Synthesis, Characterization, and Directed Assembly of Nanoparticles
Faculty Mentor(s)
Dr. Mary Anderson, Hope College
Document Type
Poster
Event Date
4-13-2012
Abstract
Nanoscience is the study of structures having at least one dimension that is less than 100 nm. Herein, these structures are fabricated by synthetic routes for specific single metal (i.e. Ag, In, Sn, Bi) and intermetallic (i.e. PtPb, InSn4) nanoparticles. In this work, a modified polyol process was utilized, which employs sonochemistry and chemical reduction both with and without the use of polymer stabilizer. The products of the syntheses were characterized using X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Functionalization of the nanoparticles with self-assembled monolayers was attempted using various organic ligands (i.e. phosphonic acids, alkanethiols), and the effects of this attempted surface modification was investigated using directed assembly via microcontact printing. Initial data indicates that the nanoparticles show selectivity with or without functionalization, possibly due to the effect of drying in the assembly process. In the future, the use of different solvents and methods for directed assembly will be investigated to optimize the procedure. It is an ultimate future goal to study the orthogonal assembly of nanoparticles and other nanostructures in order to construct greater hierarchical structures to be applied for use in areas such as medical diagnostics and solar power technologies.
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Comments
This research was supported by Hope College Chemistry Department Start-up funds.