Microdevices based on nanoengineered porous thin film

在纳米科学和纳米技术这个新兴但已经非常广泛的领域中，一个中心目标是理解并最终控制纳米尺度上材料的结构和特性。该研究项目将研究具有纳米级特征的材料的结构和性能，以期在传感器和催化等微设备中应用，并从长远来看，探索生物医学设备和能量存储和转换的潜在应用。近年来，该研究人员及其合作者的工作为这些研究奠定了一些基础，并且是一个持续的话题。这项工作表明，通过将新型纳米多孔薄膜材料与化学功能化技术相结合，可以实现对结构和表面性能的高度控制。薄膜沉积过程对这些纳米结构材料的形貌的控制水平与它应该可以将几乎任何所需的化学官能团附着在表面这一事实相辅相成。这将允许衍生材料在结构和化学上进行调整，以适应特定的应用。例如，基于多孔膜的光学滤光片需要对湿度变化脱敏，以获得最佳的环境稳定性。另一方面，如果我们想要制造集成湿度传感器，我们需要提高设备对水蒸气的灵敏度。通过对形貌和表面化学的控制，我们将能够更好地实现我们的功能纳米材料和器件的目标。

One central goal in the emerging, but already very broad, field of nanoscience and nanotechnology is the desire to understand, and eventually control, the structure and properties of materials at the nanometre size scale.  This research program will investigate structure and properties of materials with nano-scale features, with a view to applications in micro-devices such as sensors and catalysis, and in the longer term, exploring potential applications for biomedical devices and energy storage and conversion.  Work by this researcher and his collaborators has laid some of the groundwork for these studies in recent years and is an ongoing topic of interest.  This work has shown that by combining novel, nano-porous thin film materials with chemical functionalisation techniques, a high degree of control over both structural and surface properties can be achieved. The level of control afforded by the thin film deposition process over the morphology of these nanostructured materials is complemented by the fact that it should be possible to attach nearly any desired chemical functional group to the surface.  This will allow the derivatised material to be tuned both structurally and chemically to the specific application.  For instance, an optical filter based on our porous films needs to be desensitised to changes in humidity for optimal environmental stability.  On the other hand, if we want to create integrated humidity sensors, we need to improve the sensitivity of the device toward water vapour.  With control over both morphology and surface chemistry, we will be better able to accomplish our goals of functional nano-materials and devices.