Adam Jaffe, Assistant Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry, has been selected to receive a National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. This award is given to recognize outstanding research and its integration with education, and it is one of NSF’s most prestigious awards for junior faculty members.
Jaffe was chosen for his proposal entitled “Hybrid Bronzes: Mixed-Valence Hybrid Metal Oxides as a Tunable Material Platform.” Hybrid bronzes are bulk crystalline materials with alternating layers made with a high degree of synthetic control through mild self-assembly reactions. The first layer is a mixed-valence metal oxide sheet, which has tunable band gaps and charge carrier densities. The second layer is a molecular array with chemical reactivity, charge storage or transfer capabilities, and favorable light absorption properties. These materials will be thoroughly studied with an array of diffraction-based, spectroscopic, and electronic characterization techniques to determine how their atomic-level structure and composition influence charge transport within the material, and these relationships can then be used to design highly effective, application specific compounds. This is important for many renewable energy technologies, including solar cells, fuel cells, and batteries. Current methods of synthesizing stable and effective materials for these uses can be costly and challenging to direct. Jaffe plans to address these roadblocks with hybrid bronzes, which offer the possibility of highly tuned, air and water stable materials at a much lower cost. In addition to this research, Jaffe will develop a multi-faceted instructional video series called “Lab Hacks” to make STEM research and education accessible to a greater audience.
Jaffe joined the faculty at Notre Dame in 2021 after completing a Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Stanford University and his A.B. in chemistry from Princeton University. Jaffe is also the recipient of the 2018 ACS Division of Inorganic Chemistry Young Investigator Award, both the Stanford William S. Johnson and Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowships, and the Princeton Energy Grand Challenges Research Fellowship.
Originally published by at chemistry.nd.edu on December 06, 2023.