Complex Nanostructures by Supercritical Fluid Electrodeposition

你有没有想过为什么水蒸气可以从你的Gortex(TM)防水夹克中排出，而雨水却无法进入？这是因为Gortex(TM)含有非常小的气孔，蒸汽可以穿透，但液体不能。同样，从液体中将材料电镀(也称为电沉积)到直径小于几十个原子的孔中是非常困难的，如果不是不可能的话。然而，使用超临界流体的极端穿透能力(温度和压力高于其临界点的物质，其行为类似气体)可以在这些极其微小的结构中进行电镀。这是一个非常令人兴奋的发展，因为所生产的纳米材料具有现有(更大规模)材料无法找到的特性。这就是该项目的主要目标--开发超临界流体电沉积作为一种技术，使高质量的金属、半导体和其他材料能够在二维和三维纳米结构模板内进行空间选择性电沉积。在这个项目中，我们将解决4个主要研究目标，它们将把超临界流体电沉积转变为一种真正令人兴奋的新的和工业上可行的沉积技术：(I)利用超临界流体独特的穿孔能力来展示在极纳米(&lt；2 nm)孔内沉积一系列材料，并建立减小孔径对沉积材料性能的影响；(Ii)允许充分利用超临界流体可用的大电化学窗口，以使极具活性的材料能够沉积，如硅和稀土金属(稀土)；(Iii)将超临界流体电沉积提高到更高的温度，并实现热-电化学混合沉积作为一种全新的材料沉积方法--能够生产发光质量的化合物半导体，例如用于电子设备；(Iv)实现外延生长--使用超临界电沉积，在特定取向上沉积材料的生长，产生纳米孔内包含的原子尖锐的异质结。这些目标中的任何一个的成功将代表着现有沉积技术的重大突破，将提高在其他目标领域取得成功的可能性，并将对许多需要纳米级材料沉积的应用产生重大影响。不太复杂的纳米材料已经被用于自清洁玻璃，并用作石化工业的化学催化剂。这个项目将开发超临界流体电沉积，以便它可以用于生产更复杂的纳米材料，用于计算机的超高密度存储器、卫星的微型推进器、能够收集声能的超高效微型机器，以生产嵌入人体的电子设备，这些电子设备不需要外部电源，还需要广泛的其他没有人梦想过的应用。为了实现这些雄心勃勃的目标，需要涉及几个关键贡献的多学科方法--电化学；超临界流体科学；合成化学；材料表征。我们独特的调查团队汇集了必要的补充和独特的技能和专业知识，以实现这些非常雄心勃勃的目标。

Have you ever wondered why water vapour can pass out through your Gortex(TM) waterproof jacket but the rain can't get in? It is because Gortex(TM) contains very small pores which vapours can penetrate but liquids cannot. Similarly, electroplating (also known as electrodeposition) of materials into pores with diameters smaller than a few tens of atoms is very difficult if not impossible from liquids. However, using the extreme penetrating power of supercritical fluids (substances at a temperature and pressure above their critical points which behave like gases) enables electroplating into these extremely small structures. This is a really exciting development since the nanomaterials that are produced have properties which cannot be found in existing (larger scale) materials. This is the primary objective of this project - to develop supercritical fluid electrodeposition as a technology to enable spatially selective electrodeposition of high quality metals, semiconductors and other materials inside two and three dimensional nanostructured templates. Within this project we will tackle 4 major research targets that will transform supercritical fluid electrodeposition into a really exciting new and industrially viable deposition technology: (i) exploit the unique pore penetrating ability of supercritical fluids to demonstrate deposition of a range of materials inside extreme nano-scale (< 2 nm) pores and establish the effect of reducing pore size on the properties of the deposited materials;(ii) allow the full exploitation of the large electrochemical windows available with supercritical fluids to enable the deposition of extremely reactive materials, such as silicon and lanthanide metals (rare earths);(iii) take supercritical fluid electrodeposition to much higher temperatures and realise hybrid thermo-electrochemical deposition as an entirely novel materials deposition method - enabling production of luminescent quality compound semiconductors e.g. for electronic devices;(iv) achieve epitaxial growth - the growth of a material deposited in a specific orientation, using supercritical electrodeposition, producing atomically sharp hetero-junctions contained inside the nanopores. Success with any one of these targets will represent a significant breakthrough beyond existing deposition technologies, will enhance the likelihood of success in the other target areas, and will have a major impact on many applications requiring materials deposition on a nano-scale. Less complex nanomaterials are already used in self-cleaning glass and as chemical catalysts for the petrochemical industry. This project will develop supercritical fluid electrodeposition so that it can be used to produce more complex nanomaterials for use in ultrahigh density memory for computers, micro thursters for satellites, ultra-efficient micro machines capable of harvesting sound energy to produce electronic gadgets for embedding in the human body which require no external power source and a huge range of other applications which no-one has yet dreamt of.To achieve these ambitious targets requires a multidisciplinary approach involving several key contributions - electrochemistry; supercritical fluid science; synthetic chemistry; materials characterisation. Our distinctive team of investigators brings together the necessary complementary and unique set of skills and expertise to realise these very ambitious targets.