PhD, Chemical & Materials Engineering, Princeton University MA, Chemical Engineering, Princeton University BEng & Biosci, Chemical Engineering & Bioengineering, McMaster University

Our group is developing new materials and bottom-up processing strategies to fabricate improved, typically nanocomposite, device components in order to advance technologies in areas such as electrochemical energy storage, energy generation, sensing and separations. We use methods in interfacial engineering to direct the assembly of nanocomposites from a variety of nanomaterial building blocks and molecular precursors such as polymers, surfactants and ionic liquids. Some current research thrusts are: Graphene production and post-processing techniques Directed assembly of 2D nanomaterials at the air-water interface Bottom-up assembly approaches for energy storage, sensing and electrocatalysis

M. A. Pope, I. A. Aksay, Beyond the Quantum Capacitance Limit of Graphene-Based Supercapacitors (submitted) C. Punckt, M. A. Pope, I. A. Aksay, High Selectivity of Porous Graphene Electrodes Solely due to Transport and Pore Depletion Effects. Journal of Physical Chemistry C accepted (2014) M. Liu, C. Punckt, M. A. Pope, A. Gelperin, I. A. Aksay, Electrochemical Sensing of Nitric Oxide with Functionalized Graphene Electrodes. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 5 (2013) 12624 C. Punckt, M. A. Pope, I. A. Aksay, On the Electrochemical Response of Porous Functionalized Graphene Electrode. Journal of Physical Chemistry C 117 (2013) 16076 M. A. Pope, S. Korkut, C. Punckt, I. A. Aksay, Supercapacitor Electrodes by Evaporative Consolidation of Graphene Oxide-Water-Ionic Liquid Gels. Journal of the Electrochemical Society 160 (2013) A1653 M. A. Pope, C. Punckt, I. A. Aksay, The Intrinsic Capacitance and Redox Activity of Functionalized Graphene Sheet. Journal of Physical Chemistry C 115 (2011) 20326 C. Punckt, M. A. Pope, J. Liu, Y. Lin, I. A. Aksay, Electrochemical Performance of Graphene as Effected by Electrode Porosity and Graphene Functionalization. Electroanalysis 22 (2010) 2834 D. H. Wang, R. Kou, D. W. Choi, Z. G. Yang, Z. M. Nie, J. Li, L. V. Saraf, D. H. Hu, J. G. Zhang, G. L. Graff, J. Liu, M. A. Pope, I. A. Aksay, Ternary Self-Assembly of Ordered Metal Oxide-Graphene Nanocomposites for Electrochemical Energy Storage. ACS Nano 4 (2010) 1587 L.K. Kostanski, M. A. Pope, A. N. Hrymak, M. Gallant, W. L. Whittington, L. Vesselov, Development of tunable light scatting coating materials for fiber optic diffusers in photodynamic cancer therapy. Journal of Applied Polymer Science 112 (2009) 1516