Interdisciplinary Research Groups

The multidisciplinary research teams of UPR and PENN faculty integrate undergraduates and HS students into extended research experiences that will lead to publishable results. Importantly, faculty also integrates their research topics, techniques, and results into laboratory experiences, courses, and outreach activities.

IRG 1: Multi-functional nanodevices from optoelectronic materials

Synthesizes, characterizes, and manipulates optoelectronic materials to gain fundamental understanding of transport mechanisms in these materials for potential device applications. The projects include the study of new device structure combinations of single-atomic-layer materials (MoS2, etc.) and nanofibers of electro-active polymers that hold potential for transformative discoveries in chemical detection and energy harvesting.

IRG 2: Nanoscale interactions of macromolecules at soft and hard interfaces

Explores nanoscale interactions of macromolecules with soft and hard interfaces with the long-range goal of assembling nanomaterials into macroscopic structures with designed properties and functionality. The study of nanoparticle-protein interactions represents both a fundamental problem, as well as a research area for which the PENN-UPR team is uniquely poised to attack in terms of nanoparticle synthesis, protein chemistry, spectroscopy, and theory.

Publications

Falcón-Cruz, N.V., Vergara-Toro, N., Brito-Pérez, A., Rivera, D., Meléndez, A.,Ramos, I. & Oyola, R. (2021). Online Lab for High School Students: Calibration Curve Using Fluorescence of a Yellow Highlighter Solution, Journal of Laboratory Chemical Education 9(4), 51-56. doi: 10.5923/j.jlce.20210904.01

Torres, K.M., Delgado, A.S., Serrano, E.R., Falcón-Cruz, N.V., Meléndez, A., Ramos, I., Deguo, D. & Oyola, R. (2021). Gallium nanoparticles as novel inhibitors of Aβ40 aggregation, Materials Advances 2, 5471-5478. doi: 10.1039/D1MA00461A

Cruz-Arzon, A.J., Figueroa, K.S., Pinto, N.J., Qicheng, Z., Kehayias, C., Yeonyoon, S. & Johnson, A.T.C. (2022). Ultraviolet light tunable single walled carbon anotubes/n-Si juntion diode, Synthetic Metals 283, 116967. doi: 10.1016/j.synthmet.2021.116967

Figueroa, K.S., Zimbovskaya, N.A., Pinto, N.J., Wen, C. & Johnson, A.T.C. (2021). Impurity charge compensation in graphene by a polarized ferroelectric polymer and its effect on charge transport near the Dirac point, AIP Advances 11, 085015 (2021): doi: 10.1116/6.0000874

Kumar, P., Figueroa, K.S., Foucher, A.C., Jo, K., Acero, N., Stach, E.A. & Jariwala, D. (2021). Efficacy of boron nitride encapsulation against plasma-processing of 2D semiconductor layers. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 39, 032201. doi: 10.1116/6.0000874

Figueroa, K.S., Pinto, N.J., Wen, C., Johnson, A.T. Charlie & Zhao, M.-Q. (2020). Ionic liquid gel gate tunable p-Si/MoS2 heterojunction p-n diode , AIP Advances 10, 125225.
doi: 10.1063/5.0030098

Rijos, L.M., Figueroa, K.S., Porcu, A, Rivera, N.M., Meléndez, A., Ramos, I. & Pinto, N.J.(2020). Ionic liquid gated poly(triaryl amine) thin film field effect transistor, J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 138 (18), p. 50361.
doi: 10.1002/app.50361

Carradero-Santiago, C. & Vedrine-Pauléus, J.(2020). Conductance Modeling of Flexible Organic Thin Films for Solar Cell Devices, Proc. 2020 Comsol Conference North America, Oct. 7-8, 2020.
Abstract

Zimbovsksya, N.A. (2020). Thermoelectric properties of a double-dot system in serial configuration. Synth. Metals, 153(12), 124712.
doi: 10.1063/5.0021260

Figueroa, K.S., Pinto, N.J., Mandyam, S.V., Zhao, M.-Q., Wen, C., Das, P.M., Gao, Z., Drndić, M. and Johnson, A.T. Charlie (2020). Controlled doping of graphene by impurity charge compensation via a polarized ferroelectric polymer, J. Appl. Phys. 127, 125503.
doi:10.1063/5.0003099



Zimbovskaya, N.A. (2020). Charge and heat current rectification by a double-dot system within the Coulomb blockade regime, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter. 32, 29, 355302.
doi: 10.1088/1361-648X/ab83e9

Zimbovskaya, N.A. & Nitzan, A. (2020). Energy, Work, Entropy, and Heat Balance in Marcus Molecular Junctions, J. Phys. Chem. B. 124, 13, 2632-2642.
doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.0c00059

Negrón-Marrero, P.V. & Sivaloganathan, J. (2020). On the Convergence of a Regularization Scheme for Approximating Cavitation Solutions with Prescribed Cavity Volume, SIAM J. Appl. Math. 80 (1), 119-141.
doi: 10.1137/19M1274523

Rijos, L.M. & Pinto (2019). Tunable Organic Polymer/Inorganic Silicon Diode Using an Ionic Liquid Gel Gate Dielectric, Phys. Status Solidi A 216, 1900358.
doi: 10.1002/pssa.201900358

Rijos, L.M., Meléndez, A., Oyola, R. & Pinto, N.J, (2019). Effect of polyethylene oxide on camphor sulfonic acid doped polyaniline thin film field effect transistor with ionic liquid gating. Synth. Metals,257, 116176 148(2).
doi: 10.1016/j.synthmet.2019.116176

Figueroa, K., Pérez, J.L., Matar, A., Ramos, I., Pinto, J., Zhao, M.-Q. & Johnson, A.T. Charlie (2019). Rectifying effect in a Mo2 monolayer crossed with an electro-spun PEDOT-PSS nano-ribbon, SN Applied Sciences 1:574. doi: 10.1007/s42452-019-0595-0

Pinto, N.J., Rijos, L.M., Zhao, M.-Q., Parkin, W.M. & Johnson, A.T. (2019). Effect of varying the gate voltage scan rate in a MoS2/ferroelectric polymer field effect transistor, Ferroelectrics 550, 1-11. doi: 10.1080/00150193.2019.1652493

Ortiz-Hernández, C.J., Santiago-Ruiz, A.N., Torres-Rosado, A.J., Jiménez-González, J., Yeldell S.B., Oyola, R., Dmochowski, I.J., Sotero-Esteva, J., Bansal,, V. & Fasoli, E. (2019). In situ analysis and imaging of aromatic amidine at varying ligand densities in solid phase, Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 2019 Jan 24: 1-11.
doi: 10.1007/s00216-019-01588-6

Rosario, A. & Pinto, N.J. (2019). PEDOT-PSS nanoribbon and cast film field effect transistors with ferroelectric gating, Synth. Metals 247, 151-156.
doi: 10.1016/j.synthmet.2018.12.003

Saul, C.K., Nieves, C.A., Meléndez, A., Ramos, I., Kikkawa, J. & Santiago-Avilés, J. J. (2018). Low temperature electrical characterization of a CS/PEO composite for sensing applications, Proc. 11th Iberoamerican Congress on Sensors, Sept. 17-20, 2018, Barcelona, Spain.

Matar, A., Meléndez, A., Pinto, N.J. & Ramos, I. (2018). Conduction Mechanisms in Tungsten Diselenide Devices, Proc. 11th Iberoamerican Congress on Sensors, Sept. 17-20, 2018, Barcelona, Spain.

Negrón-Marrero, P. & López-Serrano, M. (2019). Minimal Energy Configurations of Finite Molecular Arrays, Symmetry 2019, 11(2), 158. (Previously published in arXiv:1603.01899v1 [math-ph] Mar 2016). Thermoelectric efficiency of single-molecule junctions with long molecular linkers.
doi: 10.3390/sym11020158

Zimbovskaya, Natalia A. (2018). Thermoelectric efficiency of single-molecule junctions with long molecular linkers. J. Chem. Phys. 148(2), 024303.
doi: 10.1088/1361-648X/aacd3a

Ortiz, D., Ramos, I., Pinto, N.J., Zhao, M.-Q., Kumar, V., Johnson, A.T.C. (2018). Ambipolar transport
in CVD grown MoSe2 monolayer using an ionic liquid gel gate dielectric, AIP Advances 8, 035014. doi: 10.1063/1.5020443

Ochoa, M.A., Zimbovskaya, N.A., Nitzan, A. (2018). Quantum thermodynamics for driven dissipative bosonic systems, Phys. Rev. B 97, 085434. doi: doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.97.085434

Zimbovskaya, N.A., Nitzan, A. (2018). Thermally induced charge current through long molecules,
J. Chem. Phys. 148, 024303. doi: 10.1063/1.5005057

Nieves, Cesar A., Martinez, L.M., Melendez, A., Ortiz, M., Ramos, I., Pinto, N.J., Zimbovskaya, N.A. (2017).
Temperature-dependent charge transport mechanisms in carbon sphere/polyaniline composite, AIP Advances 7, 125229; doi: 10.1063/1.5000976.

Maldonado-Rivera, S., Pinto, N.J. (2017). p-n junction diodes fabricated using poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-dyil) thin films and nanofibers,
Proc. National Conference on Undergraduate Research, Memphis, TN, Apr 6-8, 2017.

Ortiz, Deliris N., Pinto, Nicholas J. (2017). Ionic liquid gel gated electro-spun poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with poly(styrene sulfonic acid) nano-ribbon, Thin Solid Films 636, 737-742; doi: 10.1016/j.tsf.2017.07.012.

Nieves, C.A., Martínez, L.M., Melendez, A., Ortiz, M., Ramos, I., Pinto, N/J., Zimbovskaya, N.A. (2017). Temperature dependent charge transport mechanisms in carbon sphere/polymer composites, arXiv:1704.02643 [cond-mat.mes-hall].

Zimbovskaya, N.A. (2017). Length-dependent Seebeck effect in single-molecule junctions beyond linear response regime, J. Chem. Phys. 146, 184302; doi: 10.1063/1.4983130.

Martínez, L.M., Pinto, N.J., Naylor, C.H., Johnson, A.T.C. (2016). MoS2 based dual input logic AND gate, AIP Advances 6, 125041; doi: 10.1063/1.4971857.

Zimbovskaya, N.A. (2016). Communication: Length dependent thermopower of single molecule junctions, J. Chem. Phys. 145, 221101; doi: 10.1063/1.4972002.

Martínez, L.M., Nieves, C., Meléndez, A., Ortiz, M., Ramos, I., Pinto, N.J. (2016). Aliphatic alcohol vapor sensors based on polyaniline coated carbon spheres, Proc. 10th Ibero-american Congress on Sensors, Viña del Mar, Chile.

Nieves, C., Meléndez, A., Pinto, Nicholas J., Ramos, I. (2016). Sensor response of carbon spheres/ polymer composites to aliphatic alcohol vapors, Proc. 10th Ibero-american Congress on Sensors, Viña del Mar, Chile.

Ortiz, D.N., Vedrine, J., Pinto, N.J., Naylor, C.H. & Johnson, A.T.C. (2016). Monolayer WS2 crossed with and electro-spun PEDOT-PSS nano-ribbon: Fabricating a Schottky diode, Mater Sci Eng B 214, 68-73; doi: 10.1016/j.mseb.2016.09.003.

Nieves, C., Meléndez, Pinto, N. J. & Ramos, I. (2016) . Facile fabrication of carbon spheres/n-Si junction diodes based on sucrose, J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 27, 13044; doi: 10.1007/s10854-016-5445-x.

Nieves, C., Meléndez, A., Ramos, I., Pinto, N. J. & Zimbovskaya, N. (2016). Electron transport mechanisms in polymer-carbon sphere composites, J. Appl. Phys. 120, 014302; doi: 10.1063/1.4955166.

Nieves, C., Ramos, I., Pinto, N. J. & Zimbovskaya, N. (2016). Electron transport mechanisms in polymer-carbon sphere composites, arXiv:1604.02365v1 [cond-mat.mes-hall] 8 Apr 2016.

Serrano, W., Meléndez, A., Ramos, I. & Pinto, N. J. (2016) Poly(lactic acid)/poly(3-hexylthiophene) composite nanofiber fabrication for electronic applications. Polym. Int. 65(5), 503-507. doi: 10.1002/pi.5081.

Wang, H., Huang, K., Jesús, M. D., Espinosa, S., Piñero-Santiago, L. E., Barnes, C. L & Ortiz-Marciales, M. (2016). Synthesis of enantiopure 1,2-azido and 1,2-amino alcohols via regio- and stereoselective ring-opening of enantiopure epoxides by sodium azide in hot water. Tetrahedron: Asymmetry 27 (2-3), 91-100. doi:10.1016/j.tetasy.2015.12.002.

Zimbovskaya, N. A. (2016). Seebeck effect in molecular junctions. J. Phys.: Condens. Matter, 28(18), 183002. doi:10.1088/0953-8984/28/18/183002.

Negrón-Marrero, P. & López-Serrano, M. (2016). Minimal configurations for finite molecular arrays , arXiv:1603.01899v1 [math-ph] 7 Mar 2016.

Zimbovskaya, N. A. (2016). Nonlinear thermoelectric transport in single-molecule junctions: the effect of electron–phonon interactions. J. Phys.: Condens. Matter. 28(29), 295301. doi: 10.1088/0953-8984/28/29/295301.

This material is based upon work supported by the NSF under Grant NO. DMR-1523463.