This dissertation describes galvanic exchange of silver (Ag) nanostructures with PdCl42- in 1) various PdCl42- concentrations, 2) the presence of 0.1 M cetyitrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), and 3) the presence of 0.1 M potassium bromide (KBr). It...
This dissertation describes new procedures for synthesizing and purifying Au and Au/Ag nanoplates directly on surfaces as well as controlled binding of proteins to their surface. It also describes fundamental changes in the optical properties of Au...
The research in this dissertation describes a simple electrochemical approach for fabricating nanoscale (metal/metal) or molecular (metal/polymer or self assembled monolayer (SAM)/metal) junctions. The fabrication involves metal deposition on one...
In this dissertation, standardized methods for measuring electron emission (EE) from nanostructured materials are established. Design of an emitter array platform, synthesis and nanomanipulation of different types of are successfully conducted....
This dissertation describes (1) size-dependent electrochemical oxidation/stripping of gold and silver nanoparticles (NPs), (2) alloying of copper with gold nanoparticles at underpotential deposition potentials, (3) electrochemical characterization...
Crystalline beta-Ga2O3 nanowires with two distinct morphologies have been synthesized through simple physical evaporation of Te doped GaAs powder in argon atmosphere. The structure of the nanowires was characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, EDX, and raman...
Liquid gallium (Ga) spontaneously alloys with thin films of metals such as Ag, Au, Pt Al, and Cu at near or even below room temperature resulting in rapid self-assembly of nanostructures. In this dissertation, studies of the formation of these...
More than 50% of the total energy produced is typically rejected in the form of waste heat from various processes. The grand challenge is that most of this waste heat is released at temperatures much lower than 1000 C, which makes it difficult to...
This dissertation demonstrates an elegant method, known as 'micro-origami' or strain architecture to design and fabricate three-dimensional MEMS structures which are assembled using actuation of a metal-oxide bilayer with conventional planar...
Cerium dioxide or ceria, CeO2, has been widely used in industry as catalyst for automotive exhaust controls, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) slurries, and high temperature fuel cells because of its unique metal oxide properties. This well-known...
The motivation to determine a viable alternative to petroleum based energy has risen in recent years due to increased greenhouse gas emissions, environmental pollution, and the fear of exhausting oil and natural gas reserves. Biodiesel derived from...
Understanding the nucleation and early stage growth of crystals from the vapor phase is important for realizing large-area single-crystal quality films, controlled synthesis of nanocrystals, and the possible discovery of new phases of materials....
Nanoscience is not about products becoming smaller and smaller, but about new material properties being exploited for new and enhanced product applications. Liquid crystalline materials are one branch of "nanomaterials" that has promise...
Iron oxide, Fe2O3, is a promising material for water splitting reaction using solar
energy due to its stability and optimal bandgap of 2 eV. Even the recent efforts, however,
using Fe2O3 thin film materials reported low efficiencies due to poor...
Hematite synthesized by low pressure oxygen plasma has been shown previously to exhibit promising characteristics as a photo-anode for a photoelectrochemical water splitting cell. It is cheap, stable and has a 2.1 eV bandgap and exhibits a...
We have measured the temperature-dependent thermal conductivity, K(T) of single walled carbon nanotubes from 300 K to 8 K by 3w methods. K(T) exhibits linear temperature dependence in the entire temperature range. Our results are in good agreement...
In this thesis self-assembled growth of Ag2Ga nano-needles on batch fabricated
micro-grippers are reported. The room temperature growth of Ag2Ga nano-needles have
been recently developed as stylus for Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Integration...
The future of renewable energy technologies involves overcoming difficulties
with the creation of new materials. The use of nanotechnology has allowed for
inexpensive materials to achieve very interesting physical and electronic properties....
Most of the structures in submillimeter-scale engineering are created from thin films, making them essentially two-dimensional (2D). Significant work has been done to fabricate 3D structures using self-folding, a deterministic form of...
