Assistant Professor, Chemistry Department

Sara Skrabalak received her B.A. in chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis in 2002. She then attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, joining Professor Ken Suslick’s laboratory. She received her Ph.D. in chemistry, with an emphasis on materials, from UIUC in the fall of 2006 and was the recipient of the T. S. Piper Thesis Research Award for her dissertation entitled: Porous Materials Prepared by Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis. She then did postdoctoral work at the University of Washington – Seattle beginning in 2007 with Professors Younan Xia and Xingde Li. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Indiana University Bloomington.

Research

Research in the Skrabalak laboratory draws inspiration from many areas of chemical study, with the overall goal being the synthesis and/or construction of multi-functional, hierarchically complex materials that address problems related to catalysis, biotechnology, and environmental remediation. To meet this objective, we are (1) developing new ways of introducing architectural complexity within inorganic solids using scalable technologies and new precursors and (2) exploring new synthetic routes to nanoscale building blocks with well-defined properties.

New Directions in Aerosol Chemistry for Materials Synthesis

Aerosol methods are an industrial favorite for the continuous production and processing of compositionally complex inorganic solids; however, little work has gone into developing aerosol routes to architecturally complex particles (e.g., core/shell, porous, or multi-phasic). Our research aims to achieve this architectural complexity by developing both new electrospray and chemical methods. By modifying the electrospray orifice with different capillaries, we are able to deliver multiple solutions simultaneously. In this way, we are targeting Janus, core/shell, multi-phasic, and porous particles. Additionally, we are working to correlate the architectural complexity achieved through the use of specific precursors to their decomposition behaviors to provide a general platform for precursor selection.

With the refinement of these synthetic methods, inorganic solids with previously unachievable compositions and properties become accessible. We are using this ability to design novel materials for use as photocatalysts in water splitting and CO₂ reduction applications and thermal catalysts for various petroleum refining processes.

Synthesis and Application of Nanoscale Materials

Inorganic crystals with nanoscale dimensions are emerging as important building blocks for multifunctional device fabrication. In recent years, tremendous achievements have been made regarding the preparation of nanomaterials with well-controlled properties. Yet, fundamental questions still remain about their synthesis and many materials (e.g., some noble metals, alloys, and intermetallics) have yet to be synthesized as high-quality samples. Our research aims to understand and control the nucleation and growth processes of inorganic solids to predictably prepare new nanomaterials for use in energy and catalytic applications.

Publications

Xia, Y.; Xiong, Y.; Lim, B.; Skrabalak, S. E. "Metal Nanocrystals: Simple Chemistry meets Complex Physics?" Invited manuscript, Angewandte Chemie, 2008, In press.

Skrabalak, S. E.; Chen, J.; Sun, Y.; Lu, X.; Au, L.; Cobley, C. M.; Xia, Y. "Gold Nanocages: Synthesis, Properties, and Applications" Invited manuscript, Accounts of Chemical Research, 2008, ASAP.

Skrabalak, S. E.; Wiley, B. J.; Kim, M.; Formo, E. V.; Xia, Y. "On the Polyol Synthesis of Silver Nanostructures: Glycolaldehyde as a Reducing Agent" Nano Letters, 2008, 8, 2077-2081.

Yang, X.; Skrabalak, S. E.; Stein, E.; Li, Z.-Y.; Xia, Y.; Wang, L. V. "Photoacoustic Tomography of a Rat Cerebral Cortex in vivo with Au Nanocages as an Optical Contrast Agent" Nano Letters, 2007, 7, 3798-3802.

Skrabalak, S. E.; Suslick, K. S. "Carbon Powders Prepared by Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis of Substituted Alkali Benzoates" Invited manuscript for the Richard E. Smalley Special Issue, Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2007, 17807-17811.

Skrabalak, S. E. ; Au, L.; Li, X.; Xia, Y. "Facile Synthesis of Ag Nanocubes and Au Nanocages" Nature Protocols 2007, 2, 2182-2190.

Skrabalak, S. E. ; Suslick, K. S. "Porous Carbon Powders Prepared by Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis" Journal of the American Chemical Society 2006 , 128, 12642-12643.

Skrabalak, S. E.; Suslick, K. S. "On the Possibility of Metal Borides for Hydrodesulfurization" Chemistry of Materials, 2006, 18, 3103-3107.

Skrabalak, S. E.; Suslick, K. S. "Porous MoS₂ Synthesized by Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis" Journal of the American Chemical Society 2005, 127, 9990-9991.

Awards

• 2006 T. S. Piper Thesis Research Award, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 2005 Walter Brown Fellowship, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 2002 Sowden Award for Undergraduate Research, Washington University in St. Louis
• 2002 Phi Beta Kappa Honorary Society
• 2002 Sigma Xi Scientific Honorary Society

Highlights