NER: Multifunctional Magnetic Nanoparticles for Materials and Bio-Science Applications

这项活动的智力优势：这项为期一年的提案涉及核/壳结构纳米颗粒的合成和表征，这为实现具有新功能的先进材料提供了一个平台。这项纳米规模的探索性研究项目旨在创造和表征这种异质结构的纳米粒子，并对其生长机理和在材料和生物科学中的应用获得基本的了解。这些核/壳结构的材料将包括用于生物传感的铁/金纳米粒子和用于信息存储的硬/软纳米磁体。这些化合物的表征将包括通过X射线衍射、扫描电子显微镜、透射电子显微镜、高分辨电子显微镜、扫描电子显微镜、磁学、电输运、穆斯堡尔谱学和磁共振弛豫研究来确定结构。这项研究的目标是阐明核/壳形成的机制，并能够将这一知识应用于其他先进材料，如交换耦合的硬/软纳米颗粒，这将是NSF NIRT完整提案的主题。拟议活动产生的广泛影响：这里描述的跨学科项目旨在为研究生和本科生提供有关纳米颗粒合成、表征和应用方面的重要问题的广泛培训。该项目为研究人工结构材料提供了独特的机会，这些材料具有重要的技术价值，在磁成像、磁记录、靶向药物输送、纳米驱动、能量收集等方面具有潜在应用。该研究计划包括化学、物理、生物学和工程学等学科之间的合作，并利用国家的电子显微镜和X射线衍射设施。这项研究的精选部分也将在暑假期间提供给参加MURRPS、REU和美国化学学会SEED计划的学生，以及高中教师。这项NER提案主要关注纳米级器件和系统架构。

Intellectual merits of the activity: This one year proposal is concerned with the synthesis and characterization of core/shell structured nanoparticles, which provide a platform for achieving advanced materials with new functionality. This nanoscale exploratory research project aims at creating and characterizing such heterostructured nanoparticles, and gaining fundamental understanding for their growth mechanisms and applications in materials and biosciences.These core/shell-structured materials will include iron/gold nanoparticles for biosensing applications and hard/soft nanomagnets for information storage. Characterization of these compounds will include structure determination by x-ray diffraction, SEM, TEM, HRTEM, STEM, magnetometry, electrical transport, Mossbauer spectroscopy, and magnetic resonance relaxivity studies. The goals of this study are to elucidate the mechanism for core/shell formation and to be able to apply that knowledge to other advanced materials such as exchange coupled hard/soft nanoparticles, which will be the subject of a full NSF NIRT proposal.Broader impacts resulting from the proposed activity: The interdisciplinary projects described herein are designed to provide a broad training for graduate and undergraduate students in important problems in nanoparticle synthesis, characterization, and applications. The project provides unique opportunities to study artificially structured materials that are technologically important, with potential applications in magnetic imaging, magnetic recording, targeted drug delivery, nanoscale actuation, energy harvesting, etc. This research program includes collaboration between disciplines such as chemistry, physics, biology and engineering and utilizes national facilities for electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction. Selected parts of this research will also be provided to students affiliated with MURRPS, REU, and American Chemical Society SEED programs, as well as high school teachers during the summer.This NER proposal has a primary focus on Nanoscale Devices and System Architecture.