About

The Nanomaterials Characterisation Lab, set up by Dr Vin Dhanak and Professor Ronan McGrath in September 2008, investigates the fundamental properties of surfaces, interfaces and nanostructures of a wide variety of materials.

Find out about the research we do, along with some of our collaborations with other research groups in the UK, Europe and the USA.

We also engage in outreach activities to help educate the general public about our work and other areas of science.

The laboratory

We house two UHV stations consisting of XPS, UPS, LEED I-V, and STM.
Having a range of techniques within a single UHV station is a key to allowing us to study many types of materials and phenomena, including:

• adsorbate induced structures on single crystal surfaces;
• molecular adsorbate on metals and semiconductors;
• nanoparticles functionalization;
• nanocomposite materials;
• interfaces of thin film PV devices;
• high-k materials;
• electrode surfaces for fuel cells;
• dielectric materials; and
• materials for photovoltaics and fuel cells.

The lab is a part of the Stephenson Institute for Renewable Energy.