About Us
Welcome to the web site of the Nanomaterial Fabrication Laboratory where Dr. Svetlana Neretina and her research team are advancing the application, understanding, and material fabrication methods for noble metal nanostructures, an extraordinary class of materials that are used in the diagnosis and treatment of disease, environmental remediation, chemical synthesis, and sensing technologies. Fabrication methods such as nanoimprint lithography, self-assembly, and solution-phase redox reactions are used in combination to define periodic arrays of complex noble metal nanostructures that collectively express the photo- and chemically active surfaces needed to prototype photovoltaic and sensing devices. These same nanostructures are also being investigated as catalysts for hydrogen generation and as photocatalysts capable of promoting green chemical syntheses powered by sunlight. Emphasis is also placed on the development of new instrumentation and in situ monitoring tools needed to fabricate these nanomaterials in a manner that is responsive to the scalability and throughput needs of a manufacturing setting.
We are currently accepting applications for graduate researchers!
Recent Highlights
May 2023. Robert Neals receives his Ph.D. diploma at the Notre Dame Graduate School Commencement Ceremony.
Congratulations!
May 2023. Robert Neals receives an NDIIF award for the best materials science publication image in Small.
Congratulations!
March 2023. Walker Tuff and Zach Lawson present their research at 2023 Spring ACS meeting in Indianapolis.
Walker presented his research on Janus nanostructures published in ACS Nano.
Zach presented his paper on plasmonic dimers and trimers published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
March 2023. Our high school intern, Sophie Pairitz, receives numerous awards at the North Indiana Regional Science & Engineering Fair and the State Science & Engineering Fair.
1st Place in Physics Award, Mechanical Engineering Design Award, University of Notre Dame Energy Award, HSEF Senior Award - Regional Science & Engineering Fair.
1st Place in Physics & Astronomy Award and $12,000 scholarship if she goes to Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) - State Science & Engineering Fair.
May 2022. Spencer Golze has graduated from Notre Dame.
Congratulations!
April 2022. Zach Lawson presents his research at the department's TERM seminar.
Zach gives a talk entitled "Plasmonic Gold Trimers and Dimers with Air-Filled Nanogaps".
March 2022. Walker Tuff receives the Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award for Teaching Excellence.
Congratulations!
June 2021. Arin S. Preston has successfully defended his dissertation.
Congratulations!
2021 Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award from the ND Kaneb Learning Center and the Graduate School.
Robert Neal receives an Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award from ND Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence.
March 2021. Trevor Demille has successfully defended his dissertation.
Congratulations!
2020 Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award from the ND Kaneb Learning Center and the Graduate School.
Spencer Golze has received an Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award from the ND Kaneb Learning Center and the Graduate School.
Our high school interns, Maria Glazman and Maddalena Stroik, receive the 1st Place Chemistry Award.
Maria Glazman and Maddalena Stroik (Trinity High School) presented their research results at the 2020 Northern Indiana Regional Science & Engineering Fair and received the 1st Place Chemistry Award. Congratulations!
Nanomaterial Fabrication Laboratory demonstrates superconductivity during the 2018 Science Alive in South Bend.
Graduate students Trevor Demille and Arin Preston demonstrated levitation during the 2018 Science Alive event organized by Notre Dame Energy Center.
Eric Menumerov gives a talk at 253rd ACS meeting in San Francisco.
Eric Menumerov presented his Nano Letter paper at the Spring 2017 ACS meeting in San Francisco.
Nanomaterial Fabrication Laboratory demonstrates hydrogen generation at the 2017 Science Alive in South Bend.
Eric Menumerov demonstrates "Portable Hydrogen Gas Generator" during the 2017 Science Alive event organized by Notre Dame Energy Center.
Will and Nat Watkins are selected as semifinalists in the 2016 Siemens Competition.
October 2016.Nathaniel and William Watkins were named semifinalists in the 2016 Siemens Competition, the nation's premier competition in math, science, and technology for high school students. Their project was titled "The Photocatalytic Properties of Cubic Nanostructures of Noble Metals."
Spencer Golze receives his M.S. at the 2016 Summer Commencement.
Spencer Golze (center) celebrates with faculty from the Nanomaterial Fabrication Laboratory after the Graduate School's graduation ceremony in May 2016.
Custom-built reaction chamber presented by seniors.
"Nano Solutions" team members Carmen Carachilo, Martin Devlin, Hyunhee Lee, and Will Poskitt presented the reaction chamber they constructed as part of their senior design project in December 2015. It was equipped with motorized syringe pumps.
Undergraduate summer researchers get hands-on experience in Professor Neretina's Lab.
Undergraduate student Carrigan L Braun (left) works with graduate student Maryam Hajfathalian (right).
Kyle D. Gilroy joins Professor Younan Xia's group as a postdoctoral fellow at Georgia Institute of Technology.
In July 2015 Kyle D. Gilroy was awarded a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Seniors design a microwave plasma reactor for final project.
In April 2013 Zack Eskin, Stephen Ng, Jason Martin, and Matt Bruns built a microwave plasma reactor for their senior design project.