Exploiting Water as a Functional Surface to Create Inorganic Thin Films

水面上的反应在自然界中无处不在，水分子的结构和水/空气界面的溶剂化过程提供了一个独特的环境，与气相或大量水中发生的反应相比，它加速了一系列反应。然而，利用水作为材料合成的功能表面的潜力仍然很少被探索。该项目将开发一种可持续的、可扩展的工艺，用于在水面上生成无机薄膜。以前合成无机薄膜的方法是利用固体底物和表面活性剂（如Langmuir单层膜）。然而，通常不可能将膜转移到替代底物上，在许多电子和催化应用中不需要表面活性剂，并且表征（例如TEM）可能具有挑战性。相反，水是不含表面活性剂的，具有柔韧性，并且在其表面形成的薄膜可以很容易地转移到任何选定的基底上。最初的工作将集中在一种重要的生物矿物CaCO3薄膜的形成上。该系统将进行详细的研究，其中薄膜的结构和形成机制将使用最先进的技术进行表征，包括时间分辨TEM和电子断层扫描，光谱方法，如EELS，以及原位掠掠角XRD和散射方法。然后，该项目将扩展到创建功能金属氢/氧化物（CoOOH, ZnO, MnO2）和多孔材料（mof）的薄膜，其中合成条件将得到优化，其结构将得到充分表征。最后，将确定这些薄膜在催化和气体吸收/分离等应用中的性能。因此，该博士项目通过结合合成、表征和性能测量，为以材料为中心的科学提供了出色的培训。

Reactions at water surfaces are ubiquitous in Nature, where the structuring of water molecules and solvation process at water/air interfaces offers a unique environment that accelerates a range of reactions in comparison to when they occur in the gas phase or bulk water. However, the potential of using water as a functional surface for materials synthesis remains little explored. This project will develop a sustainable and scalable process for generating inorganic thin films at the water surface. Previous methods of synthesising inorganic thin films have exploited solid substrates and surfactants (e.g. Langmuir monolayers). However, it is often impossible to transfer the films to alternative substrates, surfactants are undesirable in many electronic and catalytic applications, and characterisation (e.g. TEM) can be challenging. Water, in contrast, is surfactant-free, flexible, and the films formed at its surface can be readily transferred to any selected substrate. Initial work will focus on the formation of thin films of a biologically important mineral, CaCO3 thin films. This system will be investigated in detail, where the structures and mechanism of formation of the thin films will be characterised using state-of-art techniques including time-resolved TEM and electron tomography, spectroscopic methods such as EELS, and in situ grazing angle XRD and scattering methods. The project will then be expanded to create thin films of functional metal hydro/oxides (CoOOH, ZnO, MnO2) and porous materials (MOFs), where the synthesis conditions will be optimised, and their structures will be fully characterised. Finally, the properties of these thin films in applications such as catalysis and gas absorption/ separation will be determined. This PhD project therefore offers excellent training in materials-centred science by combining synthesis, characterisation and property measurement.