Complex Nanostructures by Supercritical Fluid Electrodeposition

你有没有想过为什么水蒸气可以通过你的Gortex（TM）防水夹克，但雨水不能进入？这是因为Gortex（TM）含有非常小的孔隙，蒸汽可以渗透，但液体不能。类似地，将材料电镀（也称为电沉积）到直径小于几十个原子的孔中是非常困难的，如果不是不可能的话。然而，使用超临界流体（温度和压力高于其临界点的物质，表现得像气体）的极端渗透能力使电镀能够进入这些极小的结构。这是一个非常令人兴奋的发展，因为所生产的纳米材料具有在现有（大规模）材料中找不到的特性。这是该项目的主要目标-开发超临界流体电沉积作为一种技术，使高质量的金属，半导体和其他材料在二维和三维纳米结构模板内的空间选择性电沉积。在这个项目中，我们将解决4个主要的研究目标，将超临界流体电沉积转化为一个真正令人兴奋的新的和工业上可行的沉积技术：（i）利用超临界流体独特的孔隙渗透能力，以证明极端纳米尺度（< 2 nm）孔隙内的一系列材料的沉积，并建立减小孔径对沉积材料性能的影响;（ii）允许充分利用超临界流体可获得的大电化学窗口，以使得能够沉积极端反应性的材料，例如硅和镧系金属（稀土）;（iii）使超临界流体电沉积达到更高的温度，并实现混合热电化学沉积作为一种全新的材料沉积方法-使得能够生产例如用于电子器件的发光质量的化合物半导体;（iv）实现外延生长-使用超临界电沉积以特定取向沉积的材料的生长，产生包含在纳米孔内的原子级尖锐的异质结。这些目标中的任何一个的成功都将代表超越现有沉积技术的重大突破，将提高在其他目标领域成功的可能性，并将对许多需要纳米级材料沉积的应用产生重大影响。不太复杂的纳米材料已经用于自清洁玻璃和石化工业的化学催化剂。这个项目将开发超临界流体电沉积，以便它可以用来生产更复杂的纳米材料，用于计算机的高密度存储器，卫星的微型助推器，超高效的微型机器，能够收集声能，生产电子产品，嵌入人体，不需要外部电源和大量的其他应用，为了实现这些雄心勃勃的目标，需要多学科的方法，包括几个关键的贡献-电化学;超临界流体科学;合成化学;材料表征。我们独特的调查团队汇集了必要的互补和独特的技能和专业知识，以实现这些雄心勃勃的目标。

Have you ever wondered why water vapour can pass out through your Gortex(TM) waterproof jacket but the rain can't get in? It is because Gortex(TM) contains very small pores which vapours can penetrate but liquids cannot. Similarly, electroplating (also known as electrodeposition) of materials into pores with diameters smaller than a few tens of atoms is very difficult if not impossible from liquids. However, using the extreme penetrating power of supercritical fluids (substances at a temperature and pressure above their critical points which behave like gases) enables electroplating into these extremely small structures. This is a really exciting development since the nanomaterials that are produced have properties which cannot be found in existing (larger scale) materials. This is the primary objective of this project - to develop supercritical fluid electrodeposition as a technology to enable spatially selective electrodeposition of high quality metals, semiconductors and other materials inside two and three dimensional nanostructured templates. Within this project we will tackle 4 major research targets that will transform supercritical fluid electrodeposition into a really exciting new and industrially viable deposition technology: (i) exploit the unique pore penetrating ability of supercritical fluids to demonstrate deposition of a range of materials inside extreme nano-scale (< 2 nm) pores and establish the effect of reducing pore size on the properties of the deposited materials;(ii) allow the full exploitation of the large electrochemical windows available with supercritical fluids to enable the deposition of extremely reactive materials, such as silicon and lanthanide metals (rare earths);(iii) take supercritical fluid electrodeposition to much higher temperatures and realise hybrid thermo-electrochemical deposition as an entirely novel materials deposition method - enabling production of luminescent quality compound semiconductors e.g. for electronic devices;(iv) achieve epitaxial growth - the growth of a material deposited in a specific orientation, using supercritical electrodeposition, producing atomically sharp hetero-junctions contained inside the nanopores. Success with any one of these targets will represent a significant breakthrough beyond existing deposition technologies, will enhance the likelihood of success in the other target areas, and will have a major impact on many applications requiring materials deposition on a nano-scale. Less complex nanomaterials are already used in self-cleaning glass and as chemical catalysts for the petrochemical industry. This project will develop supercritical fluid electrodeposition so that it can be used to produce more complex nanomaterials for use in ultrahigh density memory for computers, micro thursters for satellites, ultra-efficient micro machines capable of harvesting sound energy to produce electronic gadgets for embedding in the human body which require no external power source and a huge range of other applications which no-one has yet dreamt of.To achieve these ambitious targets requires a multidisciplinary approach involving several key contributions - electrochemistry; supercritical fluid science; synthetic chemistry; materials characterisation. Our distinctive team of investigators brings together the necessary complementary and unique set of skills and expertise to realise these very ambitious targets.