Gengxin Zhang

6th Street and Canton, Chemical Engineering, Cell phone: (806)-300-3117

Lubbock, TX 79409, USA Email: Gengxin.zhang@ttu.edu
Career Objective
A postdoc in functional materials, thin films, nano/micro fabrication, nanostructure characterization.
Education
Ph. D, Chemical Engineering, Texas Tech University. 2005 – 2009
Dissertation: Engineering Micro/nano Scale Organic High Explosive. GPA: 3.9/4.0
Supervisor: Dr. Brandon L. Weeks.
M. S., Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Research Institute of Chemical Industry, Shanghai, P. R.
China. 2002 - 2005
Thesis: Vapor-liquid equilibrium measurement of methanol – 2 - propanol-tert - butanol - water
mixture. Supervisors: Prof. Zhaohua Wu and Prof. Jianhua Wei
B. S., Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanxi, University, Shanxi, P. R.
China. 1998 - 2002
Work Experience
• Training grad students in AFM, TGA, and Vacuum vapor deposition operation. May 07 – Present
• Research Assistant, Chemical Engineering, Texas Tech University. Aug 05 – Present
• Teaching Assistant. Superized disscusion section of Reaction Kinetics, Material Science Engineering,
Heat & Mass Transfer. Sep 08 – Present
• Engineering technician. Shanghai Research Institute of Chemical Industry, Shanghai, China.
Responsible for designing oxygen isotope 18 separation by distillation column. May 04 - Aug 04
Professional Profile
• Expert in material properties testing, analytic chemistry, macro-microstructure characterization using
AFM, STM, SEM, EDX, XRD, FTIR, GC, TGA, DSC, HNMR, and ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV)
surface analysis.
• Experience in alcohols separation by industrial Sulzer packing column.
• Expert in PVD, CVD, Sputter coating, dip-coating, and spin coating techniques.
• Designed and built thermal drop hammer machine to test primary, secondary high explosive
sensitivity as a function of temperature. Design and build thermal evaporator.
• Experience in working on multiple research projects and providing training for new graduate
students.
• Experience in bottom-up and self-assembly based nano-structure, surface patterning.
• Computer literacy: Microsoft (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access), Matlab, Polymath, Mathmatica,
Maple, Engineering Programs (Aspen Plus, PRO II, Chem CAD 5.2), Application Software
(AutoCAD, Photoshop CS2)
Research Interests
• Impurities doping crystal growth and characterization.
• Solidification process of organic energetic material under thermal evaporating.
• High explosive output testing. Lab-made thermal drop hammer was used to test stability of high
explosives under various temperatures.

1
• Solidification process of organic thin films. Investigate the mechanism of dendrite growth of thin
organic energetic material thermally prepared at atmospheric or vacuum.
• Organic material thin film preparation and coating techniques. Investigate the interaction between
material and substrate, flux, temperature and substrate properties on film surface morphology.
Resulted in several journal publications.
• Dendrite growth of thin organic films. Investigate annealing effect on thin film dendrite growth,
modeling the branch growth rate with temperature change. Resulted in a journal publication
• Dynamic fractal analysis of thin organic films growth. Result in a journal publication.
• Patterning organic materials with templating techniques. Resulted in a journal publication.
Publications
1. Zhang, G.; Weeks, B. L. Solidification of Thin Organic Energetic Material, under review. 2009
2. Zhang, G.; Weeks, B. L. A Device for Testing Thermal Impact Sensitivity of High Explosives.
in preparation, 2009
3. Zhang, G.; Weeks B.L.; Holtz. M; Mound Formation of Organic Energetic Material on Self-
Assembled Monolayer, Physical Review B, under review, 2009
4. Zhang, G.; Weeks B.L. Surface Morphology of Energetic Material Thin Films Prepared at
Various Evaporation Rates. Applied surface Science, 2009, apsusc.2009.10.068
5. Zhang, G.; Weeks B.L.; Amitesh M. Gee. R Mechanisms of Fractal Growth in Organic Thin
Films: Modeling and Experiments. Applied Physics Letters, 2009, 95, 204101 (Cover)
6. Zhang, G.; Sun, H.; Abbott, J.; Weeks, B. L. Engineering the Microstructure of Organic
Energetic Materials. Applied Material & Interfaces, 2009, 1(5), 1086-1089
7. Zhang, G.; Pitchimani, R.; Weeks, B. L., A Simple and Flexible Thin Film Evaporating Device
for Energetic Materials. Review of Scientific Instruments, 2008, 79, 096102/1-3.
8. Zhang, G.; Weeks Brandon, L., Inducing Dendrite Formation using an Atomic Force Microscope
Tip. Scanning, 2008, 30, 228-231(Cover).
9. Zhang, G.; Weeks, B. L.; Wei, J., Vapor-Liquid Equilibria Data for Methanol + 2-Propanol+ 2-
Methyl-2-butanol and Constituent Binary Systems at 101.3 kPa. Journal of Chemical &
Engineering Data, 2007, 52, 878-883.
10. Weeks, B.L.; Zhang, G., High-pressure Scanning Tunneling Microscopy: tip reactions.
Scanning 2007, 29, 5-10.
11. Pitchimani, R; Hope-weeks, L.J., Zhang, G., Weeks,B. L. Effect of Impurity Doping on the
Morphology of Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate Crystals. Journal of Energetic materials, 2007, 25,
203 -212
Conference Presentation
1. 37th Annual Conference North American Thermal Analysis Society (NATAS). Lubbock, TX; Sep. 2009.
2. Research & Industrial Collaboration Conference (RICC). Boston, MA; Oct. 2008.
3. International Polyolefin Conference. Houston, TX; Feb. 2008.
4. 63rd Southwest Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Lubbock, TX; Nov. 2007.
5. Texas and Southwest Thermal Analysis and Rheology Forum Section of NATAS, Dallas, TX. Apr. 2006.
Affiliation and Academic Service
• American Chemical Society (ACS); • Material Science Research (MRS);
• Officer of Society of Plastic Engineers (SPE) student chapter at TTU;
• Review for: Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data, Nanotechnology, and Scanning.
References are available upon request.