Development and Application of Functional Hybrid Composite Materials

金属有机骨架（MOFs）和杂化有机无机钙钛矿（HOIP）都是近年来受到越来越多关注的一类杂化材料（含有有机和无机成分的材料）。从历史上看，对这些类型的材料的研究主要集中在它们的晶体形态上，直到最近，研究表明，它们的无定形和玻璃态也可以通过一系列方法获得，包括但不限于熔融淬火和机械化学方法。这些发现导致了一种新的玻璃材料的引入，即介于无机玻璃和有机玻璃之间的混合玻璃。虽然这些材料在定义上是无定形的，但研究表明，短程有序仍然可以保留，这表明晶体形式所具有的性质可能在结构转变过程中被保留下来。这个材料化学的新领域为气体储存和分离、催化和光学应用提供了可能的应用。虽然玻璃化学领域本身是多样化的，具有一系列的应用，但通过考虑玻璃与其他固态材料的复合材料，可以开发出更广泛和更多样化的材料范围。精心选择构成这些复合材料的组成部件的类型和数量，引入了很大程度的控制，随后能够定制潜在的化学成分和特定的材料特性，以更好地适应目标应用。本项目旨在研究基于杂化玻璃的复合材料的合成及其性能。通过创建各种复合材料，如玻璃陶瓷类似物和玻璃碳复合材料，将探索复合材料形成的性质和由此产生的材料性能。衍射技术和热分析方法，如粉末x射线衍射（PXRD）；差示扫描量热法；热重分析（TGA）将用于研究玻璃及其复合材料的初始形成。一旦形成，材料的整体特性将通过使用诸如气体吸收和压痕等技术来探测，目的是确定潜在的未来应用。

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and Hybrid organic inorganic perovskites (HOIP) are both classes of hybrid materials (materials containing both organic and inorganic components) which have had growing interest in recent years. Historically, work on these types of materials has primarily focussed on their crystalline forms, until recently, where studies have shown that their amorphous and glassy states can also be accessed through a range of methods including, but not limited to, melt-quenching and mechanochemical methods. These discoveries have led to the introduction of a new category of glass materials, hybrid glasses, which lie between the domains of both inorganic and organic glasses. Although these materials are amorphous by definition, studies have shown that short range order can still be retained suggesting that properties possessed by the crystalline forms may be carried over during the structure transformations. This new area of materials chemistry offers possible applications in gas storage and separation, catalysis and optical applications.Although the field of glass chemistry is diverse in itself with a range of applications, a wider and more varied range of materials can be developed by considering composites of glasses with other solid-state materials. Careful choice of the type and quantities of constituent parts which make up these composites introduces a great degree of control and subsequently the ability to tailor underlying chemistries and specific material properties to better suit targeted applications.The aim of this project is to study the synthesis and properties of composite materials based upon hybrid glasses. The nature of composite formation and resulting material properties will be explored by creating a diverse range of composite materials, such as glass ceramic analogues and glass-carbon composites. Diffraction techniques and thermo-analytical methods such as powder x-ray diffraction (PXRD); differential scanning calorimetry (DSC); and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) will be used to investigate the initial formation of the glasses and their composites. Once formed, the bulk properties of the materials will be probed by use of techniques such as gas sorption and indentation with an aim at identifying potential future applications.