Surface characterization techniques: XPS/ UPS/ EELS

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is a surface analysis technique capable of providing elemental and chemical state information from the outer 5 to 12 nanometres of a solid surface. All elements can be detected with detection limits in the 0.1 to 0.5 atomic percent.

CVD synthesis of graphene, like magic!

Production of high quality CVD graphene with in-house customized procedures. The end product fulfills a variety of our requirements for large-scale graphene samples.

Custom made Ageing Chamber

Our Enviromental Aging Chamber is a 1x1x1 m³ PMMA construction able to simulate a wide combination of enviromental UV/RH/T conditions.

The GRAFEL research project focuses on graphene-based flexible electronics and aims promote the field to a level of maturity that accompanies establishing procedures for (a) the adjustment of material properties by design, (b) the chemical synthesis of components, and (c) rudimental device fabrication as proof of concept.

Our vision for implementing this project has been primarily driven by the requirement of cheaper, large-area electronic devices that can be integrated on flexible substrates through low-temperature deposition or solution-based printing methods. The great challenge in the area would be to surpass the respective disadvantages of inorganic and organic semiconducting materials for use in flexible electronics and design new materials that combine their advantages, namely controllable electronic properties as well as mechanical conformability. From a device design perspective, such materials will also lead to minimization of contact issues (heat dissipation, contact resistance) associated with the interface which exists when multiple materials are combined.

A new position has opened in our group for a Postdoctoral Researcher specialized on Organic Chemical Synthesis.
The scope of the position is "Synthesis and characterization of new nanomaterials through chemical functionalization of graphene and its oxidized products.".

Our group members Emmanuel Klontzas and Ioannis Skarmoutsos will attend the 12^th PanHellenic Scientific Conference on Chemical Engineering that will take place in Athens, Greece between 29–31 May 2019.
We look forward to this event, to present our latest research and discussing with other research groups and colleagues, and even establishing new collaborations.

We welcome the newest member of our Research Group, Ioannis Skarmoutsos.
Ioannis has a strong background on molecular modelling and ab initio quantum chemistry methods on a wide range of molecular systems. He is an established researcher and has handled several research project of his own. His exceptional research experience will be a great asset to us and has much to offer to our, now common, goals of the GRAFEL project.

(Evaluation results announcement FORTH/ICEHT 3487/27.12.2018 posted on Diavgeia ΑΔΑ: 9Ψ5Ω469ΗΚΥ-Δ17)

George Froudakis is Professor and head of the Chemistry Department of the University of Crete. He is the author of more than 140 publications in high quality international peer-reviewed journals including publications in NanoLetters, J. Am. Chem. Soc., Chem. Comm. and recently in Nature Comp. Mat. His published work has received more than 7000 citations and his h-index is 43 (Goggle scholar). He has also published 3 monographs in international Journals, 2 in NanoLetters (if.~10) and 1 invited in Materials Today (if.~11)  he has given more than 50 invited talks in conferences and institutions. He is also holding of 1 international and 1 Greek patent. He has coordinated 10 European and Greek research project and participate in 16 more with a total budget of over 2Μ€. He is in the board of directors of the Greek Hydrogen Platform and a Founding member of the Greek National Science & Innovation Foundation. He had supervised 9 PhD and 9 MSc thesis.

His research activities are focused on designing, modelling and investigating properties of nanostructures and porous materials for Energy, Environment and Health applications. He has broad experience in modelling nanomaterials. Multi-scale computational techniques are developed in–house and used for simulating large systems. Most simulations are based on Density Functional Theory (DFT) and Monte Carlo methodology. In addition, his group has considerable experience in high–accuracy ab–initio techniques (MP2–4, CC, CAS–SCF, MRDCI) for the study of structural, bonding, electronic and spectroscopic properties of molecules and clusters. Recently, a new computational methodology for large-scale screening of materials with the use of Machine Learning algorithms (ML) was developed.

Dr. Emmanuel Klontzas received his B.S. and M.S. at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of the University of Ioannina, Hellas and completed his PhD at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Crete, Hellas (2009). He is currently an Associate Researcher in Theoretical and Physical Chemistry Institute at the National Hellenic Research Foundation. His research focus on the design and computational modeling of nanoporous materials including Open Framework Materials, Zeolites and Carbon based nanostructures for energy and environmental applications.