Rational Design and Processing of Multifunctional Nanocomposites

由聚合物基体和纳米颗粒组成的纳米复合材料提供了一个巨大的潜在材料性能的设计空间，这在很大程度上取决于两种组分的性能及其空间排列。复合材料从聚合物基体继承了良好的柔韧性和可加工性，并从纳米颗粒继承了理想的特征，如机械强度、独特的光学、电学或磁性，以及导电性和催化活性。更重要的是，由于纳米颗粒在聚合物基体中的强耦合效应和战略性排列，它们通常赋予新的性能。该奖项支持由多铁性核/壳纳米粒子和嵌段共聚物组成的多功能纳米复合材料的合理设计和加工的基础研究。这项研究将提高目前的理解，这些新的聚合物为基础的，多功能的纳米结构材料的结构与性能的关系。这些材料将用于先进的自旋电子学、电容器、致动器、换能器、电磁传感器和通信等设备。该研究项目将通过研究生、本科生、高中科学教师和高中生的参与，在多层次的学习体验中与纳米科学教育相结合。磁电多铁性在同一化合物中表现出磁序和电极化。它们被认为是下一代多功能材料。在这些材料中的铁电和铁磁顺序之间的强耦合呈现磁场诱导的电极化，并且相反地，呈现电场诱导的磁化。选择性地将多铁性核/壳纳米颗粒结合到所需的嵌段共聚物域中以产生具有长程分级有序的嵌段共聚物/多铁性纳米颗粒多功能纳米复合材料的能力可以为开发具有受控介电常数和磁导率的小型化多功能电磁材料和器件开辟新的途径。本研究旨在合理设计和加工具有长程有序结构的多功能纳米复合材料。该研究团队将设计和工程师单分散的多铁性纳米颗粒与聚合物表面，通过将多铁性核/壳纳米颗粒纳入嵌段共聚物的目标嵌段来加工多铁性纳米复合材料，并探索纳米复合材料的铁电和铁磁性能。

Nanocomposites composed of polymer matrix and nanoparticles offer a vast design-space of potential material properties, depending greatly on the properties of the two constituents and their spatial arrangement. Composites inherit good flexibility and processability from the polymer matrix and desirable features such as mechanical strength, unique optical, electrical, or magnetic properties, as well as conductivity and catalytic activity from nanoparticles. More importantly, they often impart new properties due to the strong coupling effect and strategic arrangement of the nanoparticles in the polymer matrix. This award supports fundamental research on rational design and processing of multifunctional nanocomposites composed of multiferroic core/shell nanoparticles and block copolymers. This research will enhance the current understanding of the structure-property relationships for these novel polymer-based, multifunctional nanostructured materials. These materials will be used in devices for applications such as advanced spintronics, capacitors, actuators, transducers, electromagnetic sensors and communication. The research project will be integrated with nanoscience education through the involvement of graduate students, undergraduate students, high school science teachers, and high school students in a multilevel learning experience.Magnetoelectric multiferroics exhibit both magnetic order and electrical polarization in the same compound. They are recognized as next generation multifunctional materials. The strong coupling between the ferroelectric and ferromagnetic orders in these materials renders a magnetic field-induced electrical polarization, and conversely, an electric field-induced magnetization. The ability to selectively incorporate multiferroic core/shell nanoparticles into the desired block copolymer domains to yield block copolymer/multiferroic nanoparticle multifunctional nanocomposites with long-range hierarchical order may open up a new avenue for developing miniaturized multifunctional electromagnetic materials and devices with controlled dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability. This research aims to rationally design and process multifunctional nanocomposites with long-range hierarchical order. The research team will design and engineer monodisperse multiferroic nanoparticles tethered with polymers on the surface, process multiferroic nanocomposites via incorporating multiferroic core/shell nanoparticles within the target block of block copolymer, and explore the ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties of nanocomposites.