Lee Penn

Experimental Physical Chemistry: nanocrystalline materials

Nanoscience & Materials Chemistry: nanoparticles

Environmental & Green Chemistry: mineral surface chemistry

Research Page

• Elucidate fundamental, particle-mediated crystal growth mechanisms,
• Characterize chemical reactivity and evolving reactivity of nanoparticles in environmental systems,
• Reactions for sulfide remediation in sulfide-contaminated water,
• Fate and transport of microplastics,
• Oil in water dispersions,
• Green materials synthesis for applications related to sustainable energy, and
• Development of smartphone based experiments geared towards use in the field and for middle and high school laboratories.

Students in the Penn group use many state-of-the-art materials characterization methods, including in situ and ex situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM), in combination with a broad suite of correlative methods, to characterize solid-state changes resulting from reactions with both natural and anthropogenic chemicals. This enables us to quantitatively assess reactivity, reactive surface area, and how reactivity and reactive surface area evolve as reactions proceed and solution conditions change. In addition, materials collected from the field are used in parallel experiments so as to enable meaningful comparisons between the field and the lab.