Kwabena Bediako | Research UC Berkeley

Research Expertise and Interest

inorganic chemistry, materials chemistry, heterogeneous catalysis, electrochemistry, quantum transport, optoelectronics, low-dimensional and nanoscale structures

Research Description

Research efforts in the Bediako Group involve the mesoscopic investigation of interfacial charge transfer and charge transport in two-dimensional (2D) materials and heterostructures. We emphasize the design of materials with modular interfaces that can be controlled at atomically precise length scales to study and overcome contemporary challenges in electrochemical energy conversion and quantum electronics.

Our group synthesizes and isolates atomically thin inorganic crystals, deterministically assembles these 2D layers into novel multicomponent materials, and quantitatively interrogates the discrete architectures as constituents of electrochemical and electronic devices. To achieve our goals, we leverage solid-state and solution-phase methodologies, as well as chemical and electrochemical deposition techniques for materials synthesis. We use state-of-the-art micromanipulation and nanofabrication tools for the preparation of mesoscopic structures, and employ a range of optical spectroscopy, scanning-electrochemical, electron microscopy, and low-temperature quantum magnetotransport probes to measure the (electro)chemical and physical properties at individual devices.

In the News

Kwabena Bediako standing with arms crossed in lab setting.

The Chemistry of Energy Efficient Electronics

Kwabena Bediako, a 2023 Heising-Simons Faculty Fellow, is using his expertise in chemistry and physics to design new magnetic and electronic crystals and new ways of storing energy from renewable sources.

circularly cropped headshots of 9 people

Nine Young Faculty Members Receive Prized Sloan Research Fellowships

The largest number of awardees from any institution may be a sign of the University of California, Berkeley's ability to attract the most promising early-career researchers.

Using Magical Electrons for Electrochemistry

In a study recently published in Nature Chemistry(link is external), a team led by Kwabena Bediako, Assistant Professor of Chemistry at UC Berkeley, in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University professor and theorist Venkat Viswanathan(link is external), has demonstrated that stacking two single layers of graphene with a slight rotation – a so-called twist – between the lattices can modulate the rate of an electrochemical reaction on the graphene surface.