Surface and Interface Chemistry - From Fundamentals to Devices

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The importance of surfaces and interfaces and the chemistry that occurs there is central to our lives. The interface chemistry that occurs in the membranes of our cells is responsible for proper cell function and health. The quality of the air that we breathe is, in part, determined by the complex chemistry that occurs on the surfaces of aerosol particles suspended in the atmosphere. Much of the technology that we rely on in our daily lives is based the chemistry that occurs on semiconductor surfaces and thin films. Industry relies on physical and chemical processes on surfaces to improve quality, ensure adhesion, protection, and corrosion resistance of our infrastructure and consumables. Our ability to understand, control and optimize surface and interface chemistry has resulted in significant improvements in our lives, including benefits in health, information and communication technologies, pollution abatement, energy production, materials processing, and wealth creation more generally. The primary objectives of our research program are (i) to provide meaningful contributions to the understanding and knowledge of surface and interface chemistry and (ii) to address fundamental issues in interface science and their impact on the development of new technologies, materials and processes.***Here, we propose to develop new methods to investigate surfaces and interfaces with light. These new methods will allow us to obtain new information about surfaces, the molecules that reside there, and the effects on their chemistry. We will also use light and other tools with atomic scale resolution to help understand the fundamental properties of organic electronic materials. These materials are increasingly being used in new technologies, but our fundamental understanding of them is limited. A better understanding of their underlying properties will help us to improve their performance, and the performance of devices and technologies that use them. We will conduct experiments that help us to understand a new solar energy technology that we have developed in our laboratory. Development of this new solar technology may offer cost effective alternatives to fossil fuel-based electricity production, and its negative environmental and health consequences. Finally, we have developed new chemistry that enables the deposition of high quality single crystal metals from solution. This chemistry has important implications in many areas including energy generation technologies, nanotechnology and catalysis.***The young scientists that we train in our labs can now be found in R&D, technical, teaching, and administrative positions in universities, government labs, industries and start-up companies in Canada and abroad.