Department of
Materials Science and Engineering
2005 Fall Seminar Series
September 16
Brian C. Holloway
Department of Applied Science
College of William and Mary
Williamsburg, Virginia
Carbon Nanostructures -
New Morphologies of an Old Element
Abstract
Although carbon has been known since ancient times, the discovery of new allotropes, such as fullerenes and nanotubes, in the 1980's and 90's renewed interest in this rather old element and helped instigate the current national research thrust in nanotechnology - using atomic and molecular building blocks in a bottom-up, rather than a top-down, approach to device construction. In this talk I will discuss our recent successes in synthesizing a new carbon nanostructure, which we call carbon nanosheet, on a variety of substrates including metals, semiconductors, and insulators by RF plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition without any catalyst or special substrate treatment. SEM, TEM, SAED, Raman, XPS, AES, FTIR, and XRD all indicate that carbon nanosheets deposit as smooth sheets which are several hundred nanometers in height and length but are 1 nm or less in thickness. Such nanosheets consist of, at most, a few graphene layers. By systematically varying growth parameters, samples with predominantly free-standing single atom-layer graphene sheets can be obtained and the nanosheets can be aligned on the growth surface. I will conclude the talk by briefly summarizing our ongoing efforts at using nanosheets as high current field emission sources.
Biographical
Information
Professor Holloway received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Materials Science and Engineering. His Ph.D. thesis work explored the relationship between the mechanical properties and chemical bonding in amorphous carbon nitride thin films using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS, aka XANES), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and nanoindention. He also received his Masters from Stanford and graduated from the University of Florida with a B.S., both in Mechanical Engineering.
After graduate school he was awarded an American Association for the Advancement of Science fellowship to serve as a staff resource to a member of Congress (Sen. John D. Rockefeller). At the completion of his year as a AAAS Fellow, Dr. Holloway continued as a Legislative Assistant. While serving in Sen. Rockefeller's office, Dr. Holloway dealt with technology transfer, agricultural, environmental, economic development, and science policy and appropriations policy and legislation issues.
Dr. Holloway accepted a tenure-track faculty appointment in the newly formed Applied Science Department at the College of William & Mary in 1998 where he was granted tenure and promoted to Associate Professor in 2003. His research has focused on nanostructure and thin film synthesis and application, with a special emphasis on carbon-based structures. Current active research areas include high brightness field emission sources using carbon nanostructures, commercial-scale production of carbon nanotubes using laser ablation, and carbon thin film deposition for microelectronic applications. He has over 20 publications and 30 invited presentations in the field as well as three patent disclosures.
Professor Holloway has been involved in a number of professional committees and projects. He is currently the immediate past Program Chair and current General Chair of the International Conference on Metallurgical Coatings and Thin Films, an AVS meeting sponsored by the ASED Division, is a member of the Executive Committee of the Thin Film Division of the AVS, serves on the Materials Research Society Public Policy Committee, and served as the MRS representative to the Alliance for Science and Technology Research in America (ASTRA) Board of Directors. He has also served on the advisory board for three international workshops, been a session chair, symposium chair, and workshop moderator for AVS and MRS, and has been involved in several state-wide initiatives and workshops.
Back to seminar
schedule
|
|
