Schniepp Group Home

In the nanomaterials & imaging lab, we investigate and develop high-performance lightweight nanomaterials of the next-generation. Such materials will be low-cost to produce, yet very versatile and multi-functional.

Principal Investigator of the Group is Prof. Hannes Schniepp.

Our Lab in the Media
Highlights

News

Sep 2019	New Publication: Fuel (2019) — Dickinson, Aravind, Higgins, Berg, Suijkerbuijk, Schniepp* "Using atomic force spectroscopy to study oil/mineral interactions at reservoir temperatures and pressures". We are the first ones to use newly developed crude-oil fictionalized AFM probes to investigate crude oil/brine/rock interactions at high pressures and high temperatures. (paper).
Jul 2019	New Publication: Carbon (2019) — Zhang, Schniepp*, Adamson "Characterization of graphene oxide: Variations in reported approaches". This review summarizes the current state of GO characterization and advocates for the development of more standard approaches to characterization. (paper).
Jul 2019	Incoming PhD student Ben Skopic was awarded the Graduate Arts and Sciences Dean's Recruitment Fellowship. The fellowship is awarded for outstanding accomplishments and for future potential.
May 2019	Graduation: Will Dickinson graduated with his PhD on “Interfacial Forces of 2D Materials at the Oil-Water Interface”.
May 2019	Graduation: John Gardner graduated with his PhD on “Additive Manufacturing of Nanomaterials Based Hierarchical Structures”.
May 2019	Graduation: Undergraduate Ben Skopic graduated with his BS in Physics and doing senior research on “Mechanics of a Bio-Inspired One-Dimensional Thin-Film Mechanical Metamaterial”.
Apr 2019	Qijue Wang traveled to Phoenix, AZ to present his work on “Vibrational Spectroscopy of Nanofibrillar Spider Silk” at the MRS conference.
Mar 2019	PhD student Qijue Wang was the only Arts & Sciences winner of the International Student Achievement Award.
Mar 2019	PhD students Qijue Wang, Dinidu Perera, and Avishi Abeywickrama present at William and Mary's Graduate Research Symposium.
Feb 2019	12-minute radio feature of our silk research titled Bulletproof Spider Silk. Aired Feb. 15 on NPR's show “With Good Reason” hosted by Sarah McConnell. (Episode Link)
Jan 2019	New Publication: JOM (2019) — Wang, Schniepp* "Nanofibrils as Building Blocks of Silk Fibers: Critical Review of the Experimental Evidence". We experimentally determined that recluse silk is entirely made of nanofibrils. (paper).
Nov 2018	Science Magazine produced a video featuring our recent breakthrough on the nanofibrillar structure of spider silk on Nov. 20. (Link to Video)
Nov 2018	Discussion of the recent ACS Macro Letters paper reaches #1 on the engineering subreddit for two days receiving over 32,000 upvotes and 800 comments. (Link to thread)
Oct 2018	New Publication: ACS Macro Letters (2018) — Wang, Schniepp* "Strength of Recluse Spider's Silk Originates from Nanofibrils". We experimentally determined that recluse silk is entirely made of nanofibrils. (paper).
May 2018	New Publication: Nanoscale (2018) — Dickinson, Kumar, Adamson, Schniepp* "High-throughput optical thickness and size characterization of 2D materials". We developed a simple method to measure the thickness of many graphene sheets with atomic precision (press release).

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