Nonaqueous Sol-Gel and Colloid Chemistry of Microporous Manganese Oxides

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The Advanced Materials Program in the Chemistry Division makes this award to Connecticut College to develop non-aqueous routes for the synthesis of microporous manganese oxides with layered and tunneled structures using sol-gel and colloid precursors. With this award, Professor Ching will prepare manganese oxide thin films and aerogels using non-aqueous sol-gel reactions between tetraalkylammonium permanganates and methanol. High surface area aerogels will be prepared without the solvent exchange steps needed with aqueous gels. In addition, these layered and tunneled materials will accommodate a wide range of interstitial cations. The growth of manganese oxide particles in colloidal and sol-gel environments will be studied in terms of their size distribution using dynamic light scattering under a number of reaction conditions such as time, temperature, concentration, reactant ratio, and mechanical agitation. These studies in concert with other proposed characterization techniques will be used to establish procedures to prepare manganese oxides with predetermined properties such as crystallinity, particle size, and morphology. Manganese oxide thin films and aerogels that will be prepared in this study are expected to have high surface area, and will accommodate a wide range of interstitial cations for potential applications in catalysis and lithium ion rechargeable batteries. The proposed studies, in addition, will provide undergraduate students with comprehensive hands-on experience in research, and the project has the potential to attract more students to careers in science.