Directory

B. Tech. Metallurgical Engineering (1985) Banaras Hindu University

Ph.D. Materials Science and Engineering (1989) Northwestern University

Carbon Based Materials, Nanostructured Materials, Nanoscale Electrical Interconnects and Devices, Nanomaterials Enabled Energy Storage Systems, Electron Microscopy and Electron Spectroscopy, Sensors, Electromechanical Actuators, Nanoscale Materials of Natural and Biological Origin

Email: ajayan@rice.edu
Phone: (713) 348-5904
Office: Mechanical Engineering Building, 219

Professor Ajayan earned his B. Tech in metallurgical engineering from Banaras Hindu University in 1985 and Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Northwestern University in 1989. After three years of post-doctoral experience at NEC Corporation in Japan, he spent two years as a research scientist at the Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Orsay in France and nearly a year and a half as an Alexander von Humboldt fellow at the Max-Planck-Institut fur Metallforschung, Stuttgart in Germany. In 1997, he joined the materials science and engineering faculty at Rensselaer as an Assistant Professor and was the Henri Burlage chair Professor in Engineering until 2007. He joined the mechanical engineering and materials science department of Rice university, as the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Engineering from July 2007. Professor Ajayan's research interests include synthesis and structure-property relations of nanostructures and nanocomposites, materials science and applications of nanomaterials and phase stability in nanoscale systems. He is one of the pioneers in the field of carbon nanotubes and was involved in the early work on the topic along with the NEC group. He has published one book and 324 journal papers with more than 18,600 citations and an h-index of 67. He has given more than 230 invited talks including several keynote and plenary lectures in more than 20 countries. Ajayan has received several awards including the Senior Humboldt Prize, 2006 MRS medal, Scientific American 50 recognition in 2006, RPI senior research award (2003), the Burton award from the microscopic society of America (1997) and the Hadfield medal for the outstanding metallurgist in India (1985). He has been elected as a fellow of AAAS and to the Mexican Academy of Sciences. He is on the advisory editorial board of several materials science and nanotechnology journals and on the boards of several nanotech companies.

Research Statement

Our research focuses on the development of functional nanostructured materials for variety of applications. We look at the materials science and engineering aspects of  these novel materials with three different focused application areas:

Nanomaterials in Energy Generation and Storage
There is a tremendous opportunity today in the development of new materials for applications in energy. We are working on integrating nanomaterials in several key areas of energy technologies. Engineered architectures based on carbon nanotubes, nanowires and nanocomposites are being looked at in our laboratory for the development of new designs of supercapacitors, battery and their hybrids. Similarly electrodic applications of nanostructures are being pursued in the energy generation (e.g. hydrogen) area. In addition, energy management is also of interest, in particular thermal management using nanomaterials and development of new catalyst and support materials for fuel cells.

Multifunctional  Composites, Nano-enabled bio-mimetic Systems
Lightweight multifunctional materials are critical for the continued development of next generation structural materials. This is especially the case where loading conditions and harsh environments require smart material solutions capable of addressing needs such as payload, damping/vibration control, EMI and lightning shielding, thermal management, and health-monitoring. Our approaches will look at engineering and integration of nanostructures into composites and hybrid materials in intelligent and scalable ways that mimic biological systems and have applications in a variety of areas in materials science and bio-technology. Some bio-mimetic concepts (membranes, dry adhesive tapes etc.) are also being pursued to build novel and smart material systems.

Nanoelectronics, Nanosensors, Active Nanosystems
The revolutionary nanotechnology will follow breakthroughs in electronics and sensors. We have been looking at the role of nanomaterials in electronics, as devices and interconnects. We focus on carbon nanotubes, graphene, hybrid nanowires and molecular materials for developing the new generation of integrated electronic components. Materials such as carbon nanotubes and graphene seem to have big advantages over conventional silicon based devices and copper based interconnects. The challenges in large scale assembly, junctions and contacts between nanodevices and integration into existing technologies are topics of interest. In addition we are also pursuing various approaches to build sensor devices and sensor network systems using nanostructures and their assemblies. Finally our ultimate goal is to build active, smart assemblies of nanostructures that can be controllably manipulated.

Selected Publications

Grants and Proposals