Koel Research Group

Surface science collage

 

We explore atomic-scale phenomena on solid surfaces in application to catalysis, photo- and electro-chemistry, and plasma - surface interactions. Powerful spectroscopic and imaging techniques allow us to gain detailed knowledge of physical and chemical processes on model surfaces thus helping in development of new functional materials of great technological importance.

 

Group news

From lab to everyday life: Princeton accelerator fund supports promising innovations
March 25, 2021
A better way to recycle lithium-ion batteries

Bruce Koel, professor of chemical and biological engineering, and Chao Yan, postdoctoral research associate in mechanical and aerospace engineering A new method for recycling lithium-ion batteries could help solve the looming shortage of critical metals, including lithium, cobalt, nickel, and…

Investigating 'fourth state of matter' for renewable energy
Oct. 24, 2019

A team from Princeton University and Ohio State University has been awarded a five-year, $3-million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to advance research on low-temperature plasmas.

With the broader goal of improving energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, the team will use  experimental and modeling approaches to…

PPPL Intern Promise Adebayo-Ige: Pursuing a lifelong interest in fusion energy
Sept. 12, 2019

Newswise — When friends asked Promise Adebayo-Ige what he was doing over the summer, he told them he was trying to save the world by working at a national laboratory devoted to developing fusion energy.

Adebayo-Ige has been fascinated with the idea of fusion as an inexhaustible, inexpensive, and clean source of generating electric…

For hydrogen power, mundane materials might be almost as good as pricey platinum
June 7, 2019

As anyone who has purchased jewelry can attest, platinum is expensive. That's tough for consumers but also a serious hurdle for a promising source of electricity for vehicles: the hydrogen fuel cell, which relies on platinum.

Now a research team led by 

Treasure in ancient trash: Learning about Japan’s history through metals waste
Dec. 28, 2018

Thomas Conlan fiddled with a strange, brownish-black rock on his desk. For centuries, people had considered the piece of rubble worthless, but it is priceless to Conlan’s research.

The lumpy rock is a sample of slag, the material left over after heating ore to extract valuable metals…

Big steps toward control of production of tiny building blocks
March 6, 2018

Nanoparticles, superstrong and flexible structures such as carbon nanotubes that are measured in billionths of a meter — a diameter thousands of times thinner than a human hair — are used in everything from microchips to sporting goods to pharmaceutical products. But large-scale production of high-quality particles faces challenges ranging from…

"Life at the edge" - Surfaces are where the action is
July 11, 2017

With this mantra Prof. Bruce Koel from Princeton University gave a lecture on surface science and surface reaction  fundamentals in the framework of the Materials Science Lecture Series on Monday, 10.7.2017 at the Institute of  Inorganic Chemistry.

We thank Prof. Koel for his excellent talk on…

Scientists at PPPL further understanding of a process that causes heat loss in fusion devices
April 6, 2017

Everyone knows that the game of billiards involves balls careening off the sides of a pool table — but  few people may know that the same principle applies to fusion reactions. How charged particles like electrons and atomic nuclei that make up plasma interact with the walls of doughnut-shaped devices known as tokamaks helps determine how…