Adventurous Chemistry - A New Generation of Nanoarchitectured Surfaces

金属的电化学沉积，通常被称为电镀，已经使用了一个多世纪，一种金属在另一种金属上沉积薄的连续涂层，以达到装饰效果或改善结构的功能特性。日常生活中明显的例子是镀镍银（EPNS）中使用的餐具上的镀银，微电子领域电触点的镀金，首饰的电镀装饰效果，或者20世纪50年代美国汽车饰件的镀铬。在所有情况下，通过电流通过适当的金属盐溶液来沉积薄金属涂层。涂层的厚度由通过的电流量控制，而其性能（光滑度、附着力等）由所使用条件的选择控制。在这个研究项目中，我们想要探索一些使用电沉积涂层的全新方法，我们将其结构控制在1到100纳米的尺度上（1纳米是1米的10亿分之一，比人类头发的直径小7万倍）。为了做到这一点，我们将使用模板方法，模板控制金属薄膜内形成的规则孔隙阵列的大小和分布，或者使用我们使用极细的碳纳米管纤维指导沉积的技术。如果我们在这个尺度上控制金属膜的结构，我们就可以引入新的令人兴奋的特性，我们可以通过调整我们使用的模板结构来改变和调整这些特性。此外，电沉积方法仍然允许我们控制我们沉积的材料的厚度，我们仍然有非常广泛的金属可供选择，作为一个额外的好处，这种方法仍然是相当划算的。首先，我们已经确定了六个我们想要测试的新想法：-设计金属表面，使其对吸附在其表面的分子的存在非常敏感，因此可以通过分子内键的振动模式来研究这些分子；-沉积独特的金属结构，这些金属结构具有手性，因此它们不会与镜像重叠（比如你的一只手），这将产生具有一些非凡和新颖特性的金属；-将纳米轨迹写入表面，这一工艺可用于制造下一代计算机芯片；-在表面上制造微小金属点阵列，作为一系列清洁高效工艺的设计催化剂；-制造能感应声波并可用于产生声波的新装置；-创造一种新型的光学镜子，其特性可以通过通过纳米结构薄膜的电流来调节。

The electrochemical deposition of metals, often called electroplating has been used for over a century to deposit thin continuous coatings of one metal over another for decorative effect or to improve the functional properties of the structure. Obvious everyday examples are the electroplating of silver onto cutlery as used in electroplated nickel silver (EPNS), gold plating of electrical contacts in microelectronics, electroplating of jewellery for decorative effect or the chrome plating of the trim on 1950s American automobiles. In all cases the thin metal coating is deposited by passing a current through a solution of the appropriate metal salt. The thickness of the coating is controlled by the amount of current passed and the properties (smoothness, adherence, etc.) by the choice of the conditions used.In this research project we want to explore some totally new ways of using electrodeposited coatings where we control their structure on the one to one hundred nanometre scale (a nanometre is 1/1,000,000,000 of a metre; a seventy thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair). To do this we will use templating methods where the template controls the size and distribution of the arrays of regular pores created within the metal films or by using techniques where we guide the deposition using extremely fine carbon nanotube fibres. If we control the structures of the metal films on this scale we can introduce new and exciting properties which we can vary and tune by adjusting the template structure that we use. In addition, the electrodeposition method still allows us to control the thickness of the material that we deposit, we still have a very wide range of metals that we can choose from, and as an added bonus the method is still quite cost effective to implement.To start with we have identified six novel ideas that we want to test:- designing metal surfaces so that they are super sensitive to the presence of molecules adsorbed on their surfaces and so can be used to study these molecules through their pattern of vibration of the bonds within the molecule; - the deposition of unique metal structures which have a handedness so that they are not superimposable on their mirror image (like one of your hands), this should produce metals with some remarkable, and novel, properties;- writing nanotracks onto surfaces in a process that could be used to manufacture the next generation of computer chips;- making arrays of minute metal dots on surfaces as designer catalysts for a range of clean and efficient processes;- making novel devices which sense sound waves and can be used to generate sound waves;- creating a novel type of optical mirror whose properties can be tuned by passing a current through the nanostructured film.