Researcher Spotlight


Dr. Maximilian Seel

Professor, Physics


Maximilian Seel Dr. Seel’s research focuses on investigating excitonic structure of strain-induced changes in the band gaps of carbon nanotubes using the GW approximation and its implementation in VASP. Preliminary study so far (reference #3 in the list of publications below) found a remarkable agreement with some experimental data but a disagreement with experimental optical transition energies based on Rayleigh scattering spectroscopy.  The measured optical transitions are excitonic in nature. The current investigation should elucidate whether excitonic   transitions behave differently under strain than band transitions to explain the difference in shifts in transition energies.

Another aspect of Dr. Seel's research focuses on understanding Hydrogen and Proton transport through one-atom-thick crystals (graphene and hexagonal boron nitride layers) and possible solvation effects on the transport mechanism by using VASPsol. Results from this project could enable new kinds of membrane to be developed and aid research into fuel cells.

Yet another aspect of Dr. Seel's research focuses on modeling recombination of atomic oxygen on nanoparticle catalysts/substrates as alternative production of singlet delta oxygen using Gaussian software suite.