September 28, 2023 4:00 pm
September 28, 2023 5:30 pm
Functional Hybird Nanomaterials
Uli Wiesner
Spencer T. Olin Professor of Engineering
Cornell University
This presentation discusses the formation, characterization, and properties of functional nanostructured hybrid materials derived from assembly of polymers and inorganic materials precursors. The emphasis will be on the development of wet chemical methodologies towards controlled nanostructure formation resulting in specific functions. In part, experiments will be compared to theoretical predictions to provide physical insights into formation principles and specific properties. The aim of the described work is to understand the underlying fundamental chemical, thermodynamic and kinetic formation principles as well as nanostructure-property correlations enabling generalization of results over a wide class of nanomaterials systems. The talk will start with the formation, characterization, and properties of a class of ultrasmall fluorescent core-shell silica nanoparticles now referred to as Cornell dots, or simply C dots, for applications in oncology. Discussion will then move to block copolymer self-assembly directed nanomaterials and porous solids. Work will cover structure formation at or close to the thermodynamic equilibrium as well as approaches where systems are systematically driven away from equilibrium. Examples will include block copolymer self-assembly directed gyroidal mesoporous carbons for the realization of three-dimensional (3D) battery architectures, shape control of hierarchical porous all-organic thin films via transient laser heating and their conversion into 3D periodic mesoporous semiconductors, as well as block copolymer self-assembly directed quantum metamaterials, e.g., in the form of gyroidal mesoporous superconductors.