Noshir S. Pesika

Dr. Pesika attended Carnegie Mellon University where he obtained his Bachelors Degree (1999) in Chemical Engineering and French. He then obtained his Ph.D. (2005) in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Johns Hopkins University where he developed a novel microfabrication technique involving microcontact printing and electrochemistry. Following his Ph.D., Dr. Pesika joined the University of California in Santa Barbara as a postdoctoral fellow.

To date Dr. Pesika has authored over 50 peer-reviewed articles and presented his work at several professional conferences. His honors include a Graduate Student Fellowship from NASA to study the nucleation and growth of zinc oxide nanoparticles and Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Intelligence Community to study the nanoscale contact mechanics of geckos.

Research Interests

The overarching theme of our current research is the development of “smart” materials; i.e., materials that have been judiciously designed (through surface chemistry or topography) to perform a function when stimulated externally or offer enhanced properties based on their design. My research group consists primarily of experimentalists although our approach relies heavily on a fundamental understanding of the underlying physics before the development of applied “smart” materials. Examples of such materials include biomimetic directional adhesives, anisotropic catalysts with enhanced catalytic activity, novel oil dispersant formulations which prevent oil from adhering to marine surfaces, and ultra-low friction surfaces and lubricants formulations. The projects have been supported by the National Science Foundation, Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, and the Louisiana Board of Regents.

Publications

Lu, Hongyu; Zheng, Yelong; Yin, Wei; Tao, Dashuai; Pesika, Noshir; Meng, Yonggang; Tian, Yu "Propulsion Principles of Water Strider in Sculling Forward through Shadow Method" Journal of Bionic Engineering (2018), 15, 516-525.

Pashazanusi, Leila; Oguntoye, Moses; Oak, Shreyas; Albert, Julie N. L.; Pratt, Lawrence R.; Pesika, Noshir S. "Anomalous Potential Dependent Friction on Au(111) measured by AFM" Langmuir (2017) DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.7b03023.

Cheng, Guangui; Dong, Lingjian; Kamboj, Lakhinder; Khosla, Tushar; Wang, Xiaodong; Guo, Liqiang; Pesika, Noshir; Ding, Jianning "Hydrothermal Synthesis of Monodisperse Hard Carbon Spheres and Their Water-based Lubrication" Tribology Letters (2017), 65, 141.

Pashazanusi, Leila; Lwoya, Baraka; Oak, Shreyas; Khosla, T.; Albert, Julie N. L.; Tian, Yu; Bansal, Geetha; Kumar, Nirbhay; Pesika, Noshir S. "Enhanced Adhesion of Mosquitoes to Rough Surfaces" ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces 2017, 9, 24373-24380.

Tao, Dashua; Gao, Xing; Lu, Hongyu; Liu, Zheyu; Li, Ying; Tong, Hao; Pesika, Noshir; Meng, Yonggang; Tian, Yu* "Controllable Anisotropic Dry Adhesion in Vacuum: Gecko Inspired Wedged Surface Fabricated with Ultraprecision Diamond Cutting" Advanced Functional Materials (2017) DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201606576.

Oguntoye, Moses; Oak, Shreyas; Pashazanusi, Leila; Pratt, Lawrence; Pesika, N.S.* "Vertically-Aligned Carbon nanotube Arrays as Binder-Free Supports for Nickell Cobaltite based Faradaic Supercapacitor Electrodes" Electrochimica Acta (2017), 236, 408-416.

Cheng, Guangui*; Jian, Shiyu; Khosla, Tushar; Pesika, Noshir; Ding; jianming; Zhang, Yueheng; Wang, Ying "Synthesis of Hard Carbon/Iron Microshpheres and Their Aqueous-Based Tribological Performance Under Magnetic Field" Tribology Letters (2016), 64,48.

Oguntoye, Moses; Johnson, Michael; Pratt, Lawrence; Pesika, Noshir* "Triboelectricity Generation from vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotube Arrays" ACS Applied Materials and Interface (2016), 8,27454-27457.

Cheng, Guanggui*, Zhang, Wei; Fang, Jin; jiang, Shi-Yi; Ding, Jian-Ning; Pesika, Noshir; Zhang, Zhong-Qiang; Guo, Li-Qiang; Wang, Ying "fabrication of triboelectric nanogenerator with textured surface and its electric output performance" Acta Physica Sinica (2016), 65, 060201.

Arora, Jaspreet; Cremaldi, Joseph C.; Holleran, Mary K.; Ponnusamy, T.; Sunkara, B.; He, J.' Pesika, N.*; John, V.* "Hierarchical patterning of hydrogels by replica molding of impregnated breath figures leads to superoleophobicty" Nanoscale (2016), 8, 18446-18453.

Arora, Jaspreet S.; Cremaldi, Joseph C.; Holleran, Mary K.; Ponnusamy, Thiruselvam; Jibao, He; Pesika, Noshir S.; John, Vijay T. "Hydrogel Inverse Replicas of Breath Figures Exhibit Superoleophobicity Du to Patterened Surface Roughness" Langmuir (2016), 32, 1009-1017.

Cremaldi, Joseph; Ejaz, Muhammed; Oak, Shreyas; Holleran, Mary K.; Roberts, Katherine; Cheng, Guanggui; Wang, Ying; Grayson, Scott M.; John, Vijay; Pesika, Noshir S. "Polymer grafted hard carbon microspheres at an oil/water interface." Journal of Colloid and interface Science (2016), 470, 31-38.

Wang, Ying; Ji, Haiyang; Li, Lyshou; Ding, Jianning; Yuan, Ningyi; Yuan, Ningyi; Zhu, Yuanyuan; Cremaldi, Joseph C.; Peska, Noshir S. "Trilayered Film with Excellent Tribological Performance: A Combination of Graphene Oxide and Perfluropolyethers." Tribology Letters (2015), DOI: 10.1007/s11249-015-0618-y.

Khosla, Tushar; Cremaldi, Joseph C.; Erickson, Jeffrey S.; Pesika, Noshir S. "Load-Induced Hydrodynamic Lubrication of Porous films." ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (2015), 7, 17587-17591.

Cremaldi, Joseph C.; Khosla, tushar; Jin, Kejia; Cutting David; Wollman, Kristen; Pesika, Noshir S. "Interactions of Oil drops with Surfaces of Different Interfacial Energy and Topography." Langmuir (2015), 31, 3385-3390.

Zhou, Ming; Tian, Yu; Zeng, Hongbo B.; Pesika, Noshir S.; Israelachvili, Jacob. "Clumping Criteria of Vertical Nanofibers on Surfaces." Advanced Materials Interfaces (2015), 2, 1400466.

Azizi, A.; Khosla, T.; Mitchell, B.S.; Alem, N.; Pesika, N.S. "Tuning carbon Content and Morphology of FeCo/Graphitic-carbon Core-shell Nanoparticles using a Salt-Matrix Assisted CVD Process." Particle and Particle Systems Characterization (2014), 31, 474.

Jin, K.; Cremaldi, J.C.; Erickson, J.S.; Tian, Y.; Israelachvili, J.N.; Pesika, N.S. "Biomimetic Bidirectional Switchable Adhesive Inspired by Gecko." Adv. Func. Mater. (2014), 24, 574.

Zheng, R.; Arora, J.; Boonkaew, B.; Raghavan, S.R.; Kaplan, D.L.; He, J.; Pesika, N.S.; John, V.T. "Liposomes tethered to biopolymer film through the hydrophobic effect create a highly effective lubricating surface." Soft Matter (2014), 10, 9226.

Venkatasubramanian, R.; He, J.; Stern, I.; Kim, D.H.; Pesika, N.S. "Additive-Mediated Synthesis of Plate-like Copper Crystals for Methanol Electro-oxidation." Langmuir (2013), 29, 13135.

Ejaz, M.; Sunkara, B.; Kamboj, K.; He, J.; John, V. T.; Pesika, N. S.; Grayson, S. M. "Facile one-pot method of initiator fixation for surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization on carbon hard spheres." J. Polymer Sci. A (2013), 51, 3314-3322.

Azizi, Amin; Yourdkhani, Amin; Cutting, David; Caruntu, Gabriel; Pesika, Noshir "Tuning the Crystal Structure and Magnetic Properties of CoNiFeB Thin Films." Chemistry of Materials (2013), cm400861h.

Zhou, Ming; Pesika, Noshir; Zeng, Hongbo, Tian, Yu, Israelachvili, Jacob "Recent advances in gecko adhesion and friction mechanisms and development of gecko-inspired dry adhesive surfaces." Friction (2013), 1, 114-129.

Tian, Y.; Wan, J.; Pesika, N.; Zhou, M. "Bridging nanocontacts to macroscle gecko adhesion by sliding soft lamellar skin supported setal array." Scientific Reports (2013), DOI: 10.1038

Puthoff, J.; Holbrook, M.; Wilkinson, M.J.; Jin, K.; Pesika, N.S.; Autumn, K. "Dynamic friction in natural and synthetic geck setal arrays." Soft Matters (2013), 9, 4855-4863.

You, Xinli; Chaudhari, Mangesh; Pratt, Lawrence; Pesika, Noshir; Aritakula, Kalika; Rick, Steven "Interfaces of propylene carbonate." Journal of Chemical Physics (2013), 138, 114708.

Zheng, Rubo; Zhan, Jingjing; Wang, Xiaoqin; Kaplan, David; Pesika, Noshir; John, Vijay "Lubrication Properties of Phospholipid Liposome Coated Silk Microspheres." Particle and Particle Systems Characterization (2013), 30, 133-137.

Belman, Nataly; Jin, Kejia; Golan, Yuval; Israelachvili, Jacob; Pesika, Noshir "Origin of Contact Angle Hysteresis of Water on Chemisorbed and Physisorbed Self-Assembled Monolayers." Langmuir (2012), 28, 14609-14617.

Kejia, Jin; Tian, Yu; Erickson, Jeffrey; Puthoff, Jonathan; Autumn, Kellar; Pesika, Noshir "Design and fabrication of Gecko-Inspired Adhesives."Langmuir (2012), 28(13), 5737-5742.

Zhou, Ming; Pesika, Noshir; Hongbo, Zeng; Wan, Jin; Zhang, Xiangjun; Meng, Yonggang; Wen, Shizhu; Tian, Yu "Design of gecko-inspired fibrillar surfaces with strong attachment and easy-removal properties: a numerical analysis of peel-zone." J. R. Soc. Interface (2012), (published online May 9th, 2012).

Amir, Elizabeth; Antoni, Per; Campos, Luis M.; Damiron, Denis; Gupta, Nalini; Amir, Roey J.; Pesika, Noshir; Drockenmuller, Eric; Hawker, C. J., "Biodegradable, multi-layered coatings for controlled release of small molecules." Chem. Comm. (2012), 48, 4833-4835.

Yu, Jing; Chary, Sathya; Das, Saurabh; Tamelier, John; Pesika, Noshir S.; Turner, Kimberly L.; Israelachvili, Jacob N. "Gecko-Inspired Dry Adhesive for Robotic Applications." Adv. Functional Materials (2011), 21(16), 3010-3018.

St Dennis, J. E.; Jin, Kejia; John, Vijay T.; Pesika, Noshir S., "Carbon Microspheres as Ball Bearings in Aqueous-Based Lubrication." ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces (2011), 3(7), 2215-2218.

Zhou, Ming; Tian, Yu; Pesika, Noshir S.; Zeng, Hongbo; Wan, J.; Meng, Yonggang; Wen, Shizhu, "The Extended Peel Zone Model: Effect of Peeling Velocity." Journal of Adhesion (2011), 87(11), 1045-1058.

St Dennis, J. E.; Meng, Qingkai; Zheng, Rubo; Pesika, Noshir S.; McPherson, Gary L.; He, Jibao; Ashbaugh, Hank S.; John, Vijay T.; Dowling, Matthew B.; Raghavan, Srinivasa R. "Carbon microspheres as network nodes in a novel biocompatible gel." Soft Matter (2011), 7(9), 4170-4173.

Venkatasubramanian, Rajesh; Jin, Kejia J.; Pesika, Noshir S. "Use of Electrochemical Deposition to Create Randomly Rough Surfaces and Roughness Gradients." Langmuir (2011), 27(7), 3261-3265.

Lowrey, D.D; Tasaka, K; Kindt, J.H; Banquy, Z.; Belman, N.; Min, Y.; Pesika, N.S.; Mordukhovich, G.; Israelachvili, J.N. "High-Speed Friction Measurements Using a Modified Surface Forces Apparatus." Tribology Letters (2011), 42(1), 117-127.

Tian, Yu; Zhang, Minliang; Jiang, Jile; Pesika, Noshir; Zeng, Hongbo; Israelachvili, Jacob; Meng, Yonggang; Wen, Shizhu. "Reversible shear thickening at low shear rates of electrorheological fluids under electric fields." Physical Review E (2011), 83(1).

Thibodeaux, Louis J.; Valsaraj, Kalliat T.; John, Vijay T.; Papadopoulos, Kyriakos D.; Pratt, Lawrence R.; Pesika, Noshir S. "Marine Oil Fate: Knowledge Gaps, Basic Research, and Development Needs; A Perspective Based on the Deepwater Horizon Spill." Environ. Eng. Sci. (2011), 28, 87-93.

Min, Younjin; Pesika, Noshir; Zasadzonski, Joe; Israelachvili, Jacob. "Studies of Bilayer and Vesicle Adsorption to Solid Substrates: Development of a Miniature Streaming Potential Apparatus (SPA)." Langmuir (2010), 26, 8684-8689.

Israelachvili, Jacob; Min, Younjin; Akbulut, Mustafa; Alig, Anna; Carver, Gregory; Greene, Wren; Kristiansen, Kai; Meyer, Emily; Pesika, Noshir; Rosenberg, Kenneth; Zeng, Hongbo. "Recent Advances in the surface forces apparatus (SFA) technique." Reports on Prog. Phys. (2010), 73, 036601.

Pesika, Noshir; Zeng, Hongbo; Kristiansen, kai; Zhao, Boxin; Tian, Yu; Autumn, Kellar; Israelchavili, J. "Gecko adhesion pad: a smart surface?" J. Phys.: Condensed Matter (2009), 21, 464132.

Pesika, Noshir S.; Gravish, Nick; Wilkinson, Matt; Zhao, Boxin; Zeng, Hongbo; Tian, Yu; Israelachvili, Jacob; Autumn, Kellar “The Crowding Model as a Tool to Understand and Fabricate Geko-Inspired Dry Adhesives.” J. Adhesion (2009), 85, 512-525.

Zeng, Hongbo; Pesika, Noshir S; Tian, Yu; Zhao, Boxin; Chen, Yufei; Tirrell, Matthew; Turner, Kimberly; Israelachvili, Jacob N. “Frictional Adhesion of Patterned Surfaces and Implications for Gecko and Biomimetic Systems.” Langmuir (2009), 25, 7486-7495.

Zhao, Boxin; Pesika, Noshir S; Zeng, Hongbo; Wei, Zhensong; Chen, Yufei; Autumn, Kellar; Turner, Kimberly; Israelachvili, Jacob N. “Role of Tilted Ahdesion Fibrils (Setae) in the Adhesion and Locomotion of Gecko-like Systems.” Journal of Phys. Chem. B (2009), 113(12), 3615-3621.

Zhao, Boxin; Pesika, Noshir S.; Tian, Yu; Rosenberg, Kenneth; Zeng, Hongbo; McGuiggan, Patricia; Autumn, Kellar; Israelachvili, Jacob N. "Adhesion and Friction force coupling of gecko setal arrays: implications for structures adhesive surfaces." Langmuir (2008), 24, 1517-1524.

Pesika, Noshir S.; Tian, Yu; Zhao, Boxin; Rosenberg, Kenneth; Zeng, Hongbo; McGuiggan, Patricia; Autumn, Kellar; Israelachvili, Jacob N. "Peel Zone Model of Tape Peeling based on the Gecko adhesive system." J. Adhesion (2007), 83, 383-401.

Tian, Yu; Pesika, Noshir S.; Zhao, Boxin; Rosenberg, Kenneth; Zeng, Hongbo; McGuiggan, Patricia; Autumn, Kellar; Israelachvili, Jacob N. "Adhesion and Friction in gecko toe attachment and detachment." PNAS (2006), 103, 19320-19325.

Pesika, Noshir S.; Stebe, Kathleen J.; Searson, Peter C. "Fabrication of Complex Architectures Using Electrodeposition into Patterned SAMs." Nanoletters (2006), 6, 1023-1026.

Pesika, Noshir S.; Stebe, Kathleen J.; Searson, Peter C. "Kinetics of Desorption of Alkanethiolates on Gold." Langmuir (2006), 22, 3474-3476.

Pesika, Noshir S.; Fan, Fengqiu; Searson, Peter C.; Stebe, Kathleen J. "Site-Selective Patterning Using Surfactant-Based Resists." JACS (2005), 127, 11960-11962.

Pesika, Noshir S.; Stebe, Kathleen J.; Searson, Peter C. "Relationship between Absorbance Spectra and Particle Size Distribution for Quantum-Sized Nanocrystals." Journal of Phys. Chem. B (2003), 107(38), 10412-10415.

Pesika, Noshir S.; Stebe, Kathleen J.; Searson, Peter C. "Determination of the Particle Size Distribution of Quantum Nanocrystals from Absorbance Spectra." Advanced Materials (2003), 15, 1289.

Pesika, Noshir S.; Hu, Zeshan; Stebe, Kathleen J.; Searson, Peter C. "Quenching of growth of ZnO nanoparticles by adsorption of octanethiol." Journal of Phys. Chem. B (2002), 106(28), 6985-6990.

Hu, Zeshan; Oskam, Gerko; Penn, R. Lee; Pesika, Noshir; Searson, Peter C. "The Influence of Anion on the Coarsening Kinetics of ZnO Nanoparticles." Journal of Phys. Chem. B (2003), 107(14), 3124-3130.

Oskam, Gerko; Hu, Zeshan; Penn, R. Lee; Pesika, Noshir; Searson, Peter C. "Coarsening of metal oxide nanoparticles." Physical Review E (2002), 66(1), 011403/1-011403/4.

S.J. Vinay III, N.S. Pesika, C.M. Schroeder, J. Sinclair, M.L. Gray, Y. Soong, R.R. Schehl, W.D. Sands, D.H. Finseth, M.S. Jhon, "An Experimental Study of Multi-Particle Dynamics in Triboelectrostatic Systems", Proc. of Top. Conf. on Adv. Tech. for Part. Prod. -- Vol. II: Fluid-Particle Systems, pp.56-62.