
Welcome to Tan Group at George Mason University
Recent News & Events
- 05/15/2025: Xiaoyan hooded the second Ph.D graduate, Zach, at the commencement ceremony. Congratulations, Zach and class of 2025!
- 05/06/2025: Zach won the Department’s Outstanding Graduating PhD Student Award.
- 04/25/2025: Xiaoyan attended the EPPIC-STEM high school event and chatted with about 75 high school students about research in chemistry and our programs in the department.
Research
Functional Polar Magnetic Inorganic Solid-State Materials
Tan Group focuses on the discovery of functional and multifunctional inorganic solid-state materials, ranging from intermetallics to oxides, with the applications in technology and energy conversion. We target materials with noncentrosymmetric and polar space groups which will exhibit interesting and exotic physical properties such as, which include but not limit to polar metallic oxides and intermetallics, polar magnetic semiconductors, polar thermoelectric materials, and multiferroic materials. We are interested in investigating the magnetic and transport properties of those polar materials, and understanding the interplay between the polar crystal structure, electronic structure, and physical properties.
Students will be trained on the preparation of crystalline inorganic solid-state materials with various methods, growth of single crystals, structural analysis, calculation of electronic structure, and characterization of physical properties of inorganic solid-state materials. Students will also have the opportunity to learn X-ray neutron diffraction while use the state-of-art research facilities at national laboratories such as Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and Oak Ridge National laboratory (ORNL).