Lamellar Inorganic Solids as Building Blocks for Functional Materials

无机化学、生物无机化学和金属有机化学项目的这一研究奖支持宾夕法尼亚州立大学的Thomas Mallouk教授开展关于新型层状金属氧化物的合成、反应化学和物理性质的基础研究。由于插层、离子交换和剥离/重新堆积反应的可用性，这类无机材料适合进行合理的设计。氧化物纳米片的定向附着反应将被开发，以实现具有定制的磁性和电学性质的三维结合固体。新的拓扑化学反应将被用来引入掺杂和缺陷，这将调制层状固体和由它们衍生的薄膜超晶格的电子和质子电导。定向粒子膜将纳米和微晶的磁取向与凝胶组装相结合，可作为中温燃料电池的固体电解质。这项研究将与一个外展活动相结合，通过一个向上跳跃的数学和科学暑期项目，为来自代表不足群体的高中生提供纳米材料化学的实践经验。该项目将继续为宾夕法尼亚州立大学普通化学实验室以材料和环境为重点的部分开发指导性探究项目，并将为当地学校的K-12科学推广工作做出贡献。层状金属氧化物是一类具有独特的铁电、磁性、超导和催化性质的无机固体。对它们的化学研究对于实现铁电性和磁性相结合的新型功能材料，以及开发它们在催化和能量转换方面的应用具有重要意义。

This Research award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry program supports work by Professor Thomas Mallouk at The Pennsylvania State University to carry out fundamental studies on the synthesis, reaction chemistry, and physical properties of new layered metal oxides. This class of inorganic materials lends itself to rational design because of the availability of intercalation, ion-exchange, and exfoliation/re-stacking reactions. Oriented attachment reactions of oxide nanosheets will be developed to realize three-dimensionally bonded solids with tailored magnetic and electronic properties. New topochemical reactions will be used to introduce dopants and defects, which will modulate the electronic and protonic conductivity of layered solids and thin film superlattices derived from them. Oriented particle membranes, which are of interest as solid electrolytes for intermediate temperature fuel cells, will be made by combining the magnetic orientation of nano- and microcrystals with electrophoretic assembly. This research will be coupled to an outreach effort that provides high school students from under-represented groups with hands-on experience in nanomaterials chemistry through an Upward Bound Math and Science summer program. The project will continue to develop guided-inquiry capstone projects for the materials- and environmentally-focused sections of the general chemistry laboratory at Penn State, and will contribute to K-12 science outreach efforts in local schools. Layered metal oxides are a class of inorganic solids with unique ferroelectric, magnetic, superconducting, and catalytic properties. The elaboration of their chemistry is important to realizing new functional materials that combine, for example, ferroelectricity and magnetism, and to exploiting their reactivity for applications in catalysis and energy conversion.