Spray Synthesis of Shape-Defined Nanocrystals

在固态和材料化学计划的支持下，该项目提供了新的合成方法，这些方法可以预测地操纵，以产生成分和结构可控的材料。这种控制使材料的性能在太阳能转换和催化应用中得到增强。合成工具包的这种扩展是通过将新的化学方法与气溶胶技术超声喷雾合成相结合实现的，该技术提供了一条可扩展的固体路线。首席研究员和她的学生开发这些方法来实现用于能源应用的新材料，目的是阐明能够有效利用光来驱动化学反应的材料的合成和设计标准。最终，这项研究通过高影响力的出版物和演示文稿传播新知识，在纳米/无机/固态化学、凝聚态物理、化学工程和材料科学等学科之间建立联系。这项研究还通过多学科研究和推广活动加强了科学培训。技术摘要具体地说，通过用气溶胶液滴在空间和时间上限制熔盐合成，晶体生长可以限制在纳米级。该项目证明，气溶胶液滴内达到的过饱和条件可以被操纵来获得不同形状的纳米晶体。这种能力被用来通过气溶胶辅助熔盐合成制备的纳米模板的局部定向转化来合成用于光催化应用的形状限定的金属氧氮化物纳米晶。这种能力也被用来通过气溶胶辅助熔盐合成来合成形状可控的层状双氢氧化物纳米催化剂。该项目使超声喷雾合成成为一种通用和连续的先进纳米材料的途径，并为受限纳米材料合成和熔盐合成带来了新的前景。

Non-technical AbstractWith the support of the Solid State and Materials Chemistry program, this project provides new synthetic methods that can be predictably manipulated to yield materials with controllable composition and structure. This control allows the properties of materials to be enhanced for applications in solar energy conversion and catalysis. This expansion of the synthetic toolkit is achieved in this project by integrating new chemical methods with the aerosol technique ultrasonic spray synthesis, which provides a scalable route to solids. The principal investigator and her students develop these methods to achieve new materials for energy applications, with the goal being the elucidation of criteria for the synthesis and design of materials with the ability to use light efficiently to drive chemical reactions. Ultimately, this research forges links between disciplines that include nano/inorganic/solid-state chemistry, condensed matter physics, chemical engineering and materials science by distributing new knowledge through high-impact publications and presentations. This research also enhances scientific training through multidisciplinary research and outreach activities.Technical AbstractSpecifically, by spatially and temporally confining molten salt syntheses with aerosol droplets, crystal growth can be limited to the nanoscale. This project demonstrates that the supersaturation conditions achieved within the aerosol droplets can be manipulated to achieve nanocrystals with different shapes. This ability is being used to synthesize shape-defined metal oxynitride nanocrystals for photocatalytic applications by topotactic conversion of nanoscale templates prepared by aerosol-assisted molten salt synthesis. This ability is also being used to synthesize shape-controlled layered double hydroxide nanocatalysts by aerosol-assisted molten salt syntheses. This project is enabling ultrasonic spray synthesis to emerge as a general and continuous route to advanced nanomaterials and brings new perspective to both confined nanomaterial syntheses and molten salt syntheses.