Research in the Snyder lab focuses on the design and engineering of functional inorganic nanoparticles, nanoparticle assembly, and porous particles and thin films for applications spanning novel sorbents, membranes, catalysts, and electrodes, primarily in support of alternative energy technologies (e.g., solar cells, biomass). Operating at the interface between chemical engineering and materials science, the lab applies fundamental chemical engineering principles to design new material synthesis strategies, tailor material chemistry, interpret material properties, tune molecular-scale transport and surface interactions, and test material performance. Underpinning the group’s research is a focus on deriving fundamental synthesis-structure-function relations for informing hierarchical materials design spanning macroscopic (powders, thin films) to mesoscopic (pore size, topology) and molecular (surface function, crystal polymorphism, adsorption, molecular transport) scales.