Chemically Programmed Construction of Complex Inorganic Nanostructures

无机化学、生物无机化学和金属有机化学项目的这一研究奖支持宾夕法尼亚州立大学的Raymond Schaak教授将分子化学的概念应用于复杂的一维无机纳米结构的合成。通过开发一个化学反应文库，将一种类型的金属纳米结构转化为更复杂的结构，将有可能使用正交反应性、保护/去保护和特定位置修饰的概念，将全合成方法应用于无机纳米线的形成。这项研究将产生关于发生在纳米级固体上的无机反应的基本新知识，并将为合成具有目标特征的复杂纳米线奠定基础，这些特征包括组成梯度、均匀掺杂、核壳结构和复杂纳米线系统中的高结晶区。化学被设计得简单明了，使其广泛适用于不同的科学家和工程师群体，以便广泛使用。本科生研究人员将在这些化学反应的发展中发挥突出和积极的作用。化学和目标系统将作为关于科学伦理的公开论坛讨论的跳板，讨论将包括本科生、研究生、博士后和教职员工。在未来，这些结果将帮助研究人员设计下一代纳米材料，以推进纳米/微电子、热电制冷、超导互连、催化和机械驱动等各种应用。

This Research award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry program supports work by Professor Raymond Schaak at the Pennsylvania State University to apply concepts from molecular chemistry to the synthesis of complex one-dimensional inorganic nanostructures. By developing a library of chemical reactions that transform one type of metal nanostructure into a more complex one, it will be possible to apply a total synthesis approach to the formation of inorganic nanowires using the concepts of orthogonal reactivity, protection/deprotection, and site-specific modification. This research will generate fundamental new knowledge about inorganic reactions that occur on nanoscale solids and will lay the groundwork for the synthesis of complex nanowires with target features that include composition gradients, homogeneous dopants, core-shell structures, and highly-crystalline regions within complex nanowire systems. The chemistry is being designed to be simple and straightforward, making it broadly applicable to a diverse group of scientists and engineers for widespread utilization. Undergraduate researchers will play a prominent and active role in the development of these chemical reactions. The chemistry and target systems will serve as a springboard for open-forum discussions about scientific ethics that will include undergraduate students, graduate students, postdocs, and faculty. In the future, these results will help researchers design next-generation nanomaterials for advancing applications as diverse as nano/microelectronics, thermoelectric refrigeration, superconducting interconnects, catalysis, and mechanical actuation.