Carbon-based hybrid materials: growth, characterization and investigation of properties
Arshad, Muhammad
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Publication date: 2018
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Arshad, M. (2018). Carbon-based hybrid materials: growth, characterization and investigation of properties. University of Groningen.
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Acknowledgements
All praises to Almighty Allah, the Most Beneficent and the Most Merciful, for providing me the strength and good health to complete my research tasks.
Foremost, I would like to express my utmost gratitude to my supervisor and mentor Prof. Dr. Petra Rudolf and to my co-supervisor Dr. Cinzia Cepek. I strongly believe that it would not have been possible for me to complete my research work without their constant guidance, support and help. Dear Prof. Petra Rudolf, from your high level of research experience, I have learned how one should be curious, imaginative and critical, in order to conduct research activities both scientifically as well as ethically. You are not only an excellent scientist but also a great person.
I gratefully acknowledge the efforts of Dr. Cinzia Cepek for providing me training on various equipment, particularly on XPS and for making available to me everything required for conducting the completion of PhD work. I must say, I could have never reached my research goals without your unrelenting daily support and help.
I am much indebted to the late Dr. Syed Tajammul Hussain for his support in getting a PhD position in Prof. Dr. Petra Rudolf’s research group.
I also want to express my deep gratitude to the TASC-INFM National Laboratory for hosting me and providing me access to their research facilities for undertaking my research projects. Moreover, I would like to thank Claudia Babic, Martina Centazo, Rossella Aversa, Roberta Ferranti, Paola Mistron, and all other staff members of TASC-INFM for helping during my stay and work.
I am very grateful to The Abdul Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) and The Emerging Nations Science Foundation (ENSF), Trieste, Italy for the financial support of my PhD research work. Many thanks to Maryam, secretary of the program of training and research at
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Italian Laboratory (TRIL) for helping me in all matters related to administration. I am also very thankful to Prof. Tahir Shah, founding director of ENSF for his kind support and help.
I am very grateful to Prof. Dr. Zahid Hussain, who provided me with the opportunity to receive training on various photoemission beam lines at Advanced Light Sources (ALS), Berkeley, UAS. Therefore, I was able to conduct photoemission experiments at beam line 9.3.2 presented in one of the chapters of my dissertation. I also express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Hendrik Bluhm and Dr. Ethan J. Crumlin for involving me in various research projects and for providing the beam time for photoemission experiments. I also extend my thanks to the supporting staff of ALS management for helping me during my stay at Berkeley.
I would also like to thank the Dr. Laura Andolfi for providing the detailed training on scanning electron microscopy (SEM) due to which I was able to handle the SEM independently for receiving the part of data presented in this thesis.
I am highly obliged to Prof. Khurshid Hasanain for his unconditional support and invaluable suggestions for improving the thesis chapters.
I want to express my special gratitude to the late Prof. Riazuddin for his suggestions and help throughout my career.
I owe bundle of thanks to my sincere friend Kamran Khursheed for his categorical support for completion of my PhD thesis. I am very humble to say that I can’t forget his soft and kind behaviour whenever I asked him for help.
I owe a big thank to Prof. Aslam Baig for his support and sparing the time for the busy schedule to help me by reading thesis chapters to improve the quality at initial stage and for providing the valuable suggestions.
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I am highly grateful to my dear friend Dr. Abdullah for his encouraging and supportive behaviour. He never refused to help me whenever I asked him under any circumstances.
Many thanks to Prof. Hamid Saleem (Ex-DG NCP) and Prof. Hafeez Hoorani (Current GD NCP) for their institutional and moral support for the completion of my PhD work.
I am also very thankful to Dr. Sara Qaisar, Director for Nanosciences and Technology Department, National Centre for Physics, Quaid-i-Azam University Campus, Islamabad for her kind support and help.
I am also very thankful to my lab fellow Sunil Bhardwaj, for valuable scientific discussions at different occasions and for helping me in completing my research projects.
I am very thankful to my friends, Rafiullah, Farhan, Hussain, Mattia Vikas, Manvendra, Nouman, Fakhar-Ul-Inam and Sandeep, for spending the unforgettable time especially during the weekends.
Last but not least, my immense thanks to my family, my father and mother who always stood by me through thick and thin in my life. They always wished for me a progressive career and their prayers are always with me. Particular the courageous and honest attitude of my father has always been the source of confidence and inspiration for me. I am greatly thankful to my beloved wife Noor-ul-Sahar, who takes care of our children Huzaifa, Fatima and Ahmad with a lot of responsibility and makes me free to accomplish my goals. She constantly inspires me to achieve everything in the world that I want. I am also very thankful to my father-in-law and mother-in-law for their support and help all the time. I am also thankful to my brothers Afzal, Aslam, Anwar, Asif and sister Sobia for their moral support and help. I cannot forget to mention here the financial support of my elder brother Afzal at the initial stage of my career, to be honest without his support it was impossible for me to reach at this stage of my life. I owe thanks to my brother-in-law Asad, Saad and sisters-in-law Amna and Ayesha for their best
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wishes and kind support. Remarkable appreciations to my dearest nephews, Talha, Ali, Abubakar, Abuzar, Umar and nieces Amna, Mnahil, Maryam for their beautiful smiles and acts.
