Daniel T. Schwartz
Boeing-Sutter Professor of Chemical Engineering and
Adjunct Professor of Materials Science & Engineering
Associate Dean for New Initiatives (half-time)
Contact Information
| 263 Benson Box 351750 Seattle, WA 98195-1750 |
Phone: 206-685-4815 Fax: 206-685-3451 or 206-543-3778 E-mail: dts@u.washington.edu |
Education
B.S., University of Minnesota, 1983.
M.S., University of California (Davis), 1985.
Ph.D., University of California (Davis), 1989.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, 1991.
Professor Schwartz’s Teaching Page:
http://courses.washington.edu/dtsclass/
For more information, please see Dr. Schwartz's Research Group Home Page.
Research Interests
- The electrochemical materials and interfaces laboratory uses a foundation in electrochemistry and chemical engineering to tackle problems in the synthesis of functional materials, nano/microfabrication, and energy technologies.
Electrochemical and Microsystem Engineering, Electrochemical Materials Science
The Electrochemical Materials and Interfaces (EMI) Laboratory uses electrochemical engineering methods to grow and characterize functional films and surfaces under mild aqueous conditions. At its core, electrochemical engineering is founded on the application of transport phenomena, thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, and materials science to chemical systems that involve charge transfer processes. Because of the broadly-based principles upon which this group’s activities are founded, students gain expertise in a diverse range of theoretical and experimental research tools. Research opportunities in electrochemical engineering are complemented by specialized courses offered in the Department and across the campus. Described below are some of the research topics presently being studied by students in this group.
An emerging area for chemical engineers is the science and engineering of integrated microsystems with some combination of chemical, mechanical, magnetic, electrical, and/or optical functionalities. Electrochemical methods are widely used for growing materials for microsystems because the growth occurs at low temperatures. Normally, the regions to be grown are defined using photolithography processes that have evolved from the microelectronics community. A major thrust for our group is to develop new computer-aided manufacturing schemes where microsystems are “printed” directly form a 3-D image drawn in software. The adjacent figure (upper half) shows a computer drawn “3-D object”, in this case a 12 point bitmap of the EMI Lab logo. The bitmap is directly “printed” as a 300 dpi copper object (lower half) using a method we call electrochemical printing. With electrochemical printing, 3-D solid objects can be built directly from a computer image, without needing lithographic masks. The printed object is presented in false colors to quantify the print height. Support for this work has been provided by the National Science Foundation.
Other microsystems research includes a collaborative effort with Professor Karl Böhringer’s MEMS Lab in Electrical Engineering. In this effort, we are using electrochemical modification of surfaces to drive the spontaneous self-assembly of microcomponents on a surface. More details can be seen at the web page: http://www.ee.washington.edu/research/mems/
memsgroup/assembly.htm
Another area of research with ever growing importance is the detection and clean-up of radioactive waste, whether dispersed by a terrorist “dirty bomb” or generated as a legacy of cold-war weapons production.. We have an ongoing project to develop inorganic materials that provide highly selective ion exchange properties, but are easy to regenerate and reuse without producing large volumes of undesirable by-products. Our research probes the processing/structure/property relationships in these materials using electrochemical methods, electron spectroscopies, and in-situ laser Raman spectroscopy. This work has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.
Finally, the EMI lab is a key member of a large nanotechnology effort at the UW aimed at the use of small polypeptides and proteins to facilitate the spontaneous growth of novel inorganic materials for electronic and magnetic applications. Because proteins are an essential element in our approach, it is not possible to use high temperature, high pressure, or harsh chemical synthesis conditions for growing the inorganic materials. As a result, electrochemical materials synthesis from aqueous solutions is ideally suited to this effort. More details about the EMI Lab’s role, and the roles of the collaborating partners, is given on our team web page: http://depts.washington.edu/bionano/home.php
Selected Publications
W. Wang, S.D. Leith, and D.T. Schwartz, Convective-diffusive mass transfer inside complex micromolds during electrodeposition, J. MEMS, 11, 118-124 (2002).
Q. Yu, W.A. Steen, K.M. Jeerage, S. Jiang, and D.T. Schwartz, Structure-dependent solvent and ion intercalation in reduced and oxidized nickel hexacyanoferrates, J. Electrochem. Soc., 149 E195-203 (2002).
K.M. Jeerage, W.A. Steen, and D.T. Schwartz, Correlating nanostructure with ion intercalation in electrodeposited nickel hexacyanoferrate thin films, Chem. Mat. 14, 530-535 (2002).
K.M. Jeerage, W.A. Steen, and D.T. Schwartz, Charge-density-dependent partitioning of Cs+ and K+ into nickel hexacyanoferrate matrices, Langmuir 18 3620-25 (2002).
W.A. Steen, K.M. Jeerage, and D.T. Schwartz, Raman spectroscopy of redox activity in cathodically deposited nickel hexacyanoferrate thin films, Appl. Spec. 56 1021-29 (2002).
W.A. Steen, et al., Structure of cathodically deposited nickel hexacyanoferrate thin films, Langmuir 18 7714-23 (2002).
J.D. Whitaker, D.T. Schwartz, W. Wang, A. Mudholkar, M. Ganter, and D. Storti, “Electrochemical Printing,” U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Provisional Patent issued September, 2002.
B.R. Lutz, J. Chen, and D.T. Schwartz. Microfluidics without Microfabrication, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA), accepted (2003).
Recent M.S. Theses
Recent Ph.D. Dissertations
