Exploiting Water as a Functional Surface to Create Inorganic Thin Films

利用水作为功能表面来创建无机薄膜

• 批准号: 2882462
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Leeds
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2882462
• 关键词: Exploiting; Water; Functional; Surface; Create

Reactions at water surfaces are ubiquitous in Nature, where the structuring of water molecules and solvation process at water/air interfaces offers a unique environment that accelerates a range of reactions in comparison to when they occur in the gas phase or bulk water. However, the potential of using water as a functional surface for materials synthesis remains little explored. This project will develop a sustainable and scalable process for generating inorganic thin films at the water surface. Previous methods of synthesising inorganic thin films have exploited solid substrates and surfactants (e.g. Langmuir monolayers). However, it is often impossible to transfer the films to alternative substrates, surfactants are undesirable in many electronic and catalytic applications, and characterisation (e.g. TEM) can be challenging. Water, in contrast, is surfactant-free, flexible, and the films formed at its surface can be readily transferred to any selected substrate. Initial work will focus on the formation of thin films of a biologically important mineral, CaCO3 thin films. This system will be investigated in detail, where the structures and mechanism of formation of the thin films will be characterised using state-of-art techniques including time-resolved TEM and electron tomography, spectroscopic methods such as EELS, and in situ grazing angle XRD and scattering methods. The project will then be expanded to create thin films of functional metal hydro/oxides (CoOOH, ZnO, MnO2) and porous materials (MOFs), where the synthesis conditions will be optimised, and their structures will be fully characterised. Finally, the properties of these thin films in applications such as catalysis and gas absorption/ separation will be determined. This PhD project therefore offers excellent training in materials-centred science by combining synthesis, characterisation and property measurement.

水表面的反应在自然界中普遍存在，其中水分子的结构化和水/空气界面处的溶剂化过程提供了一种独特的环境，与它们在气相或本体水中发生时相比，该环境加速了一系列反应。然而，使用水作为材料合成的功能表面的潜力仍然很少探索。该项目将开发一种可持续和可扩展的工艺，用于在水面生成无机薄膜。先前合成无机薄膜的方法利用了固体基底和表面活性剂（例如朗缪尔单层）。然而，通常不可能将膜转移到替代基底上，表面活性剂在许多电子和催化应用中是不期望的，并且表征（例如TEM）可能具有挑战性。相比之下，水是无表面活性剂的，柔性的，并且在其表面形成的膜可以容易地转移到任何选定的基底上。初步工作将集中在形成薄膜的生物重要的矿物，碳酸钙薄膜。该系统将进行详细研究，其中的结构和薄膜的形成机制将使用国家的最先进的技术，包括时间分辨TEM和电子断层扫描，光谱方法，如EELS，并在原位掠角XRD和散射方法的特点。然后，该项目将扩大到制造功能性金属氢氧化物（CoOOH，ZnO，MnO 2）和多孔材料（MOFs）的薄膜，其中合成条件将得到优化，其结构将得到充分表征。最后，将确定这些薄膜在催化和气体吸收/分离等应用中的性能。因此，这个博士项目通过结合合成，表征和性能测量，提供了以材料为中心的科学的优秀培训。