Graduate student Awwad Alotaibi has defended his dissertation titled “Accurate measurement of charge generation at interfaces of organic solar cell devices printed from non-halogenated solvents”. For this work he has been awarded his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering. Congratulations Awwad!

Graduate student Devin Grabner has successfully defended his master’s degree in Physics. His project titled “Label-Free Characterization of aPS50 Nanostructure, Chemistry, and Dynamics via In-Situ Resonant Soft X-Ray Scattering (RSoXS)” revealed the chemical substructure and dynamics of self-assembled polymer nanocarriers being developed for hydrocarbon sequestration and oil spill remediation. This was made possible through his application of a novel nanoprobe technique that is sensitive to unique chemical bonds within the structure. This work was in collaboration with chemist Dr. Phillip Picket while working at the University of Southern Mississippi (now at NIST).

Devin plans to publish this work and will continue his project in the group toward his PhD. Congratulations!

Lead by the WSU Collins Group in collaboration with Berkeley Lab and the McCormick Group at the University of Southern Mississippi, the first RSoXS spatiochemical analysis of aqueous polymer micelles has been published in Nature Communications. The work culminates postdoc and first author Terry McAfee’s project to develop microfluidic RSoXS capabilities. This capability is now possible at two synchrotron facilities: Berkeley Lab’s ALS and Brookhaven Lab’s NSLS-II.

The work has generated interest in the WSU media with pieces in both the WSU Insider and the Daily Evergreen – each of which have produced accurate descriptions of the work for General Audiences. It has been picked up by several other media sites across the internet.

The work has also been highlighted at the Advanced Light Source written for the X-ray science field.

Postdoc Terry McAfee has been hired as Senior Science and Engineering Associate at the Advanced Light Source, Berkeley National Lab. After working with the WSU Collins Group, Terry has completed his path into a career scientist.

In his new position, Terry will provide complex technical support in synchrotron radiation sciences including the construction, development, and operation of soft, tender, infrared X-ray beamlines and endstations, as well as the design, development, installation, and commissioning of X-ray spectroscopy and scattering equipment. He will also provide user support, and development of new ex situ, in situ, and operando experimental systems aligned with ALS organizational goals.

The primary instrument Terry will oversee are three Ambient Pressure X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy beamlines (9.3.1, 9.3.2, and 11.0.2.1). Congratulations Terry!

The Collins Group had the honor of conducting the first microfluidic RSoXS experiments at the new NSLS-II instrument at Brookhaven National Laboratory with beamline scientist and NIST researcher Eliot Gann (pictured top left). The new instrument sets off a new capability of spatiochemical characterization of aqueous nanostructures.

The new RSoXS instrument, funded and built by NIST at the NSLS-II, was designed to enable a microfluidic stage (pictured) to place a ~1um sheet of aqueous sample in front of the X-ray beam (itself in high vacuum). PI Brian Collins and postdoc Terry McAfee (pictured) brought their stage to enable commissioning studies of the new capability.

The insert is constructed by Protochips to be used in transmission electron microscopes. It thus enables true multimodal  (electrons and X-rays on the same sample) nanoscale investigations in-situ. Being a commercial product, it, furthermore, enables any user of the NSLS-II to bring their own insert to conduct such studies.

The first results of this study were published in the instrumentation paper describing the instrument and its capabilities.

Graduate student Thomas Ferron has graduated with his Ph.D. in Physics. His dissertation titled “Spectral model of resonant soft X-ray scattering to resolve molecule specific organization in 3D organic nanostructures” (available online) enables simultaneous statistical analysis of both chemical AND spatial information within molecular nanostructures composed primarily of carbon applied to a variety of systems. The examples include solution printed organic photovoltaic devices, block copolymer nanostructures, and aqueous polymer micelles.

Ferron will continue his work developing resonant soft X-ray scattering techniques at the National Institute of Standards and Technology as a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow.

Graduate student Thomas Ferron has been awarded a two-year postdoctoral fellowship from the National Research Council to conduct research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, MD. There he will continue his research in developing and applying resonant soft X-ray scattering on polymeric or other molecular systems.

The prestigious award is a competitive fellowship from the NRC Research Associateships Program for postdoctoral fellows to work at government laboratories across the country. This includes NIST, the EPA, the Air Force Research Lab, the Army Research Lab, NOAA, etc.

Thomas will join the Polymers Processing group in the Materials Science and Engineering Division working with Dr. Daniel Sunday on polarized resonant X-ray reflectivity. Congratulations Thomas!

Several Members of the Collins Group presented their work at the International Conference on Resonant Elastic X-ray Scattering hosted by Brookhaven National Laboratory in Riverhead, NY. Thomas Ferron, Victor Murcia, and Terry McAfee along with Brian each presented oral presentations in the plenary-only conference of ~120 attendees.

Graduate student Xiaobo from the Ma Wei Group at Jiaotong University in Xi’an, China visited the lab. He is taking part in a collaboration to measure device physics on his high performing non-fullerene organic solar cells, and taught us a considerable amount on preparing high-performance (>15%) solar cells.