Center for Nanotechnology

Coppin State University’s Center for Nanotechnology started in 2007 with a small cohort of 6-8 students and in recent years has grown to approx. 60-undergrad students, consisting mostly of those pursuing science majors. The vast majority of students go on to graduate and Ph.D. level programs. Previous students have attended the following universities: UMBC, Univ. of Miami, Univ. of Maine, Temple Univ., and Queens College, NY to name a few. 

The Center for Nanotechnology brings together faculty members and students from the College of Arts and Sciences for collaborative research. The center also hosts a number of high school students during the summer and winter sessions and welcomes a number of researchers from other institutions which fosters the exchange of scientific ideas and promotes interdisciplinary research. Currently, the center’s day to day operations of research tasks and management of interns is overseen by a research faculty member. 

The center has benefited from financial support from Constellation Energy, Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), the U.S. Department of Education, and the National Science Foundation. It is equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation such as Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy instrument (EDS), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Atomic Force Microscope, FTIR, Raman, and Fluorescence and Absorption spectrophotometers. The work focuses on experimental research and development of nano- and biotechnologies, as well as on complementary modeling and simulation efforts in computational nano-technology, computational nano-electronics, and processes encountered in nano- fabrication.

A major of the research is on clean energy generation and storage, along with on-going projects in the design and simulation of multi-junction photovoltaic cells for solar energy conversion. Our research efforts also involve the preparation of gold nanoparticle-based contrast agents for imaging of cardiovascular disease using X-ray Computed Tomography (X-ray CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Another research interest is in the development of Terahertz spectroscopic techniques for the characterization of materials such as photovoltaic semiconductors, graphene, and security screening.