Dr. Maryam Jahan

Maryam Jahan

Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Bachelor's Degree: Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, 2001

Master's Degree: Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran, 2004

Ph.D.: NUS (National University of Singapore), Singapore, 2013

Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA) of National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) - Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

Courses: General Chemistry (SCHE 100B/LB,133LB), Inorganic Chemistry (CHEM 440B/443B) & Environmental Chemistry (CHEM 438B)

Office: Research lab, Room 119, 1st Floor, Lee Hall Building, 801 Harding Blvd, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70813

Phone: 225-302-3422

E-mail Address: maryam_jahan@subr.edu , maryam.jahan@sus.edu

Web Page Links:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=O5ds7SUAAAAJ&hl=en

Research Interests

Dr. Maryam Jahan’s research focuses on sustainable materials chemistry, renewable energy materials, waste valorization, green composites, and applied environmental technologies. Her work connects fundamental chemistry with real-world applications in clean energy, circular economy, construction materials, transportation, aerospace, environmental sustainability, and industrial R&D.

Her research interests include:

Sustainable and Renewable Energy Materials
Development of low-cost, metal-free, carbon-based and biomass-derived electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), fuel cells, rechargeable batteries, and water-splitting technologies.

Agricultural Waste Valorization and Green Chemistry
Conversion of agricultural and biomass waste, including coconut shell, cotton fiber, sugarcane bagasse, walnut shell, coffee bean waste and other bio-based residues, into high-value functional materials such as activated carbon, N-doped porous carbon, biofillers, and carbonaceous particles.

Eco-Friendly Composite and Construction Materials
Design of sustainable polymer composites and carbon-fiber-reinforced composites using agricultural waste fillers to improve mechanical strength, thermal stability, 3D printing, fire resistance, moisture resistance, and multifunctional performance.

Thermal Stability, Fire-Retardant, and Building-Performance Materials
Applied research on bio-based and carbon-based materials for thermally stable, durable, lightweight, and fire-resistant building products, with strong relevance to construction challenges, wildfire resilience, energy-efficient buildings, and sustainable infrastructure.

Multifunctional Materials for Industrial Applications
Development of graphene/epoxy, carbon fiber, and bio-based hybrid composites for microwave absorption, electromagnetic interference shielding, mechanical reinforcement, and advanced engineering applications.

Waste Management, Circular Economy, and Applied Industrial R&D
Research focused on transforming low-value waste streams into renewable, sustainable, and commercially useful materials for clean technology, construction, transportation, aerospace, and environmental applications.

Applied Research Direction

Dr. Jahan’s long-term research goal is to develop low-cost, eco-friendly, scalable, and high-performance materials from waste and renewable resources. Her research is strongly aligned with applied industrial R&D, clean technology, and product-development pathways where materials must be tested, validated, and translated into real-world use.

This direction is particularly relevant to construction materials evaluation, building performance, sustainability, product testing, renewable energy, and commercialization of innovative green materials. In addition, her work extends to advanced composite materials for aerospace and automotive applications, multifunctional materials with integrated mechanical, thermal, and electromagnetic properties, and high-performance bio-based composites for structural and protective systems.

Her applied research also encompasses electrocatalytic materials for energy conversion and storage (e.g., ORR/OER, fuel cells, and water splitting), as well as carbon-based nanomaterials derived from biomass for clean energy technologies. A key focus is on enhancing thermomechanical performance, fire resistance, durability, and environmental resilience of materials, enabling their use in next-generation infrastructure and engineering systems.

Furthermore, her research supports the circular economy through waste valorization into high-value functional materials, with strong potential for industrial-scale manufacturing, commercialization, and sustainable product innovation across construction, transportation, aerospace, and energy sectors

Field 1

Polymer matrix composites have been used extensively in the aerospace and automotive industries. Nevertheless, the growing demand for composites raises concerns about the thermal stability, cost, and environmental impacts of synthetic fillers like graphene and carbon nanotubes. Hence, this study investigates the possibility of enhancing the thermomechanical properties of polymer composites through the incorporation of agricultural waste as fillers. Particles from walnut, coffee, and coconut shells were used as fillers to create particulate composites. Bio-based composites with 10 to 30 wt.% filler were created by sifting these particles into various mesh sizes and dispersing them in an epoxy matrix. In comparison to the pure polymer, DSC results indicated that the inclusion of 50 mesh 30 wt.% agricultural waste fillers increased the glass transition temperature by 8.5%, from 55.6 ◦C to 60.33 ◦C. Also, the TGA data showed improved thermal stability. Subsequently, the agricultural wastes were employed as reinforcement for laminated composites containing woven glass fiber with a 50% fiber volume fraction, eight plies, and varying particle filler weight percentages from 0% to 6% with respect to the laminated composite. The hybrid laminated composite demonstrated improved impact resistance of 142% in low velocity impact testing. These results demonstrate that fillers made of agricultural wastes can enhance the thermomechanical properties of sustainable composites, creating new environmentally friendly prospects for the automotive and aerospace industries.

Field 2

The field investigates the mechanical properties of hybridized vitrimer-based CFRP composite reinforced with sugarcane bagasse fillers in raw, carbonized, and chemically treated form. Carbonization at 600 °C and KOH chemical activation were employed to improve its compatibility with a vitrimer matrix. The research aimed at finding how treatments of fillers influence flexural strength, compressive resistance, impact toughness, and viscoelasticity. General mechanical properties from three-point bending, compression, and low velocity impact tests, together with dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), were conducted to determine mechanical properties and viscoelastic behavior. The carbonized‑bagasse composite exhibited the most pronounced enhancements, achieving a flexural strength of 250 MPa, a 7.9% increase as compared to the pure polymer (control). It has also shown a 37.9% improvement over the control’s energy to failure. The activated bagasse composite’s compressive yield strength increased by 21%, reaching 121 MPa, and it exhibited notable damping behavior compared to other filler-reinforced samples. Raw bagasse composite trailed behind in every property. These findings unambiguously demonstrate that filler treatment introduces huge influence on mechanical performance of bio-particle reinforced composites, opening their doors for applications in repairable, long-lasting materials.

Field 3

Inorganic fillers have been used to improve the out-of-plane mechanical properties of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite laminates for decades. Nonetheless, its associated high cost and environmental unfriendliness is a concern. Biomaterials are currently being explored as fillers in polymeric materials due to their low cost, wide availability, and biodegradability. However, the use of coconut shell based biofillers together with carbon fibers in epoxy matrix has not been investigated. This research seeks to improve the out-of-plane mechanical properties of CFRP with low fiber volume fraction using carbonized coconut shell particles (CCSP). Five hybrid epoxy biocomposites with varying concentrations of CCSP were used to impregnate four plies of woven carbon fabric, making up a fiber volume fraction of 29%. The tensile, flexural, and impact behavior of the laminated biocomposites were investigated. The mechanical properties of the biocomposite laminates were enhanced compared to a reference CFRP without CCSP. This work provides a cheaper and greener alternative to inorganic CFRP hybrid composite for potential use in automotive and aerospace industries.

Field 4

Microwave absorption (MWA) materials such as graphene nanoplatelet (GNP)/epoxy are mostly used as coatings on existing structures without considering mechanical properties. In this work, we aim to enhance the mechanical strength of the composite for multifunctional potentials. We used carbon fiber (four layers) to reinforce GNP/epoxy composite (2 mm thick) and investigated their multifunctional properties with GNP loading from 3 to 7 wt%. We measured the tensile strength, hardness, and MW absorption (26.5 - 40 GHz) of composite samples. Our results showed an increase in tensile strength to 109.1 ± 7.9 MPa with 7 wt% GNP in the composite from 15.3 MPa for pure epoxy. The hardness of the composites was also substantially enhanced with GNP loading up to 7 wt%. A MW absorption ratio of 72% was attained for the sample with 7 wt% GNP loading near 40 GHz. The homogenous dispersion of GNPs in the matrix reduces the stress concentration and minimizes the influence of the defects. The high MW absorption and large transmission loss together with enhanced mechanical strength provides a novel multifunctional material for potential applications.

Field 5.

Field 6.

Developing efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts that drive both oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is significant for renewable energy conversion and storage technologies. In this paper, we report a new method for synthesizing carbon nanostructures through catalytic thermolysis of natural cotton fibers. Pre-treated cotton with Fe annealed under ammonia gas environment at an optimized temperatures 900^oC yielded nitrogen-iron doped carbon (NFe/C) with bamboo-like structures. Our experimental measurements show that NFe/C synthesized at 900^oC (NFe/C (900^oC)) possess good bifunctional electrocatalytic activities toward ORR and OER, with an excellent stability in alkaline electrolytes. We further studied the electric field polarization effect on NFe/C (900^oC) by utilizing a DC electric field on the catalyst ink drop casted on a glassy carbon electrode. Interestingly, the applied electric field created a dielectrophoresis phenomenon that assisted the packing of the catalyst particles, and resulted in a compact catalyst electrode with an improvement of electrocatalytic performance, that have not been previously explored. The reported new synthesis method using natural cotton and the electric field polarization effect have the potential to achieve a low cost and mass production capability for producing carbon-based noble-metal-free bifunctional electrocatalysts for green energy conversions.

Field 7.

Catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) are at the heart of key renewable energy technologies such as water splitting and rechargeable batteries. But developing a low–cost oxygen electrode catalyst with high activity at low over potential remains a great challenge. Coconut shells can be utilized as suitable raw material to produce activated carbon for enhanced adsorption capacity, bulk density, and hardness to be used as regenerative fuel cell running ORR and OER. The present work is designed to obtain an alternative to noble metal–based catalyst by synthesizing electroactive N–doped porous carbon from coconut shells; the use of biodegradable raw material through a single–step activation followed by nitrogen doping provides a more economical and environmentally friendly route to produce green catalysts for fuel cell applications. In valorization of biomass for development of novel catalytic materials, our aim is also to reduce the use of hazardous chemicals. N–doped activated carbon shows promising bifunctional catalyst for ORR and OER as low–cost noble–metal–free and carbon–based oxygen catalyst.

Field 8.

The need for miniaturization has made the advent of multifunctional composite materials (MCM) significant in the aerospace, defense, and automobile industry. Besides the attractive structural functionalities of carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP), they can be integrated with another material to impart additional functionalities. Inorganic materials and other forms of carbon nanotubes have been used in previous research to achieve this purpose. Our previous work used carbonized particle from coconut shell waste; an environmentally friendly starting material as an alternative to fabricate a hybrid CFRP for enhanced structural properties. Herein, non-structural functionalities in terms of electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, thermal stability and water absorption of our hybrid CFRP/carbonaceous particle composite was studied. Carbonaceous particle was thermally synthesized by heating clean coconut shells at 400°C for 2 hours. Varying concentrations of carbonaceous particle was incorporated with epoxy to make up the matrix and reinforced with four plies of woven carbon fabric. Hybrid composites with 1 -3% particle loading showed good EMI shielding with SE_T of over 15 dB; which is within the acceptable range of 10-30 dB. Also, incorporation of carbonized particle to CFRP increases the decomposition temperature for up to 3% particle loading hence enhanced thermal stability. The facile method of carbonization by heating improves water absorption resistance of the hybrid composites for particle loadings of up to 3%. However, above 3% particle concentration, there is deterioration in properties as a result of agglomeration and poor fiber-matrix interfacial bonding. Our multifunctional hybrid composite based on carbon fiber and agricultural waste is a viable economical, sustainable, and environmentally friendly alternative to inorganic particle/CFRP composites for engineering applications.

Selected Publications

- Emmanuel Kwaku Aidoo , Abubakar Sumaila , Maryam Jahan , Guoqiang Li and Patrick Mensah, “Thermomechanical Properties of Sustainable Polymer Composites Incorporating Agricultural Wastes”, J. Mater. Process. 2025, 9, 315. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmmp9090315

- Kingsley Yeboah Gyabaah, John Konlan, Obed Tetteh, Maryam Jahan, Enrique Jackson, Patrick Mensah, Guoqiang Li, “3D Printable Regolith Filled Shape Memory Vitrimer Composite for Extraterrestrial Application”, Journal of Composite Materials, 2024, Fall Volume, Volume 58, Issue 241-16.

https://doi.org/10.1177/00219983241274544

- Foster Feni, Maryam Jahan, Rong Zhao, Guoqiang Li, Guang-Lin Zhao, Patrick Mensah, “Thermal Stability, Microwave Shielding, and Water Resistance of a Multifunctional Composite with Hybrid Carbon Fiber and Carbonaceous Particle Reinforcement”, Frontiers in Materials, 2023, Volume 10, Page 1-11.

https://doi.org/10.3389/fmats.2023.1278222

- Foster Feni, Maryam Jahan, Fareed Dawan, Samuel Ibekwe, Guoqiang Li, Patrick Mensah, “Enhancing the Mechanical Performance of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Using Carbonized Coconut Shell Particles “, Materials Today Communications ,33 ,2022, 104727, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcomm.2022.104727.

- Maryam Jahan, “Multifunctional Graphene/Epoxy Composite from Carbon Fibers for Microwave Absorption and Mechanical Properties” Chapter of the book: Encyclopedia of Materials: Plastics and Polymers, 2022, 1-9, ISBN 978-0-12-820352-1, DOI:10.1016/B978-0-12-820352-1.00188-7.

- Maryam Jahan, Foster Feni, “Environmentally friendly bifunctional catalyst for ORR and OER from Coconut Shell Particles” Advances in Materials Physics and Chemistry,2022, 12, 106-123,

DOI: 10.4236/ampc.2022.125008

- J. Mokkath, Maryam Jahan, M. Tanaka, S. Tominaka, J. Henzie, “Temperature-dependent electronic structure of bixbyite α-Mn₂O₃ and the importance of a subtle structural change on oxygen electrocatalysis”, Sci Technol Adv Mater. 2021, 22(1), 141-149, DOI: 10.1080/14686996.2020.1868949.

- Maryam Jahan, Kuo Li, Guang-Lin Zhao, Feng Gao, “An efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst from natural cotton fibers for ORR/OER and electric field polarization effect”, SCIREA Journal of Materials, 2020, Volume 5, Issue 3, 29-70, http://article.scirea.org/pdf/43098.pdf.

- Maryam Jahan, Richard Osuemeshi Inakpenu, Kuo Li, Guanglin Zhao, “Enhancing the Mechanical Strength for a Microwave Absorption Composite Based on Graphene Nanoplatelet/Epoxy with Carbon Fibers”,

Open Journal of Composite Materials, 2019, 9, 230-248, DOI: 10.4236/ojcm.2019.92013.

- Maryam Jahan, Kuo Li, Guang‐Lin Zhao, “Electric Field Poling Effect on the Electrocatalytic Properties of Nitrogen‐Functionalized Graphene Nanosheets”, Energy Technology, 2018, 6, 2408 – 2418

https://doi.org/10.1002/ente.201800327.

- Guang-Lin Zhao, Feng Gao, Kuo Li, Zhou Wang, Maryam Jahan, “Using natural cotton fibers to synthesize carbon nanotubes and electromagnetic wave absorption properties”, Materials Science and Engineering B, 224 2017, 61–68, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mseb.2017.07.006.

- Joel Henzie, Vinodkumar Etacheri, Maryam Jahan, Hongpan Rong, Chulgi Nathan Hong and Vilas G. Pol,” Biomineralization-inspired crystallization of monodisperse α-Mn₂O₃ octahedra and assembly of high-capacity lithium-ion battery anodes” J. Mater. Chem. A, 2017, 5, 6079-6089, DOI: 10.1039/C6TA11243A.

- Maryam Jahan, Satoshi Tominaka, and Joel Henzie , “Phase pure α-Mn₂O₃ prisms and their bifunctional electrocatalytic activity in oxygen evolution and reduction reactions” , Dalton Trans., 2016, 45, 18494–18501 , DOI: 10.1039/C6DT03158G.

- Maryam Jahan, Zhaolin Liu, Kian Ping Loh, “ Graphene Oxide and Copper-centered Metal Organic Framework Composite as a Tri- Functional Catalyst for HER, OER and ORR.”

Advance Functional materials, 2013, 23, 5363–5372, https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201300510.

- Maryam Jahan, Qiaoliang Bao, and Kian Ping Loh , “Electrocatalytically Active Graphene−Porphyrin MOF Composite for Oxygen Reduction Reaction”, Journal of the American Chemical Society , 2012, 134, 6707−6713, DOI:10.13140/RG.2.1.4242.3282.

- Maryam Jahan, Qiaoliang Bao, Jia-Xiang Yang, and Kian Ping Loh , “Structure-directing Role of Graphene in the synthesis of Metal-Organic Framework Nanowire”, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2010, 132, 14487–14495, DOI:10.1021/ja105089w.

- Janardhan Balapanuru, Jia-Xiang Yang, Si Xiao, Qiaoliang Bao, Maryam Jahan, Lakshminarayana Polavarapu, Ji Wei, Qing-Hua Xu, and Kian Ping Loh , “A Graphene Oxide–Organic Dye Ionic Complex with DNA-Sensing and Optical-Limiting Properties”, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2010, 122, 1 – 6, DOI: 10.1002/anie.201001004.