His research interests include synthesis, processing, and applications of nanoparticles and nanomaterials. His group has been first in the world to demonstrate several applications of silicon nanocrystals in bioimaging. They are also widely known for their work in solution phase synthesis of anisotropic and multi-component nanomaterials, and for computational studies of gas-phase nanoparticle synthesis. More recently, they have developed a new process for gas phase production of multi-component metal nanoparticles, and have advanced the solution-phase synthesis of copper chalcogenide-based plasmonic semiconductor nanostructures.