Fabrication and characterization of functional metallic and mixed metal - semiconductor nanocrystal aerogels

近几十年来，纳米粒子形式的物质受到了相当大的关注，因为随着材料从原子尺度演化到分子和接近延伸的固体，显示出迷人的性质。这些“大小可调”属性有可能对许多有趣的开发和应用领域产生影响。但是，纳米世界与宏观尺度材料的结合，在保持纳米尺度特性的同时，易于操纵和加工，仍然是一个有待克服的挑战。气凝胶最近被证明提供了这样的机会。因此，本项目旨在阐明基于纳米颗粒衍生气凝胶的一类材料的潜力。这些材料将由胶体溶液中的各种金属和半导体纳米颗粒制成。正在形成的气凝胶是极轻、高度多孔的固体，已被证明具有它们所组成的纳米级物体的重要性质，而不仅仅是相应的块状固体的性质。所得到的气凝胶材料将根据其形态和组成进行表征，并根据纳米组分的固有电子性质来考察其所产生的性质。利用在该项目中获得的知识，将对气凝胶材料进行进一步的再加工，以改善其与光学传感和催化应用相关的性能。

Matter in its nanoparticulate form has gained considerable attention in recent decades due to the fascinating properties exhibited as materials evolve from the atomic scale, through the molecular and approach the extended solid. These “size tunable” properties have the potential to impact on many interesting areas of development and applications. But the marriage of the nanoscale world with that of materials of macro dimensions which can be easily manipulated and processed, whilst maintaining the nanoscale properties, is still a challenge to be surmounted. Aerogels have recently been demonstrated to provide such an opportunity. This project therefore aims at the elucidation of the potential of the class of materials based on nanoparticle derived aerogels. These materials will be produced from a variety of metal and semiconductor nanoparticles available in colloidal solutions. The evolving aerogels are extremely light, highly porous solids and have been demonstrated to possess the important properties of the nanosized objects they consist of instead of simply those of the respective bulk solids. The resulting aerogel materials will be characterized with respect to their morphology and composition and their resulting properties examined in light of the inherent electronic nature of the nanosized constituents. Using the knowledge gained within the project the aerogel materials will be further re-processed in order to achieve improvements in their properties relevant to applications in optical sensing and catalysis.