Welcome to the Duan Lab webpage!

Using two-dimensional layered materials and their heterostructures, we are pushing the electronic and photonic devices towards the ultimate limit of single atomic layer, creating a new generation of devices with unprecedented performance, unique functions and/or extraordinary flexibility.

Combining chemical synthesis and physical assembly approaches, we are developing powerful strategies for the hetero-integration of multi-composition, multi-structure and multi-function at the nanoscale, and by doing so, creating a new generation of integrated materials and nanosystems with unprecedented performance or unique functions to break the boundaries of traditional technologies.

Through rational design and nanoscale eintegration of highly distinct materials and functions (e.g., light harvesting, charge transport, or catalytic capabilities), we are creating new material systems for highly efficient energy harvesting, conversion and storage.

With comparable size to functional biological building blocks, nanoscale systems are ideally suited for interfacing with biological systems. We are designing nanoscale electrical and optical systems that can greatly expand our capability in probing, imaging, monitoring, and manipulating biological processes with unprecedented resolution, sensitivity and precision.

News:

A new approach to prepare solution-processable 2-D semiconductors
Oct 15, 2018
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Texas at Austin, and Hunan University (China) have recently devised a new method of preparing highly uniform, solution-processable, phase-pure semiconducting nanosheets. Their approach, outlined in a paper published in Nature, involves the electrochemical intercalation of quaternary ammonium molecules into 2-D crystals, followed by a mild sonication and exfoliation process.
Duan group collaboration featured in ACS Central Science
Jul 16, 2018
The team reported on a new on-chip "tool" that helps to "see" & identify the key process that hinders the performance of catalyst used in fuel cells. The tool will help scientists find respective solutions more efficiently.

The work was led by Xiangfeng Duan, a UCLA professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and Yu Huang, a UCLA professor of materials science and engineering.

The lead author of the study is Mengning Ding (pictured right), a former UCLA CNSI postdoctoral fellow advised by Huang and Duan, now a professor of chemistry at Nanjing University, China. Other study authors are UCLA graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in Duan and Huang’s research groups and researchers from King Saud University, Saudi Arabia.
Professors Xiangfeng Duan and Neil Garg have been named two of 31 National Finalists for the 2018 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists.
Jun 10, 2018
Chosen from a pool of 286 nominated promising scientific researchers aged 42 years and younger from America’s top academic and research institutions, Duan is one of 11 Physical Sciences & Engineering finalists and Garg is one of ten Chemistry finalists. The finalists were selected based on their extraordinary accomplishments and their promise for the future.

From www.chemistry.ucla.edu
Tiny defects in semiconductors created ‘speed bumps’ for electrons. UCLA researchers cleared the path
Jun 10, 2018
UCLA scientists and engineers have developed a new process for assembling semiconductor devices. The advance could lead to much more energy-efficient transistors for electronics and computer chips, diodes for solar cells and light-emitting diodes, and other semiconductor-based devices.

From newsroom.ucla.edu
30 UCLA faculty on list of ‘most cited’ influential scholars
May 1, 2018
Thirty UCLA faculty members are among the most influential researchers in their fields for 2017, as determined by Claritive Analytics. The organization compiled its 2017 Highly Cited Researchers list of more than 3,000 scientists from around the world whose studies were among the top 1 percent most referenced in studies from their field. (Read more about the rankings methodology.)

From http://newsroom.ucla.edu/