232
Dow Hall, Dept. Physics |
Research Activities: Properties
of materials are predetermined by their atomic-scale structure. For
example, diamonds are hard, transparent and expensive. Graphite is
black, soft and cheap. Both are pure carbon though; the difference
comes from the different arrangament of carbon atoms. It is a
tetrahedral network in diamond and a stack of hexagonal layers in
graphite. Dr. Petkov's research aims at determining the 3D
atomic-scale structure of materials by x-ray diffraction and computer
simulations. Research is done at CMU
and synchrotron radiation
facilities. Mostly, a non-traditional experimental approach, that
of atomic pair distribution function analysis, is employed. Traditional
crystallography (Rietveld) is done as well. Materials of current
interest include glasses (metallic, silicate, phosphate, germanate,
fast conductors), liquids (water), polymers (dendrimers),
composites (inorganic/organic), nanoporous zeolites and carbons,
ceramics (titanates, zirconates), catalysts (Mo, Au and Pt based),
nanoparticles (metallic and inorganic), data storage media (optical:
Ge-Sb-Te; magnetic: Pt/Pd/Fe), disordered ferro and ferri magnets
(transition & rare earth metals based), and others. Funding sources
include NSF, DoE, ARL and CMU.
 2 nm Ru (red) particle with sulfur (yellow) skin
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Latest News: VP became a member of the MPAC steering committee at the Los Alamos neutron diffraction facility; For a fifth time VP will organize a workshop dedicated to atomic PDFs at the 2012 X-ray Denver Conference; VP's group got a DOE funded grant to study nanosized catalysts; VP gave talks at Dow Chemical Corporation and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, VP is giving two talks at the MRS 2012 Spring meeting; VP wrote an invited review paper for the Wiley's famous Characterization of Materials reference book; VP has been elected to membership in the International Centre for Diffraction Data... |
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