Confined Inner-scroll Reactions for the Production of Hetero-Nanostructures

With support from the Macromolecular, Supramolecular ,and Nanochemistry (MSN) Program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor John B. Wiley at the University of New Orleans is studying chemical reactions in confined assemblies. Nanosheets can be viewed as very thin paper-like structures consisting of a few layers of atoms. Under certain conditions, these sheets can scroll to capture preformed atomic clusters (nanoparticles) where the combination of particles and scrolls is akin to peapods—nanoparticle “peas” within a nanoscroll “pods”. Such architectures are allowing Professor Wiley to transform the confined nanoparticles into unique structures and wires. The resulting nanostructures offer an important avenue to next generation electronic devices as well as materials for catalytic reactions, magnetics, energy storage devices, and environmental remediation. This research project is also providing advanced training in nanochemistry to graduate, undergraduate and high school students. Professor Wiley is also partnering with industry to provide internship opportunities to his students. This research project is advancing peapod nanocomposites by exploiting reactions within scrolled assemblies. Specific efforts are focusing on the modification of composition and structure of captured nanoparticles while developing methods for joining adjacent particles. These methodologies are important for the production of technologically-significant, heterostructured nanoparticles and nanowires. Advances may allow researchers to access much more intricate, highly tuned nanostructures, impacting next-generation electronic devices that exploit nanoscale heterojunctions based on metal-semiconductor, semiconductor-semiconductor, metal-metal oxide, and metal/semiconductor-magnetic contacts. Further, the nanopeapods themselves are of interest for their fundamental nanoparticle-nanoparticle interactions as well as for producing materials of technological importance in the areas of catalysis, plasmonics, magnetics, environmental remediation, and energy storage. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.