Min Hwan Lee, Prof. Jessica Wang, Prof. Eric Menke and Dr. Stanley Chou from Sanida National Lab. She will now strive for multiple publications in 2017. Congratulations!  

08/10/2017

[News] Welcome Kiana and Jui-Han to join our group as Ph.D. students! They join on the hottest day of the summer in Merced (115˚F)! 

07/07/2017

[Funding] Our collaborative FY18 LDRD Proposal with Sandia National Lab (PI: Stanley Chou) entitled "Unpowered, Stackable, Large Area Semiconductor Neutron Detector," Proposal Number 18-0707, has been recommended for funding (total amount of $ 800,000 for 2 years) by the Defense Systems and Assessments / University of New Mexico Investment Area Team. Congratulations!!

07/05/2017

[News] Yen-Chang has successfully sailed through the Ph.D. defense!! Committee members, including Prof. Kara McCloskey, Prof. Min Hwan Lee and Director Yi Liu from Organic and Macromolecular Division at Molecular Foundry, unanimously impress by Yen-Chang's research and the far-reaching implications of his study on physical transformation modulated electrochemical kinetics for energy storage applications. He is the first ever Ph.D. from VCT Lab!! Congratulations!!! 

06/30/2017

[Seminar] 

Title: Overview of NASA Glenn Research Center Power Division energy storage portfolio and its application to space and aeronautics research
Dr. Dionne Hernandez-Lugo
Power Division, NASA John Glenn Research Center
Time: 3:15 pm
Place: SoE2 Room 224

06/26/2017

[Funding] Our proposal in collaboration with School of Natural Science to Army research lab (70537-RT-REP: Hands-on Quantum Materials Lab)has been accepted for funding (total amount of $ 500,000)! This will bring the nascent campus the versatile AFM/CFM/MFM instrument. Congratulations! 

06/22/2017

[News] Christine Wu has been accepted to Chemical Engineering at UC Berkeley. Congratulations! She will soon join the team at Molecular Foundry at LBNL. 

06/17/2017

[News] Bradley Frank has been accepted as a Ph.D. student at the Polymer Science program from FU Berlin, Humboldt Berlin, TU Berlin, and UPotsdam. Meanwhile, Joseph will start working at Intel in July!! Congratulations!

06/12/2017

[Funding] Our collaborative proposal with Prof. Ghosh at Physics and Prof. Jin Zhang at UCSC on constructing "All Inclusive Tandem Perovskite Photovoltaics" has been selected for funding by NASA MACEs Center! Congratulations!! 

06/01/2017

[Publication] Our collaborative work with Prof. Min Hwan Lee has been accepted for publication at Fuel Cells and will be featured as a Cover in June issue! Congratulations to Taka! 

05/17/2017

[News] Katie from Merced College will join us as a NASA MACEs Summer Fellow for synthesis of nanomaterials for energy storage applications! Welcome!

05/17/2017

[News] The very first Ph.D. from VCT Lab! Congratulations to Yen-Chang for your dedicated effort and countless hours on exploring the uncharted forefront of structurally deformed 2D van der Waals' solids!! Yen-Chang has been a cornerstone for the nascent VCT lab ever since we finalized the movement. It is worth mentioning that Yen-Chang has landed on all major graduate fellowships, including Chancellor's, Dean's and Dean's dissertation fellowships as well as NASA and NSF!! He will soon start as a scientist at Lam Research. Very proud of him!!!!

05/15/2017

[Fellowship] Wu's work on "Transparent MoS2 for Efficient Hole Transport Layer for Perovskite Photovoltaics" will be supported by NASA MACEs Center over the summer! Well done! 

05/15/2017

[Fellowship] Som has been selected for the Dan David Solar Cell Fellowship and will participate in Solar Cells Workshop at NREL in July. Cheers!

04/15/2017

[News] Pisrut "Todd" will start his Ph.D. at Bio-medical Engineering, at UC Irvine! Congratulations!!!

02/06/2017

[News] Our collaborative research with Prof. Ghosh on regulating the hydrodynamics of droplets that contains precursors for green and printable perovskites photovoltaics has been featured on the front page of UC Merced. When chemistry meets physics! 

01/07/2017

[Seminar] 

Title: Dripping, jetting, drops and wetting: the magic of micro-fluidics
Professor David Weitz
Harvard University
Time: 10:30 am on Jan 27
Place: COB2 Room 267 

11/24/2016

[Holiday] Wishing that your Thanksgiving is full of love, warmth, turkey, pies, and extra special moments!!

11/22/2016

[Publication] Taka, Yen-Chang, Nick, Yen and Oliver's work entitled "Electrohydrodynamic-assisted Assembly of Hierarchically Structured, 3D Crumpled Nanostructures for Efficient Solar Conversions" has been accepted for publication in Scientific Reports. We explore the use of electrostatically charged droplets as nano-reactors that simultaneously induce self-crumpling of graphene sheets and preserve the single layered identity. Cheers 

11/01/2016

[Fellowship] Yen-Chang has been rewarded the prestigious Dissertation Fellowship to recognize his achievements in the forefront of nanoscience and energy harvesting. Congratulations!   

09/13/2016

[Fellowship] Som Sarang has been selected for Summer 2017 Southern California Edison Fellowship. Congratulations!

08/30/2016

[Publication] Our collaboration with Prof. Ghosh and Prof. Gopinathan on "Low temperature excitonic spectroscopy and dynamics as a probe of quality in hybrid perovskite thin films" will be highlighted as a back cover in Chemical Physics Physical Chemistry. Here is the sneak peek of the image. 

08/30/2016

[Publication] Kat and Som's paper entitled "Hybrid perovskite thin films as highly efficient luminescent solar concentrators" has been accepted for publication in Advanced Optical Materials! Congrats!!

08/21/2016

[Fellowship] Yen-Chang is awarded the NSF CCBM Scholarship for his work on the synthesis, assembly and integration of crumpled nanomembranes. Congratulations! 

08/17/2016

[Group news] Jose is leaving for his master study at UC Davis. Thank you so much for the contribution on the MoS2 projects. We will definitely ask you to come back on weekends. 

08/10/2016

[Publication] Our paper entitled "Low temperature excitonic spectroscopy and dynamics as a probe of quality in hybrid perovskite thin films" has been accepted for publication in Chemical Physics Physical Chemistry. Congratulations to Som and Taka!  

6/13/2016

[Conference] 2016 annual user meeting will be held at the Molecular Foundry on Aug. 11-12. We will present our work on the assembly of 3D porous functional materials. Cheers!

When: August 11-12, 2016

Where: Berkeley Lab, Building 50

Website: foundry.lbl.gov/usermeeting2016

6/13/2016

[Group] We welcome Matthew to join our lab as a NASA MACEs summer intern. Cheers! 

6/10/2016

Go Warriors! Strength in numbers!!! (live from Oracle Arena)

6/4/2016

[Group] We welcome our ACS SEEDS student, Mai Chong Thao, to join our lab for the summer! Cheers. 

06/01/2016

[Funding] Our proposal in collaboration with School of Natural Science to Army research lab has been accepted for funding (total amount of $ 495,000)! This will bring the nascent campus the high resolution IR instrument and fluorometer. Congratulations! 

05/21/2016

[Student activity] MACEs has held the first field trip to NASA Ames Center this past April as part of the outreach activity. If you are interested in participating, please apply through MACEs website or contact center manager, Mariana. Cheers! 

05/16/2016

[Funding] Our DOE-Molecular Foundry proposal entitled "Induce Three-Dimensionality in 2D Transition Metal Dichalcogenides" has been awarded for funding. Many thanks to Yen-Chang, Oliver, and Jose's hard work! Cheers

05/12/2016

[Group news] Yen-Chang is awarded a summer internship at Lam Research. Congratulations! 

05/12/2016

[Group news] its always bitter sweet to say goodbye to our group members. Oliver will leave us for his Ph.D. study at MSE, UCLA while Jose will join Bio-engineering at UC Davis.  

05/12/2016

[Presentation] NASA GSR fellows from Sensing Thrust will present their talk on May 16, at room 224, SE 2. Please join us. 

05/09/2016

[Funding] Our research on "“Bio-mimetic Assembly of 3D Graphitic frameworks from Bijels” has been selected for funding by UC Committee of Research. Congratulations!   

05/03/2016

[Group news] Our ACS SEED student Lai has been accepted to UC Berkeley!! Congratulations! 

04/27/2016

[Collaboration] Stay tuned with our collaborative work with Yale! 

4/12/2016

[Funding] Our NSF-CREST Center on Cellular and Biomolecular Machines (among faculties from Natural Science and School of Engineering) has been officially awarded with the total amount of $ 5 millions. We will contribute to the design and synthesis of novel 3D monoliths for bio-sensing. Congratulations! 

4/5/2016

[Fellowship] Yen-Chang is awarded with the BEST Summer Fellowship for his work on rational engineering of localized strains in 2D TMDs. Cheers! 

4/1/2016

[Fellowship] Som is awarded with the Graduate Division Summer Fellowship for his work on exploring intrinsic transport property of perovskite photovoltaics. Congrats!  

3/29/2016

Perfect disguise to blend in with Ph.D. students. Photo credit: MRS Phoenix 2016 

3/28/2016

Its really a reunion for YY Lab. Three generations (三代同堂)

3/24/2016

[Fellowships] Som is awarded Graduate Division Summer Fellowship for his study on photo-physic electronic property of perovskites at various interfaces. Congratulations! 

3/23/2016

[Admission] Jose just got another admission from UC Davis MSE. Congratulations! 

3/22/2016

[News] Taka's work in collaboration with Professor Ghosh on electrohydrodynamic deposition of perovskite photovoltaics will be featured as the front cover of Advanced Materials Interfaces! Congratulations! 

3/16/2016

[Outing] Small VCT Lab ski trip to Lake Tahoe was a success!  

3/14/2016

[News] Jose received an admission from University of Washington! Congratulations! 

3/10/2016

[News] Oliver receives admissions from UCLA and University of Arizona. Congratulations!

3/1/2016

[Presentation] Yen-Chang and Marisol will present their work on Three dimensionality in 2D Soft Materials at research week! 

2/29/2016

[Internship] NASA MACEs Center is taking applications for summer research opportunity (undergraduates). If you are interested, please refer to the following website, http://maces.ucmerced.edu/education/undergraduate-education

2/29/2016

[Conference] We will address two talks at MRS spring 2016. Find us at the Perovskite and Colloidal Chemistry Sessions. Cheers 

2/28/2016

In memory of the darkest day of the history of Taiwan. 

2/26/2016

[News] Xuan Wei joins our group as a Ph.D. student and will work on 2D materials for energy storage. Welcome!

2/25/2016

[Fellowship] Yen-Chang is awarded BEST Travel Grant for attending MRS 2016 in Phoenix, Arizona. Congrats! 

2/23/2016

[Publication] Our collaborative work with Professor Ghosh on “Nature inspiring process toward high throughput production of perovskite photovolatics” will be featured in the issue of emerging young investigators and as a back cover! Congrats!

2/17/2016

[Publication] Our collaborative work with Professor Ghosh on “Electrohydrodynamically assisted deposition of perovskite photovoltaics” will be featured as the cover article in Advanced Materials Interfaces. Congrats!

2/15/2016

[Publication] Our work on rational assembly of hybrid photoanode is proudly featured on the famous “Cover Wall” at the Molecular Foundry. More to come! Congratulation to Yen-Chang, Oliver and Taka. Cheers!

2/14/2016

[News] Happy V-Day and a Nano-flower made of graphene for everyone by VCT Lab. :)

1/1/2016

Happy New Year and Congratulations to Marisol for awarding NASA undergraduate fellow!

12/24/2015

Merry Chrismas everyone!! 

12/21/2015

[News] Today, Pisrut, successfully sailed through the Master Defense. Congratulations, a job well done!

12/15/2015

[Reunion] Small year end dinner!

12/10/2015

Happy Holiday from LBNL 

12/4/2015

NASA Funded MACEs Center Open Day is a huge success!! Thanks to everyone whose unselfish and dedicated works make this happen. Now we are striving for providing quality education in Central Valley.  

11/24/2015

[Cover Art] Stay tuned.

11/09/2015

[Outreach] Please check the recent activities with SciBridge! 

http://www.scibridge.org/

11/08/2015

[News] New rules to increase the transparency and reproducibility of Perovskites. 

http://www.nature.com/authors/policies/solarchecklist.pdf

11/06/2015

[Art] Crumpled flower made of transitional metal dichalcogenides (TMDs)

11/05/2015

[News] Today’s tragedy has shaken all of us. Thoughts and condolence are with the victims. 

10/26/2015

[Collaboration] Shrinky Dinky Fun by R2D2. 

10/23/2015

[Collaboration] Our collaborative project with Professor Michelle Khine will be out soon ! Here is some sneak peeks. 

10/21/2015

[Event] Save the day for MACEs Center Grand Opening on Dec. 4. 

10/19/2015

[member] Joe will leave our group in the end of October. All the best to your future search!!

10/16/2015

[Fellowships] Congratulations to Bradely and Yen-Chang for their NASA&MACEs fellowships! Both of them will work on perovskite photovoltaics. Cheers! 

10/16/2015

[News] UCLA team just unveiled the air-stable all-oxide perovskite solar cells in

Nature Nanotech

!! Nick De Marco is one of the contributing authors. Cheers!!

10/15/2015

[Visit] An inspiring visit to SolCal and catch up with both PIs, Prof. Ric Kaner and Prof. Yang Yang. Also glad to know that our alumni, Nick and Andrew are doing well at UCLA. Go Bruins!!

10/14/2015

[News] The scope and vision of the research at Molecular Foundry have been featured on this special issue of

Advanced Materials

! 

10/05/2015

[Gorup] VCT lab t-shirt has finally submitted for production. 

09/18/2015

[Publication] Yen-Chang and Taka’s paper has been selected as the inside cover for the coming issue in Advanced Materials Interfaces. Congratulations!

09/17/2015

[Media] Three-dimensional 2D Materials. Stay tuned!

09/01/2015

[Media] VCT Lab youtube channel and twitter accounts will be on-line shortly. We will begin to upload exciting progress and discovery by our lab members. Stay-tuned. 

08/28/2015

[Member] Junior student, Bradley Frank will join our group to work on NASA funded Perovskite Photovoltaics. Welcome!!

08/24/2015

[Publication] Our work has been featured on a special issue of Graphene in

Science of Advanced Materials

. 

Cheers!

08/24/2015

[Meeting] Kick-off Meeting for NASA sponsored Merced nAnanomaterial Center for Energy (MACE) will be held at UC Santa Cruz! 

08/20/2015

[Conference] The User Meeting will be held at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. 

http://foundry.lbl.gov/usermeeting2015/

08/15/2015

[Publication] Our manuscript entitled “Capillarity Assisted Electrostatic Assembly of Hierarchically Functional 3D Graphene: TiO2 Hybrid Photoanodes” by Yen-Chang, Taka, Wenjun, Nick, Andrew, Johnny and Oliver is accepted for publication at Advanced Materials Interfaces. Congrats!!

08/05/2015

[News] Lai Thung successfully delivered a good poster regarding CLIP printing of perovskite photovoltaics at America Chemical Society SEED program. Congrats!

06/27/2015

[News] They simply ask equal dignity in the eye of law. Love just won. Congratulations to and truly proud of all my LGBT friends. Finally, your persistent steps culminates to the historic moment. 

6/17/2015

[News] CBS interviewed Prof. Lu and Ye regarding the vision of NASA MACE Center. Taka and Lai were featured in the News. Congrats!

http://www.yourcentralvalley.com/story/d/story/nasa-grants-millions-to-uc-merced/55623/SDuawL1WLE-n27fXBnsd6Q

6/15/2015

[Funding] Official press release of the NASA funded

MACES Center at UC Merced

. Congrats!

http://www.ucmerced.edu/news/2015/new-nasa-affiliated-center-opening-uc-merced

6/8/2015

[Summer Camp] Jose is selected to participate in Nano/Bio-technology Summer Camp at UIUC! Congrats!

5/27/2015

[Presentation] Yen-Chang is invited to address a talk on “Electrostatic Assembly of 3D Hierarchically Functional Photoanodes” at the Electrochemical Society (ECS).  

5/20/2015

[Publication] Our invited paper on Self-assembly of Flexible All-carbon Photovoltaics is co-featured as a cover on the Journal of Solid State Chemistry. Congrats!

5/20/2015

[People] Todd Phummirat from UCSD will officially work in VCT group on CLIP synthesis of Perovskites. Welcome!

5/19/2015

[People] Lai Thung will join our group as a ACS SEED summer intern! Welcome! 

5/17/2015

[Funding] Our proposal entitled” highly efficient perovskite photovoltaics through electrohydrodynamically-assisted self-organization at nanoscale” has been renewed and approved by DOE. Congrats! 

5/16/2015

[Graduation] It is the time of the year to say goodbye to students. All the best to your journey at UCSD. Also, good to see our Alumni back from UCLA. Go VCT Lab. Special thanks to Marisol for taking this awesome photo.

5/15/2015

[People] Wenjun will start a new chapter of her career in science and engineering. She graduates today as a Master student. Her contribution in laying down the solid foundation of our CLIP Perovskites has led to several groundbreaking discoveries. All the best for your new journey at UCSD. 

5/10/2015

[Equipment] We have added another enabling equipment, adphoS NIR emitter, to enhance the throughput of our CLIP technology for fabricating perovskite photovoltaics. 

5/7/2015

[Equipment] We have collaborated with Professor Sayatani Ghosh’s lab to set up a Phantom Highspeed Camera to monitor the dynamics for incoming droplets generated from EHD process.

5/5/2015

Yen-Chang just passed his Ph.D. qualification with unanimous votes!!! He will start working at the Molecular Foundry for his summer fellowships. Congratulations!  

4/29/2015

[Fellowship] Yen-Chang is awarded School of Engineering, Dean’s Award Fellowship for the summer. Congrats! 

4/24/2015

[Fellowship] Yen-Chang is awarded travel fellowship for the upcoming Electrochemical Society (ECS) Meeting. Congrats! 

4/23/2015

[Funding] Our proposal teamed up with PI Jennifer Lu, Minhwan Lee, Saiyatani Ghosh, and Tao Ye, and Anand Subramaniam is selected for award of 5 millions from NASA MUREP Institutional Research Opportunity (MIRO), 2015! Congrats!! 

4/15/2015

[Equipment] We will establish NIR emitter capability for unconventional photovolatic projects.

4/1/2015

[Fellowship] Yen-Chang is awarded Bobcat summer fellowship for his study on perovskite photovoltaics! Congrats!

3/15/2015

[Admission] Wenjun will join Ph.D. program at UC San Diego! Congrats!!

2/2/2015

[Collaboration] Oliver will start working with Dr. Yi Liu at the Molecular Foundry!

1/17/2015

[People] Pisrut Phummirat from UC San Diego will join us as a Master student. Welcome!

1/10/2015

[People] Som Sarang from Physics will join our lab for characterization and fabrication of Perovskite project. Welcome!

1/1/2015

[Moving] We are moving to the new lab located in newly structured School of Engineering 2. 

10/13/2014

[People] Joe Lin from MSE, University of Pennsylvania will join VCT Lab as a research specialist and work on Felexible Perovskite photovoltaics. Welcome!

10/09/2014

[People] Oliver Lin from UC Davis Chemistry will join VCT Lab as a research associate and work on Perovskite photovoltaics. Welcome!

10/06/2014

[News] New Biological Engineering and Small-scale Technology (BEST) graduate group flier designed by Chair, Professor Kara McClosky is on! Welcome to apply.

10/04/2014

[News] VCT Lab will be moving into new home at School of Engineering 2. 

10/01/2014

[Funding] VCT Lab received funding support as a gift from Innova Dyanmics for Flexible Perovskites. Cheers!

09/21/2014

[News] Nick left the VCT lab for UCLA MSE. Thank you for the contribution and all the best for your study at UCLA. 

08/22/2014-

[News]

Marisol and Jose successfully presented their work at NSF sponsored COINs poster session. Well done!

07/15/2014-

[Funding] Innova Dynamics forms collaborationship with our lab! Cheers

06/15/2014-

Marisol is the recipient of 2014

COINs Summer Fellowship

! Congrats.

06/09/2014-

[Funding] Vincent has been awarded New Investigator Award from ACS Petroleum Funds for his research on fundamental self-assembly study for highly compact and ultrahigh surface area nanocomposites. Cheers

05/28/2014-

Andrew is featured on

Merced Sun Star

for his passion and dedication toward carbon based nano-material research. 

05/20/2014-

[Funding] Our DOE-Molecular Foundry Proposal entitled” Electrohydrodynamic Assembly of High Performance Perovskite Photovoltaic” has been officially approved. Cheers! 

05/16/2014-

Jonny Sun from UC Davis will join us for summer research under

UC LEADS

Fellowship. Welcome!

05/14/2014-

Marisol has been featured as the cover of

UC Merced Magazine (Spring 2014)

because of her contribution to STEM education. Congratulations! 

05/12/2014-

[Fellowship] Andrew is awarded NSF Fellowship for his 5 years study at UCLA. Congratulations! 

05/12/2014-

Andrew and Nick will accept the offer from UCLA MSE department. Congratulations! Go Bruins.

05/01/2014-

[Funding] Our work on Crumpled Graphene as a Chemically versatile and Biologically compatible platform has been awarded HSRI (Health Science Research Institute) Grants. Cheers

04/23/2014-

[Conference] Vincent presented our work on Dimensional Transition of Soft Functional Materials at Soft Materials Section, MRS SF. 

1/24/2014-

[presentation] Our work on Dimensional Transition of Soft Membranes: Assembly, Dynamics and Energy Application will be presented at MRS San Francisco. Cheers

12/3/2013-

[Presentation] Our work on “Emulsion Induced Assembly of Functional Carbon Hybrid Composites” will be featured at MRS Boston. Cheers!

09/12/2013-

[Sport] Congratulation to the Boston Red Sox for the hard-earned pennant! Go Sox!

09/01/2013-

[Paper] Our collaborative work with Prof. Martini and Isborn on “Charge Carrier Transportation at Carbon-Caborn Interfaces” is accepted for publication in “Journal of Physical Chemistry C” Cheers!

06/20/2013-

[Funding]

Our collaborative work with Prof. Martini has been awarded by the Graduate Research Council for funding support. Congratulations!

06/15/2013-

[Paper] Our collaborative work with Prof. Martini on “Rational Assembly of All-Carbon Nanomaterials” is accepted for publication in “Carbon” Cheers!

05/25/2013-

[Funding] Vincent is grateful for the support from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) for Rational Synthesis, Assembly of Carbon based Superstructure for Photovoltaic and Photoelectrochemical Energy Storage. 

05/21/2013-

Nick is selected as the recipent of NSF-COINs internship. Good job done.

04/15/2013-

Andrew’s work on geomertically driven self-assembly of all-carbon heterostructures has been selected as the winner of PG&E Summer Research Award, 2013. Congratulation!

04/05/2013-

Yen’s work on electrically responsive gel electrode for energy harvesting is selected by the BEST program for summer research award. Congradulation! 

03/17/2013-

Vincent is grateful for the support from UC Solar, the only inter-campus energy institute at UC. 

03/08/2013-

Yen-Chang just received the prestigious 

Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship

for four years! Congratulation! 

02/24/2013-

Andrew has been awarded with a NSF undergraduate fellowship from Center of Integrated Nanomechanic System

(COINS) to work on self-assembly of soft layered materials for solar-fuel applications. Congratulation! 

02/22/2013-

Yen-Chang Chen from University of Florida will join our team as a PhD student. Welcome!

01/15/2013-

Tom starts a cross-university collaboration with Northwestern University. Cheers

12/15/2012-

Kwyn left the group and joined Dr. Davilla’s research group for mechanisitc study on “Nano-springs”

10/15/2012-

Dr. Ishihara Taka from University of Arkansas, Little Rock joins our group for developing next generation solar-to-fuel energy stroage. Welcome

08/31/2012-

Dr. Tomas Oppenheim from Cambridge University brings broad and deep knowledge in the feild of electromechanical coupling to our lab. Welcome. 

07/31/2012-

Vincent finally settled down in School of Engineering room 235 and started builting lab. 

04/10/2012-

Vincent’s invited perspective on “Progress and Perspective toward All-carbon Solar Cells” has been accepted and will be featured as a cover article. Cheers!

03/26/2012-

Vipawee (Yen) joins the group as the first PhD student in Tung Lab. Congratulation! 

03/01/2012-

Vincent has been awarded visiting scholar in MSE at Northwestern University. Cheers!

01/01/2012 - 

Vincent Tung becomes the Assistant Professor at UC Merced! Congrats!!