UT Chem/Biochem Dept

The 2009-2010 Beckman Scholars: Matt Welborn

Faculty Mentor: Professor Graeme Henkelman Length of term: Summer 09, Fall 09, Spring 10, Summer 10 Honors & Awards:University Honors (Fall 07, Spring 08, Fall 08, Spring 09, Fall 09, Spring 10); National Merit Scholarship (2007); Freshman Research Initiative Summer Fellowship (2008); Dr. Norman Hackerman Endowed Scholarship (2009); Eva Stevenson Woods Endowed Presidential Scholarship (2009); William C. Gardiner Memorial Fund Scholarship (2009); Signature Science Award for Excellence in Chemistry Research (Spring 10); Chapman Fellowship (2011); NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2011-2013) Publications: Chen, J; Hontz, E; Moix, J; Welborn, M; Van Voorhis, T; Suarez, A; Movassagh, R; and Edelman, E; Phys. Rev. Letts, in press (2012). Terrell, R; Welborn, M; Chill, S; and Henkelman, G; J. Chem. Phys. In press (2012). Welborn, M.; Tang, W.; Ryu, J.; Petkov, V.; Henkelman, G J. Chem Phys. 135, 014503 (2011). Where is he now?Graduated with Bachelor of Science in Chemistry (Honors) with Highest Honors, and Special Departmental Honors in Chemistry, May 2011. Matt is currently in the gradaute program at MIT (Chemistry). How can I contact him?mattgwelborn at gmail.com

Beckman research project in the Henkelman group:

Download a copy of Matt's Research report, entitled Structure and long time-scale kinetics of nanoparticles

Core-shell nanoparticles are emerging as potential candidates for catalysis of a number of important reactions. However their long-term viability remains uncertain, in particular due to a lack of knowledge about the kinetics of these particles over long timescales. It is possible (and has been observed in some cases) that the particles could rearrange, changing their chemical properties.

Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) is a powerful technique for modeling the long timescale dynamics of solids at an atomic level. This algorithm treats vibrations statistically, and looks only at the transitions of the system from one potential energy minimum to another, greatly increasing the time-step of the simulation. Due to their large time steps, KMC simulations are able to approach experimental time scales.

I intend to simulate the kinetics of nanoparticles over long timescales. This will help to characterize the mechanism of rearrangement of these nanoparticles, as well as predict the timescale over which rearrangement occurs.