Formation and Understanding of Highly-Controlled 2- and 3-Dimensional Nanoarchitectures
Date
2018
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The controlled covalent attachment of nanostructures to chemically-modified surfaces is necessary for the fabrication of devices for diverse applications including chemical and biological sensing, catalysis, microfluidics, photovoltaics, and spintronics. Just as important as understanding the bonding processes taking place, is the knowledge of how the procedural processes affect the resulting structure. The work outlined in this dissertation focuses on identifying and characterizing the chemical interactions taking place during the coupling of molecular- and nanometer-scale structures to amine- and azide-modified solid substrates. Furthermore, these studies address the importance of tailoring the fabrication process to result in highly-controlled architectures. The emphasis is placed on maintaining control over surface coverage, film thickness, and adsorbate placement. The morphology of the resulting structures is studied using various microscopic techniques and characterization of the attachment chemistry is carried out by utilizing a number of spectroscopic methods. Computational investigations augment the conclusions drawn from the spectroscopic results and provide evidence supporting the newfound understanding of the processes of attachment and their effects on the resulting material.