Research Interests & Select Publications
My research interests lie within materials and device physics at large, especially with applications to renewable energy. Below you can find a list of select publications:
On Injection in Intrinsic Single-Carrier Devices - Journal of Computational Electronics, 2024
A Dive Into Underwater Solar Cells - Nature Photonics, 2023
Efficiency Limits of Underwater Solar Cells - Joule, 2020
Analytical Description of Mixed Ohmic and Space-Charge-Limited Conduction in Single-Carrier Devices - Journal of Applied Physics, 2020
Direct Determination of Built-in Voltages in Asymmetric Single-Carrier Devices - Physical Review Applied, 2019
Biography & Education
Biography:
I hold a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Nanoscience from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), and a PhD in Physics from Imperial College London (UK). I subsequently moved to the US and held postdoc positions at Yale University and NYU. I then briefly held a position as a Principal Scientist at the University of Pennsylvania before returning to NYU as a member of the faculty.
Education:
Imperial College London, PhD (Physics) - 2018
Imperial College London, MRes (Plastic Electronics) - 2014
University of Copenhagen, MSc (Nanoscience) - 2013
University of Copenhagen, BSc (Nanoscience) - 2011
Research News
Electric pulse method yields precisely tuned metallic glass nanoparticles
Researchers at NYU Tandon have developed a new method for synthesizing metallic glass nanoparticles that offers refined control over size, composition, and atomic structure — features long sought in the design of advanced catalytic materials used in chemical reactions key to advancements in sustainability and other fields.
In the paper "Metallic Glass Nanoparticles Synthesized via Flash Joule Heating" published in ACS Nano, a team led by André D. Taylor, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, describes how a technique known as flash Joule heating can rapidly produce amorphous palladium-based nanoparticles with reproducible and tunable features.
Metallic glasses are non-crystalline metals with unique properties, such as enhanced corrosion resistance and catalytic activity. Yet producing them in nanoparticle form with specific characteristics has posed difficulties, especially when it comes to controlling cooling rates during production.
The team’s method involves sending an electrical pulse through a precursor material, heating it rapidly and then allowing it to cool at a controlled rate. This process yields metallic glass nanoparticles with consistent sizes — averaging about 2.33 nanometers — and tailored alloy compositions. Among the nanoparticles produced were Pd-P, Pd-Ni-P, and Pd-Cu-P systems.
“Flash Joule heating gives us a way to fine-tune the synthesis process and isolate the effects of phase and composition,” said Taylor. “This makes it easier to examine the structure-property relationship in metallic glass systems, especially for applications like electrocatalysis.”
To evaluate performance, the researchers tested the amorphous nanoparticles as electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) — a critical step in electrochemical water splitting. They found that the metallic glass nanoparticles exhibited significantly lower onset potentials, by around 300 millivolts, compared to their crystalline counterparts. The materials also demonstrated stable catalytic behavior over extended operation times of up to 60 hours.
"Metallic glass has been a focus of research in our lab for many years, and this flash Joule heating methodology represents a significant step forward in our ability to synthesize these materials with precision," said Hang Wang (Ph.D. '24), the paper's lead author and a Ph.D. candidate in Taylor's lab at the time of the research." What's particularly exciting is how this approach could eventually scale beyond laboratory settings. Unlike other nanomaterial synthesis methods that remain confined to small batches, this technique has the potential to bridge the gap between research and real-world implementation in energy applications."
The study provides a new approach to systematically exploring amorphous alloy systems at the nanoscale and may support ongoing efforts in energy storage, catalysis, and electronic materials development. While the work focuses on palladium-based systems, the method could be adapted for other alloy systems that benefit from amorphous structures.
Besides Taylor, other contributors to this paper include Hang Wang, Nathan Makowski, Yuanyuan MaXue Fan, Stephen A. Maclean, Jason Lipton, Juan Meng, Jason A. Röhr, and Mo Li. This research was primarily supported by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Metallic Glass Nanoparticles Synthesized via Flash Joule Heating. Hang Wang, Nathan Makowski, Yuanyuan Ma, Xue Fan, Stephen A. Maclean, Jason Lipton, Juan Meng, Jason A. Röhr, Mo Li, and André D. Taylor; ACS Nano 2025 19 (21), 19806-19817 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5c02173
