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

在化学系大分子、超分子和纳米化学项目的支持下，圣母大学的Svetlana Neretina博士将研究如何利用氧化物来控制金属纳米颗粒在具有空间配位的基底上的生长。对金属纳米颗粒生长机制的理解的改进有望导致纳米结构模板的新合成策略，可用于活性等离子体、纳米电子学和手性等离子体。Neretina博士积极参与了“建立桥梁指导计划”和“推进女性领袖计划”，以及一些专注于实验室内高中研究项目发展的外展计划。这些活动为Neretina博士和她的团队提供了机会，让学生积极参与标准课程通常未涵盖的领域。这项研究涉及一种液态种子介导化学的进步，用于合成芯片上的金属纳米结构，该结构对撞击氧化物施加的合成控制有反应。氧化物沿着确定的路径引导水平金纳米线生长轨迹，在遇到电极时自终止，将等离子体纳米结构限制在充满液体的氧化物胶囊中，其产生的迁移率使它们对外部施加的刺激作出反应，并在液体介质中选择性地反应。这种方法建立在传统化学控制的基础上，传统化学控制可以通过胶体合成和物理控制来实现，当生长的金属遇到牢固附着在基材表面的化学惰性氧化物屏障时，可以实现物理控制。通过利用氧化物的合成不活性和被动行为来施加空间位阻，这些位阻与纳米金属合成相关的自然趋势相反或受挫，研究团队寻求产生通常无法获得的反应产物。这项工作将利用一种合成策略的现有能力，在这种策略中，种子介导的胶体生长模式在衬底固定种子的周期性阵列上进行实践。总的来说，本研究旨在开发基于氧化物的溶液化学，其目标是形成具有定制纳米电子和纳米光子特性的纳米材料的有组织表面。将这种构造具有定制属性的有组织表面的方法简化为实践，可能会产生广泛的科学影响。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 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.