UCSB Engineering

Eric Mc Farland

Professor

Contacts

Deparment of Chemical Engineering
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106

tel: (805) 893-4343
mcfar@engineering.ucsb.edu

Personal web site

Research Description

Our research activities are focused on the study of condensed matter systems using novel sensors and characterization methods with emphasis on developing high-throughput screening technologies for combinatorial materials research. The group is presently using combinatorial chemistry to investigate new photocatalytic systems for energy production. Their work, investigating the growth and development of the catalytic, electronic, and magnetic properties of transition metal thin films on semiconductors, has led to the creation of a new sensor concept whereby energetic electrons excited by reactions at the metal surface are detected and give a unique electronic signature of the chemical phenomena at the surface.

Biography

Professor McFarland has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of GRT Inc. a start-up company developing a new process for the production of liquid fuels and chemicals from natural gas. He has built the equity financed start-up from a 3 employee seed to a self-sustaining R+D company with 25 employees and several Fortune 500 strategic partners. McFarland’s connection with technology companies dates back to his days as a MIT graduate student when he was a member of a team at Field Effects Inc. that designed and built the first permanent magnet based MRI system. In 1996 during a leave of absence from the University McFarland was a founding technical Director of Symyx Technologies, a start-up company focused on developing novel equipment and methods for the discovery of new materials using combinatorial methods. As Director of Combinatorial Materials Screening and Analysis, he built a group of over 25 scientists to develop high-throughput screening methods for combinatorial materials discovery and was a part of the core management team as the company grew from 3 employees to over 150 and eventually had a public offering (Nasdaq: SMMX). At Symyx, he worked extensively with chemical industry clients to initiate materials discovery programs. He has served on the Board of Directors of several chemical and technology companies.

Awards/Honors

• NSF Presidential Young Investigator, 1995

Selected Publications

• Automated Electrochemical Synthesis and Photoelectrochemical Characterization of Zn_1-xCo_xO Thin Films for Solar Hydrogen Production, J. Combinatorial Chemistry, 7(2), 2005, 264-271, T.F. Jaramillo, S.H. Baeck, A. Kleiman-Shwarsctein, and E.W. McFarland
• Benzene Formation at 70°C by Coupling of Propylene on Supported Pd Nanoclusters, Angew Chemie, 44, 2005, 4735-4739, J. Chou and E. McFarland
• Combinatorial Electrochemical Synthesis and Screening of Pt-WO_3 Catalysts for Electro-oxidation of Methanol, Rev. Sci. Instru, 76, 1, 2005, S. Jayaraman, S.-H. Baeck, T. Jaramillo, A. Kleiman-Shwarsctein, and E. McFarland
• Electrolithographic Investigations of the Hydrophilic Channels in Nafion Membranes, J. Phys. Chem. B, 109, 2005, 3252-3256, J. Chou, E.W. McFarland, and H. Metiu
• Natural Gas Conversion to Liquid Fuels in a Zone Reactor, Catalysis Today, 106(1-4), 2005, 301-304, A. Breed, M.F. Doherty, S. Gadewar , P. Grosso, I.M. Lorkovic, E.W. McFarland, and M.J. Weiss
• Synthesis and Characterization of Pt-WO_3 as Methanol Oxidation Catalysts for Fuel Cells, J. Physical Chemistry B, 109(48), 2005, 22958-22966, S. Jayaraman, T.F. Jaramillo, S.-H. Baeck, and E.W. McFarland
• A General Integrated Process for Synthesizing Olefin Oxides, Chem. Comm, 18, 2004, 2100-2101, S.L. Sun, I.M. Lorkovic, M. Weiss, J.H. Sherman, G.D. Stucky, P.C. Ford, and E.W. McFarland
• Chemically Induced Charge Carrier Production and Transport in Pd/SiO_2/n-Si(111) Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Schottky Diodes, Phys. Rev. B, 70, (11), 2004, 115322, B. Roldan Cuenya, H. Nienhaus, and Eric W. McFarland
• Parallel Synthesis and Characterization of Photoelectrochemically and Electrochromically Active Tungsten Molybdenum Oxides, Chem. Commun., 4, 2004, 390-391, S.-H. Baeck, T.F. Jaramillo, D.-H. Jeong, E.W. McFarland
• A Photovoltaic Device Structure, Nature, 421, 2003, 616-618, E. McFarland and J. Tang