A scientific article by NDSU researchers was named one of the “Top-50 most cited articles” from 2007-10 in the Journal of Aerosol Science published by Elsevier Science Ltd. The initial research covered in the article led to an NDSU patent-pending technology that could be used to develop solar cells and printed electronics.
The article, “Aerosol focusing in micro-capillaries: Theory and experiment,” was written by Iskander Akhatov, professor of mechanical engineering and faculty associate in NDSU’s Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE); Justin Hoey, CNSE research engineer and graduate student in mechanical engineering; Orven Swenson, associate professor of physics and CNSE faculty associate; and Doug Schulz, CNSE senior research scientist and adjunct professor of mechanical engineering.
“When scientists conduct research, they often refer to groundbreaking work published by other researchers as they conduct experiments and publish results of research that add to the body of scientific knowledge. The distinction of ‘Top 50 most-cited article’ illustrates the interdisciplinary research among departments at NDSU and the technology breakthroughs being developed,” said Philip Boudjouk, vice president for research, creative activities and technology transfer.
In the scientific article, the researchers detailed how they took mathematical models, applied them to a specific application not previously used and verified the results through experiments. The results included research conducted by Hoey for his master’s degree thesis. As a student, Hoey worked at CNSE and later became a full-time research engineer at the center.
The initial research has since led to an NDSU patent-pending technology that could be used in solar cells, printed electronics, aerosol concentration, direct materials deposition, in-flight material processing and any other application requiring an aerosol micro-beam.
Akhatov received his bachelor’s, master’s degrees and doctoral degrees from the Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia. Hoey earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from NDSU. Swenson earned his doctorate in laser optics from the Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in physics from NDSU. Schulz earned his bachelor’s degree from NDSU and doctorate in chemistry from Northwestern University, Chicago.