LSU Chemistry assistant professor Revati Kumar received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award on Feb. 22. The award will allow her to continue her research involving the interactions between graphene oxide and various liquids, which could lead to better materials for water desalination and purification.
The NSF CAREER award is part of the Faculty Early Development Career Program, which offers grants to assistant professors on tenure tracks who show promise as researchers and educators. Award recipients receive five years of funding for their research projects.
Early-career faculty can only apply for the award three times. This was Kumar’s second proposal for the award. She won $550,000, which will fund her research for five years.
“It’s a relief,” Kumar said. “I’m coming up for tenure soon, so it’s a relief.”
Award applicants must write a 15-page proposal detailing their plan for research and education on a specific topic in their field. Kumar studies the interfaces between graphene oxide and liquids.
Graphene is a form of carbon made up of a single layer of interconnected carbon atoms. When graphene is combined with functional groups that contain oxygen, graphene oxide is formed. Graphene oxide has several applications, including water desalination and purification, but requires an interface, or boundary, with liquids.
An interface is a common boundary between two substances, like graphene oxide and water. Molecular activity at interfaces can differ from molecular activity in the rest of the two substances. Kumar said the chemistry at interfaces is exciting because of the asymmetry there.
“Most of the fun stuff in chemistry happens with interfaces,” Kumar said. “In the bulk, you have an average environment. When you go to the interface, you get an asymmetrical environment so cool chemistry can take place.”
Kumar first became interested in interfaces between graphene oxide and water three years ago after hearing about the water crisis in Flint. When she read a scientific paper about using graphene oxide for water purification, she knew she wanted to explore this topic further.
“This is a really interesting system,” Kumar said. “The carbon layers are hydrophobic, but the oxygen groups are hydrophilic. You’ve got these two different kinds of chemistries on one surface. That must make the interface with a liquid very interesting.”
Kumar’s research involves creating computer simulations of molecular systems to understand the chemistry of interfaces, such as the interface between graphene oxide and water. She works with Chemistry postdoctoral researcher Rolf David and Chemistry graduate students Visal Subasinghege Don and Pu Du to create these simulations.
Kumar not only had to describe her research in her proposal, but also create a plan for an education program related to her research. One aspect of her outreach plan is a “fun with molecules” activity for middle school students that relates simulations of molecular interactions to what they see in real experiments.
Kumar plans to use the grant to increase the number of students and postdoctoral scholars involved in the research. She also plans to develop more algorithms to better interpret the data from the molecular simulations she conducts.