Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Faculty and Staff Directory
Morgan Stefik
Title: | Associate Professor / Polymer Materials / Nano / Crystallography / Organic / Inorganic / Catalysis / Solid State |
Department: | Chemistry and Biochemistry Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry |
Email: | stefik@mailbox.sc.edu |
Phone: | 803-777-6308 |
Fax: | 803-777-8100 |
Office: |
Office: HZN1 241 |
Resources: |
CV [pdf] |

Education
B.E., 2005, California Polytechnic State University
M.S., 2009, Cornell University
Ph.D., 2010, Cornell University
Honors and Awards
NSF CAREER, 2018; Cottrell New Faculty Workshop, 2014
Research Interests
Functional nanostructures, energy devices, block polymers, self-assembly, nanoparticles, atomic layer deposition, (photo)electrochemistry.
The Stefik group is developing new polymer derived nanomaterials for energy devices. Our novel self-assembly methods enable nuanced precision by using kinetic-control to escape the tyranny of the equilibrium. Such kinetic-control is historically difficult to reproduce, a challenge that we have resolved with switchable micelle entrapment to yield reproducible and homogeneous nanomaterial series that follow model predictions. Our approach called Persistent Micelle Templates enables seamless access from meso-to-macroporous materials with unprecedented ~2 Å precision of tuning. The resulting high-surface area materials are critical for developing numerous energy applications such as fuel cells, batteries, supercapacitors, photovoltaics, and solar fuels.
Selected Publications
Sarkar, A.; Evans, L.; Stefik, M. "Expanded Kinetic Control for Persistent Micelle Templates with Solvent Selection." Langmuir 2018, ASAP. DOI:10.1021/acs.langmuir.8b00417.
Sarkar, A.; Stefik, M. "How to Make Persistent Micelle Templates in 24 Hours and Know It using X-ray Scattering." Journal of Materials Chemistry A 2017, 5, 11840-11853. DOI: 10.1039/C7TA01034F.
Lamm, B.; Sarkar, A. Stefik, M. "Surface Functionalized Atomic Layer Deposition of Bismuth Vanadate for Single-Phase Scheelite." Journal of Materials Chemistry A 2017, 5, 6060 – 6069. DOI: 10.1039/C6TA09485F.
Lokupitiya, H. N.; Stefik, M. "Cavitation-Enabled Rapid and Tunable Evolution of High-χN Micelles as Templates for Ordered Mesoporous Oxides." Nanoscale 2017, 9, 1393-1397. DOI: 10.1039/c6nr07313a.
Lokupitiya, H. N.; Jones, A.; Reid, B.; Guldin, S.; Stefik M. "Ordered Mesoporous
to Macroporous Oxides with Tunable Isomorphic Architectures – Solution Criteria for
Persistent Micelle Templates." Chemistry of Materials 2016, 28(6), 1653-1667.
DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.5b04407.