West Chester University undergraduate Jake Gallahan and his instructor Kurt Kolasinski saw a familiar shape in the electron microscope image Gallahan made for a physical chemistry class project: the outline of Rammy, the school mascot. Rammy’s distinctive visage emerged among the nanoscale nooks and crannies of a tin substrate that Gallahan had been examining. Gallahan’s project involved shooting lasers at metal targets submerged in dimethyl sulfoxide, producing a highly textured surface for seeding nanomaterials. After the laser ablation, Gallahan reacted the tin with elemental sulfur at 200 °C to grow crystalline tin sulfide nanoparticles. The material has a variety of uses in electrochemistry, energy storage, and catalysis, though Gallahan says he was focused primarily on studying surface modifications and crystal growth.
Submitted by Jake Gallahan
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