Karena Chapman

The research in our group explores the relationship between structure and reactivity in functional materials with a focus on energy applications. We want to understand how a material's function and limitations are governed by its chemistry and structure from the atomic scale to the nanoscale, and beyond. We use a variety of crystallographic characterization tools to directly probe structural transformation during reactions or operation, often exploiting large X-ray and neutron user facilities such as the nearby NSLS-II at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Ongoing projects focus on nanomaterials, energy-efficient catalysts, energy storage, host-guest interactions and mechanical properties of porous framework and materials discovery and synthesis.

Google Scholar

• Chemical & Engineering News’ Talented Twelve (2016) - "The X-ray Manipulator"
  
  
  
  
• Materials Research Society Outstanding Young Investigator Award (2015) For contributions to understanding the coupled structure and reactivity of energy-relevant systems and for developing incisive experimental tools to interrogate these complex materials. 
  
  
  
  
• APS Spotless Award (2012) - For creative implementation of web-based instruction. 
  
  
  
  
• Co-editor, Journal of Applied Crystallography (from 2013)

• C&E News: X-ray Manipulator
  
  
  
  
• Discovery of new material state counterintuitive to laws of physics
  
  
  
  
• Outstanding Young Investigator Award Presentation: Accelerating the Development of Energy Materials Through Advanced X-ray Tools
  
  
  
  
• YouTube: Guides to X-ray experiments and PDF data analysis
  
  

• ICDC - Inorganometallic Catalyst Design Center. ICDC is devoted to computationally guided discovery of a new class of energy-science-relevant catalytic materials and the underlying structure-function relationships that will guide further catalyst discovery
• NECCES - NorthEast Center for Chemical Energy Storage. NECCES develops an understanding of how key electrode reactions occur and how they can be controlled to improve electrochemical performance, from the atomistic level to the macroscopic level throughout the lifetime of an operating battery.
• GENESIS - A Next Generation Synthesis Center. GENESIS develop a new paradigm for synthesis that accelerates the discovery of functional materials by integrating advanced in situ diagnostics and data science tools to interrogate, predict, and control reaction pathways.