Global problems including energy conversion and storage, clean water and human health require increasingly complex, multi-component hybrid materials with unprecedented control over composition, structure, and order down to the nanoscale. In this talk the formation of hybrid functional nanomaterials is discussed from a combination of block copolymer self-assembly and inorganic nanoparticles. The emphasis will be on the development of wet chemical methodologies towards controlled nanostructures. Experiments will be compared to theoretical predictions to provide physical insights into formation principles and specific function. The aim of the described work is to understand the underlying fundamental chemical, thermodynamic and kinetic formation principles as well as nanostructure-property correlations enabling generalization of results over a wide class of materials systems.  Work will cover systems at or close to the thermodynamic equilibrium as well as approaches where systems are systematically driven away from equilibrium to achieve structure control otherwise impossible. Examples will include isoporous block copolymer-based membranes for ultrafiltration applications with graded pore structures, hierarchical porous polymer scaffolds from a combination of spinodal decomposition and microphase separation in block copolymer-organic additive mixtures, shape control of hierarchical porous all-organic thin films via transient laser heating and their conversion into 3D periodic mesoporous semiconductors, block copolymer self-assembly based mesoporous gyroidal superconductors, as well as block copolymer directed gyroidal mesoporous carbons for the realization of three-dimensional (3D) battery architectures.

Hybrid functional nanomaterials from controlled assembly of block copolymer and inorganic nanoparticles

2019 Spring National Meeting

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