Combustion

Combustion Research is motivated by the premise that through the development of a detailed understanding of flame chemistry (and the interaction of fluid mechanics and chemistry) we will be able to maximize efficiency and minimize pollution. Combustion still accounts for the majority of energy produced by mankind and the combustion of fossil fuels is responsible for 80% of the energy produced from combustion. Nonetheless, sustainable economic growth will require displacing the fossil fuel production of energy (especially for transportation) with he design new fuels and fuel blends deprived from bio-derived fuels or even from the carbon in atmospheric carbon dioxide.

In our lab, we are mostly concerned with the development of new, laser-based diagnostics to make targeted measurements of important flame species or flame scalars. This work is typically done in close collaboration with other diagnosticians or modelers. (Recent collaborators include Profs. Mitchell Smooke and Marshall Long of Yale University and Prod. Markus Kraft of Cambridge University. Below are highlights of some of our recent combustion related studies.

Raman Studies of nascent Soot Particles

We are mostly moved into our new lab in the Science and Engineering Hall. After decades in the basement of Corcoran Hall we are excited about the prospects of occasionally seeing sunlight.

Atmospheric Science

Recent Manuscript

An article entitled "Extinction measurements for optical band gap determination of soot in a series of nitrogen diluted ethylene/air non-premixed flames" has been published on line and will be printed in early 2015. Citation: Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2015, 17, 2686

Recent Presentation

A poster entitled "An Open-Path Tunable Diode Laser Sensor for Simultaneous Measurement of Methane and Carbon Dioxide" was presented at the Fall 2014 annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

Biophotonics

Due to surface plasmons, gold and silver nanoparticles have been exploited for a variety of sensing applications in biotechnology. For more than a decade, our lab (alone or in collaboration with other researchers) has pursued the use of these precious metal nanoparticles for several sensing demonstration projects.

In Vivo Detection of Gold-Imidazole Self-Assembly Complexes: NIR-SERS Signal Reporters

Recent Presentation

A poster entitled "An Open-Path Tunable Diode Laser Sensor for Simultaneous Measurement of Methane and Carbon Dioxide" was presented at the Fall 2014 annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.