Welcome to the Hughes Lab!

Our lab's research focus is on understanding the synthesis and properties of semiconductor nanomaterials.  These are tiny crystals between 2 - 100 nm in any given dimension, whose unique properties stem from this tiny scale.  An overarching theme of our work is creating new materials systems that are less harmful to people and the environment than those currently being used today.

Many of our nanoparticles are fluorescent, such as those in the banner of this page.  When excited by ultraviolet light, these particles will absorb this energy, and then re-emit the light at a longer wavelength, in this case yellow!

 A large flask of synthesized nanocrystals

A transmission electron microscope (TEM) image of our nanoparticles.  The scale bar is 50 nm long, and individual nanocrystals are approximately 5 nm in diameter.