Confined Inner-scroll Reactions for the Production of Hetero-Nanostructures

在化学系大分子、超分子和纳米化学（MSN）项目的支持下，新奥尔良大学的John B. Wiley教授正在研究密闭组装中的化学反应。纳米片可以看作是由几层原子组成的非常薄的纸状结构。在一定条件下，这些薄片可以滚动以捕获预先形成的原子团簇（纳米颗粒），其中颗粒和卷轴的组合类似于豌豆——纳米颗粒“豌豆”在纳米卷轴“豆荚”中。这样的结构使威利教授能够将受限的纳米颗粒转化为独特的结构和导线。由此产生的纳米结构为下一代电子器件以及催化反应，磁性，能量存储设备和环境修复的材料提供了重要途径。该研究项目还为研究生、本科生和高中生提供纳米化学方面的高级培训。威利教授还与业界合作，为学生提供实习机会。这个研究项目是通过利用卷轴组件内的反应来推进豆荚纳米复合材料。具体的工作集中在修饰捕获的纳米粒子的组成和结构，同时开发连接相邻粒子的方法。这些方法对于生产具有重要技术意义的异质结构纳米颗粒和纳米线非常重要。研究进展可能会使研究人员获得更复杂、高度调谐的纳米结构，影响下一代电子设备，这些电子设备利用基于金属-半导体、半导体-半导体、金属-金属氧化物和金属/半导体-磁接触的纳米异质结。此外，纳米脚本身因其基本的纳米粒子-纳米粒子相互作用以及在催化、等离子体、磁学、环境修复和能量存储领域生产具有重要技术意义的材料而引起人们的兴趣。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With support from the Macromolecular, Supramolecular ,and Nanochemistry (MSN) Program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor John B. Wiley at the University of New Orleans is studying chemical reactions in confined assemblies. Nanosheets can be viewed as very thin paper-like structures consisting of a few layers of atoms. Under certain conditions, these sheets can scroll to capture preformed atomic clusters (nanoparticles) where the combination of particles and scrolls is akin to peapods—nanoparticle “peas” within a nanoscroll “pods”. Such architectures are allowing Professor Wiley to transform the confined nanoparticles into unique structures and wires. The resulting nanostructures offer an important avenue to next generation electronic devices as well as materials for catalytic reactions, magnetics, energy storage devices, and environmental remediation. This research project is also providing advanced training in nanochemistry to graduate, undergraduate and high school students. Professor Wiley is also partnering with industry to provide internship opportunities to his students.This research project is advancing peapod nanocomposites by exploiting reactions within scrolled assemblies. Specific efforts are focusing on the modification of composition and structure of captured nanoparticles while developing methods for joining adjacent particles. These methodologies are important for the production of technologically-significant, heterostructured nanoparticles and nanowires. Advances may allow researchers to access much more intricate, highly tuned nanostructures, impacting next-generation electronic devices that exploit nanoscale heterojunctions based on metal-semiconductor, semiconductor-semiconductor, metal-metal oxide, and metal/semiconductor-magnetic contacts. Further, the nanopeapods themselves are of interest for their fundamental nanoparticle-nanoparticle interactions as well as for producing materials of technological importance in the areas of catalysis, plasmonics, magnetics, environmental remediation, and energy storage.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.