Chemistry of Nanoscale Inorganic Materials
The Mallouk group uses nanoscale assembly techniques to make complex materials with unusual properties or specific functions. Often these properties arise because the system is mesoscopic, meaning that the physical size of the object corresponds to some characteristic physical length, such as the wavelength of light, the coherence length of Cooper pairs in a superconductor, or the width of the depletion layer in a semiconductor liquid junction.
Overview of current research projects in the group
Solar Photochemistry and Photoelectrochemistry
An important goal of this aspect of our research is to develop new kinds of nanomaterials that will lead to more efficient and less expensive solar energy conversion devices. Dye-sensitized solar cells, developed over two decades ago by
Michael Gratzel and coworkers, can use the solar spectrum more efficiently when they are coupled to nanostructures that trap visible light or selectively re-direct infrared light to a silicon solar cell. In a collaborative project with the
Lakhtakia and
Mayer groups, we are now exploring solar cell designs that combine plasmonic (metal) nanostructures and periodic dielectrics (photonic crystals) to control the flow of light. By incorporating nanoparticles that catalyze water oxidation into dye sensitized solar cells, it is possible to split water to hydrogen and oxygen using visible light. We use biomimetic principles to control electron and proton transfer reactions in these cells and transient spectroscopic techniques to measure their kinetics.
Nanowires
Several projects in the group use porous membranes as templates for growing nanowires and nanorods. Multi-segment nanowires have interesting electronic properties, such as transistor and diode behavior and in some cases unusual low temperature transport properties. As part of the Penn State MRSEC, we are studying quasi-1D superconductivity in nanowires in collaboration with physicists
Moses Chan,
Jainendra Jain, and
Nitin Samarth. In collaboration with the
Sen,
Velegol,
Crespi groups, we are studying the movement of multi-segment nanorods powered by spontaneous catalytic reactions. These nanorods were the first examples, outside of biological systems, of autonomously powered nano- and micromotors. In many ways, they resemble living microbial motors and exhibit similar kinds of collective behavior. The principles of catalytically driven movement have now been used to design microscale pumps and rotors, and to study the powered motion of individual enzyme molecules.
Functional Inorganic Layered Materials
We are developing a set of soft chemical reactions that topochemically interconvert different structural families of layered and three-dimensional perovskites. Layered perovskites, metal phosphates, clays, and other lamellar solids can be grown layer-by-layer and converted to other interesting nanoscale morphologies (such as nano-scrolls and tubes) by means of intercalation, exfoliation, and restacking reactions. These materials are of particular interest to us novel low-dimensional electronic conductors, as catalyst supports, as electrode materials for batteries, and as ionic conductors in intermediate temperature fuel cells.
In-Situ Remediation of Contaminants in Soil and Groundwater Using Nanoscale Reagents
Layer-by-layer assembly on nanoparticle surfaces is being studied as a means of controlling core-shell structure and particle aggregation for optimized sub-surface transport, targeting of insoluble contaminants, and concentration of soluble contaminants at the reactive nanoparticle surface.
