I am a research and development scientist, working on the development of the thinnest-possible molecular-selective membranes with significant performance for energy-efficient gas and vapors separation. The ultimate goal is to exceed the performance limit of the polymeric membranes (Robson plot) upon using 2D zeolite and graphene based films hosting molecular-selective pores. To fulfill this project, I am focused on designing, fabricating and characterizing new nanoporous 2D materials that can effectively separate and capture gasses such as CO2.So far we have shown that graphene cannot grow from benzene below 700 °C on Cu. In our recent report, we demonstrated that benzene-derived single-layer graphene membrane, synthesized at 825 °C, shows hydrogen sieving.

During my PhD work, in the Nanojunction Laboratory in PSI, I designed and fabricated monolayered organic materials (2D MOFs) at interfaces; it was an interdisciplinary project in essence as it encompasses synthetic organic and supramolecular chemistry, and surface physics (including synchrotron-based X-ray analysis of surfaces). Upon my achievements and the successful protocols, I made several number of collaborations with industry and university partners. As some examples I can name INOFEA AG (that ended up to a pending patent and I am a co-inventor of it), CSEM (section Muttenz), Hutman diagnostics AG, Prof. Henning Stahlberg in Biozentrum, Basel and Prof. A. Dieter Schlüter in ETH, Zürich. In our collaboration with Prof. Stahlberg in CINA we showed that my developed technique to fabricate thin-films of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), can be implemented to produce MOF thin films/coatings as supports for imaging bio-molecules. In publication aspect, I published two first author and two co-author papers all in high impact scientific including Science Advances and Angewadte Chemie journals. I have one more first author two co-author papers in preparation.

My PhD project gave me a wonderful chance of working in collaboration between the Paul Scherrer Institut and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. In the FHNW, I was in charge of synthesizing, purifying and crystallizing organic molecules, performing spectroscopy analysis such as NMR and MS, chemical functionalization of surfaces, fabricating the Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers and some microscopy analysis including Brewster angle microscopy and ellipsometry.

For my master thesis, I developed a facile elechtrochemical synthetic route for fabricating modified graphene nanosheets with a surfactant, i.e. sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), I synthesized a poly vinyl alcohol (PVA)-based nanocomposite, reinforced with the SDS modified-graphene nanosheets, via the liquid blending technique which shows more than three times enhancement in the mechanical properties compared to the PVA. The relevant scientific paper of this project has been published in “Polymer” journal. Continuing the work on graphene nanosheets, I started to learn the molecular dynamic simulation and I studied the mechanical properties of graphene nanosheets and carbon nanotube junctions. The results on this study are available on “AIP Advances” journal.

My internship was in the R&D team of the Machine Sazi Arak (MSA) company that is one of the most important companies in Iran to produce oil and gas facilities, spherical storage tanks, pipelines, industrial wheels, etc. During this program, I was focused on materials selection and developing standard operational procedures (SOPs) for fabrication of gas/oil storage tanks. In addition, I have passed the exam of welding inspection and I was working on the development and inspection of metal welding procedures.

In the Bachelor program am trained as a metallurgy scientist and engineer with a focus on powder metallurgy, heat treatment, corrosion and nanoscience. I was working on a newly developed technique for fabricating nanoparticles: electromagnetic levitation gas condensation. In this project, I synthesized and characterized semiconductor nanoparticles of TiO2. In parallel, I had a collaboration with Toronto university researchers (Prof. Hamid Jazi). We studied microstructural properties of metal-matrix composite of Ti-6Al-4V alloy reinforced by B4C was produced by vacuum plasma spray (VPS) processing. The corresponding results of this study is available in “Vacuum” journal. At the end of the B.Sc. I was selected as an honored student and I was awarded to continue my study in M.Sc. program without any entrance exam (konkour exam).