Tailoring the Nanophotonic and Nanoelectronic Properties of Nanometals using Oxide-Directed Syntheses

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With the support of the Macromolecular, Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry Program in the Division of Chemistry, Dr. Svetlana Neretina of the University of Notre Dame will investigate how oxides can be used to control the growth of metal nanoparticles on substrates with spatial registration. Improvements in the understanding of metal nanoparticle growth mechanisms are expected to result in new synthetic strategies for nanostructure templating that could be exploited for applications in active plasmonics, nanoelectronics, and chiral plasmonics. Dr. Neretina is actively involved in the Building Bridges Mentoring Program and the Advancing Women Leaders Program as well several outreach initiatives that focus on the development of in-lab high school research projects. These activities open up opportunities for Dr. Neretina and her group to actively engage students in areas that are not typically covered in standard curricula.This research involves the advancement of a liquid-state seed-mediated chemistry for the syntheses of on-chip metal nanostructures that are responsive to the synthetic controls imposed by an impinging oxide. Oxides that steer horizontal Au nanowire growth trajectories along deterministic pathways that self-terminate upon an encounter with an electrode, confine plasmonic nanostructures within liquid-filled oxide capsules where their resulting mobility makes them responsive to externally applied stimuli, and selectively react in liquid media are exploited. This approach builds on traditional chemical controls that are accessible through colloidal syntheses and physical controls that are obtainable when a growing metal encounters a chemically inert oxide barrier that is firmly affixed to the substrate surface. By exploiting the synthetic inactivity and passive behavior of oxides to impose steric barriers that act in opposition to or frustrate the natural tendencies associated with nanometal syntheses, the research team seeks to produce reaction products that are typically unobtainable. The work will leverage existing capabilities stemming from a synthetic strategy in which seed-mediated colloidal growth modes are practiced on periodic arrays of substrate immobilized seeds. Overall, this research seeks to develop oxide-directed solution-based chemistry that targets the formation of organized surfaces of nanomaterials with tailored nanoelectronic and nanophotonic properties. Reduction to practice of such an approach to constructing organized surfaces with tailored properties would likely have broad scientific impact.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.