Shangkun has been a doctoral student in deMello group since 2016. His research interest include:

Lead halide perovskites

I am interested in the fundamental study of the surface chemistry of lead halide perovskites (LHPs), as well as the synthesis of novel nanostructures via control of surface ligands. I am developing new integrated microfluidic systems to help understand the fundamental issues of structural growth and assembly that will enable the rational control of material composition, nanostructure, properties and functionality.

Droplet-based microfluidics shows significant advantages in nanomaterial synthesis, reaction parameter screening, and in fundamental studies due to high throughput, reduced reagent consumption, precise and rapid reaction control, and easy integration of optical detection systems. I utilize a high-throughput multifunctional integrated microfluidic system to observe and study how ligands affect the morphologies and optical properties of all-inorganic CsPbBr3 perovskite nanocrystals, which enables me to map trends for synthesis of varied LHPs. To further figure out the fundamental roles of surface ligands, I study the shape evolution of CsPbBr3 from nanowires to nanosheets by millisecond-resolution kinetic and DFT (density functional theory). With the information on surface ligands gained from these fundamental studies, I can controllably synthesize CsPbBr3 with tailored nanostructures and properties, and investigate new nanostructures with novel optical properties. 

Lanthanide-doped luminescent nanoparticles

In photon upconversion, two or more incident photons of relatively low energy are absorbed and converted into one emitted photon with higher energy. Lanthanide-doped luminescent nanoparticle (LLNC) is one of the most popular upconversion material duo to its possible applications in bio-imaging and bio-sensing at the deep tissue level. As microfluidics with faster heat transfer, it is potential to reduce the reaction time from hours to a few mintures. I strive to explore new synthetic parameters by microfluidics to find out a much mild reaction condition for LLNC.

Microfluidic-electrospinning

Electrospinning has been a mature method for nanofibers and wildly used in various fields. However, it is always a challenge to get complex nanostructure fibers, due to lack of control over fluid during the electrospinning process. Microfluidics proved an easy way to control fluid in micro size. Therefore, I am engaged in developing microfluidic-electrospinning method to realize controllable nanostructure fibers.