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Ahmet Uysal

Chemist

Biography

Ahmet Uysal is a Chemist in HESS group in Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division. His research is focused on molecular scale mechanisms in interfacial ion transfer, graphene based 2D materials, ion-amphiphile interactions at aqueous interfaces, and chemical separations. He specializes in synchrotron x-ray scattering techniques and interface-specific non-linear vibrational spectroscopy.
 

Professional Experience

Education

  • Ph.D. Physics, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (2012)
  • M.S. Physics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA (2005)
  • B.S. Physics, METU, Ankara, Turkey (2003)

Awards

2019 DOE Early Career Award
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced that two scientists from its Argonne National Laboratory will be receiving funding through the Early Career Research Program of the Office of Science. The awardees are Ahmet Uysal, assistant chemist in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering division, and Kibaek Kim, assistant computational mathematician in the Mathematics and Computer Science division. Read more…

 
Ahmet Uysal (CSE) received the 2017 Outstanding Postdoctoral Supervisor Award
 The Outstanding Mentor and Supervisor Awards recognize an individual’s ability to promote and create work environments that encourage and boost curiosity, continuously fuel individual passions toward scientific ideas and hold high standards for performance. Both programmatic and mission support employees are eligible to receive it. The awards were presented at a reception open to all employees.

Science Highlights

How Water and Ions Interact with Graphene Oxide Films

Membranes are useful for separating materials from solutions, and graphene oxide (GO) membranes might prove superior to those made from polymers because of their greater durability and mechanical strength, especially in applications such as removing radioactive elements from contaminated groundwater. Read more…

Scientists Gain Insight into Recycling Processes for Nuclear and Electronic Waste

The Hawaii and Alaska of chemistry, lanthanides and actinides are the elements that are always shown separately from the main block on the periodic table. Although they are split up from the more mainstream elements, they are important metals for applications such as nuclear power and magnets used in wind turbines and electric cars. Read more…
Unique Interface and Unexpected Behavior Help Explain How Heavy Metals Act 

Refining platinum, plutonium, or certain other metals often depends on how the metal behaves at liquid interfaces. The challenge? Scientists have limited ways to analyze the details of liquid interfaces. Now, researchers described in significant detail how water molecules surround a platinum-based ion. Their description includes an unexpectedly complex structure that forms on the liquid’s surface. Read more…

Selected Publications

  1. Trivalent Rare Earth Adsorption at Phosphonic Acid Monolayers, ChemPhysChem, 2025, 26 (20), e202500429, DOI: 10.1002/cphc.202500429
     
  2. Direct Observation of Carbon Dioxide Adsorption and Binding at the Air/Aqueous Interface, PNAS Nexus, 2025, 4(3), pgaf064, DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf064
     
  3. Carbon Dioxide Capture by Niobium Polyoxometalate Fragmentation, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2024, 146 (28), 19489-19498, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.4c06178
     
  4. Aqueous Interfaces in Chemical Separations,Langmuir, 39 (49), 17570-17580,  DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c02170
     
  5. Ion and Water Adsorption to Graphene and Graphene Oxide Surfaces, Nanoscale, 2023, 15(35), 14319-14337, DOI: 10.1039/d3nr02452k
     
  6. Elucidating Trivalent Ion Adsorption at Floating Carboxylic Acid Monolayers: Charge Reversal or Water Reorganization?, J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2023, 14, 3685-3690, 10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c00225
     
  7. Convenient Confinement: Interplay of Solution Conditions and Graphene Oxide Film Structure on Rare Earth Separations, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2022, 14(51), 57133-57143. DOI: 10.1021/acsami.2c16156
     
  8. Thiocyanate Ions Form Antiparallel Populations at the Concentrated Electrolyte/Charged Surfactant Interface, J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2022, 13(22), 5081-5087. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c00934
     
  9. Spontaneous and Ion-Specific Formation of Inverted Bilayers at Air/Aqueous Interface, Langmuir, 2022, 38, 5617-5625. DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.2c00208
     
  10. Effects of Ion Adsorption on Graphene Oxide Films and Interfacial Water Structure: A Molecular-Scale Description, Carbon, 2022, 195, 131-140. DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2022.03.077
     
  11. Trivalent Ion Overcharging on Electrified Graphene, Amanda J. Carr, Sang Soo Lee, and Ahmet Uysal, J. Phys. Condens. Matter, 2022, 34, 14401, DOI: 10.1088/1361-648X/ac4a58
     
  12. Chemical Potential Driven Reorganization of Anions Between Stern and Diffuse Layers at the Air/Water Interface, Raju R. Kumal, Srikanth Nayak, Wei Bu, and Ahmet Uysal, J. Phys. Chem. C, 2022, 126, 2, 1140-1151, DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c06925  
     
  13. Origins of Clustering of Metalate-Extractant Complexes in Liquid-Liquid Extraction, Srikanth Nayak, Raju R. Kumal, Zhu Liu, Baofu Qiao, Aurora E. Clark, and Ahmet Uysal, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2021, 13, 20, 24194-24206, DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c23158
     
  14. Ion-Specific Clustering of Metal-Amphiphile Complexes in Rare Earth Separations, Srikanth Nayak, Kaitlin Lovering, and Ahmet Uysal, Nanoscale, 12, 20202-20210, 2020, DOI: 10.1039/D0NR04231E
     
  15. Anions Enhance Rare Earth Adsorption at Negatively Charged Surfaces, Srikanth Nayak, Kaitlin Lovering, Wei Bu, and Ahmet Uysal, J. Phys Chem. Lett., 11(11), 4436-4442, 2020, DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c01091
     
  16. The Role of Ion Specific Effects in Ion Transport: The Case of Nitrate and Thiocyanate, Kaitlin Lovering, Srikanth Nayak, Wei Bu, and Ahmet Uysal, J. Phys. Chem. C, 124, 573-581, 2020, DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.9b09288
     
  17. Heavy Anionic Complex Creates a Unique Water Structure at a Soft Charged Interface, William Rock, Baofu Qiao, Tiecheng Zhou, Aurora E. Clark, and Ahmet Uysal, J. Phys. Chem. C, 122(51), 29228-29236, 2018, DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b08419 (DOE Highlight)
     
  18. Liquid Surface X-ray Scattering, Mrinal Bera, Wei Bu, and Ahmet Uysal, in Physical Chemistry of Gas-Liquid Interfaces, 2018, Elsevier. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-813641-6.00007-8
     
  19. Two-Step Adsorption of PtCl62- Complexes at a Charged Langmuir Monolayer: Role of Hydration and Ion Correlations, Ahmet Uysal, William Rock, Baofu Qiao, Wei Bu, and Binhua Lin, J. Phys. Chem. C, 2017, 121(45), 25377-25383, PDF DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b09350, Live Slides Presentation
  20. Molecular Scale Description of Anion Competition at Amine Functionalized Surfaces, William Rock, Muhammed E. Oruc, Ross J. Ellis, and Ahmet Uysal, Langmuir, 2016, 32(44), 11532-11539, DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b03479
  21. Interfacial Ionic ​“Liquids”: Connecting Static and Dynamic Structures, Ahmet Uysal, Hua Zhou, Guang Feng, Sang Soo Lee, Song Li, Peter. T. Cummings, Pasquale F. Fulvio, Sheng Dai, John McDonough, Yury Gogotsi, and Paul Fenter, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 2015, 27(3), 032101, DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/27/3/032101 (Selected to Highlights of 2015, APS Highlight)
  22. What x rays can tell us about the interfacial profile of water near hydrophobic surfaces, Ahmet Uysal, Miaoqi Chu, Benjamin Stripe, Amod Timalsina, Sudeshna Chattopadhyay, Christian M. Schlepuetz, Tobin J. Marks, and Pulak Dutta), Physical Review B, 2013, 88(3), 035431, DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.88.035431
  23. Reverse self-assembly: (111)-oriented gold crystallization at alkylthiol monolayer templates, Ahmet Uysal, Benjamin Stripe, Binhua Lin, Mati Meron, and Pulak Dutta, Phys. Rev. Lett., 2011, 107, 115503, DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.115503.