Dr. Gavin Kiel, PhD

The combination of inorganic and organic components in a hybrid material or device can provide synergies that enable next generation applications in catalysis, human health, and (opto)electronics. The interfacial communication between these components can make or break the properties of the material, especially in (opto)electronics applications where charge carriers or excitons must efficiently migrate. It remains difficult to rationally modify such interfaces and chemists still rely on relatively few chemical reactions to do so. This research seeks to develop a versatile platform for modification of technologically relevant surfaces using stable and modular carbene anchors as a linchpin. This will enable a highly tunable framework whereby a single carbene-anchored inorganic nanostructure can be diversified into a range of materials architectures or modified in pursuit of a specific property.