Chemistry 8890, Nanomaterials: Engineering and Characterization

Fall Semester, 2012, Rm. 551, 12:30-1:45 PM, Tues., Thur.

Dr. Marcus D. Lay, mlay@uga.edu

Phone: 542-1985, Office 520

Office Hours: 1:45 - 2:45 Tuesday and Thursday and by appointment. Email is also a good way to contact me.

Course Content: Nanoscience is the study and manipulation of matter on an atomic and molecular level. At this scale, materials often exhibit new properties that do not exist in their large-scale counterparts because of the increased importance of surface area/ volume ratios and quantum effects. Therefore, the field of materials science has recently focused on the formation and characterization of “nanomaterials” for use in a wide array of new and enhanced electronic and structural components. Fundamental and applied research in nanomaterials is an area of active research that will yield many new discoveries in the near future.

Nanoscience is an interdisciplinary field, as it involves research at the interface between chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering. Therefore, although the structure of this course assumes an undergraduate-level understanding of chemistry and physics, it is intended as an introduction to nanomaterials and no prior experience with such studies is assumed. The course will focus on understanding the physical properties and methodologies for the formation (i.e. molecular self-assembly, photolithographic patterning, electrochemistry), and characterization (i.e. optical spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy) of nanomaterials.

A significant portion of this course will also involve learning to do an effective search of peer-reviewed literature and integrating that information into an oral presentation and a ½-page abstract (including citations and bibliography generated with Endnote or Refworks) of your talk. An additional ½ page brief description of your talk will explain the material at a level appropriate for an audience of non-scientists. These skills will be quite useful in your future careers as scientists.

Course Lecture Notes and Text: You can find course lecture notes and other materials by logging into your ELC account. There is no text required for this class, but you have free on-campus access to the following texts: Nanoscience, The Science of the Small in Physics, Engineering, Chemistry, Biology and Medicine, Schaefer, 2010

(http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-3-642-10558-6/contents/)

Electrochemistry at the Nanoscale (http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-0-387-73581-8/contents/)

Class Participation: I encourage discussion in class. Please feel free to ask questions during and after class.

Additional Help: Feel free to discuss the course material and ask questions of any members of the Lay research group. They are very busy, but I am sure they are willing to talk science with you and show you around our lab.

Additional Resources:

Books: Nanoscience, H. E. Schaefer, 2010.

Scanning Probe Microscopy in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, edited by Bharat Bhushan, 2010.

Peer-Reviewed Journals: Nano Letters, Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie, Chemistry of Materials, Langmuir, Nature Materials

Websites: www.nano.gov, nanohub.org, www.nanotechweb.org, www.nanowerk.com

Grading: Exams: 30% (there are no makeup exams or quizzes)

Quizzes/Homework: 10%

Presentation: 30%; Abstract, 20%; Brief Description, 10%

Your course average will be calculated based on the exams, quizzes, presentations and any other assignments. Your overall course grade will be determined with respect to performance based on class norms.

Tests: There will be two in class tests, each worth 15% of your overall grade. The dates for these exams are tentatively set as follows: Sept. 8^th, Nov. 1^st

Your grade will reflect your level of work in this course, not any outside influences. Work hard from the start, as small differences in performance can make a big difference in your grade.

Quizzes/Homework: There will be occasional pop quizzes worth a total of 10% of your final grade. The quizzes are unannounced and cover work from recent previous lectures or presentations.

Attendance: Attendance is not mandatory, but I give pop quizzes, especially if there are many people absent. Further, important announcements about the class will be made during the lectures.

Tentative Course Schedule:

Introduction

Course overview

What are nanoscience & nanotechnology? Why are they so interesting?

The important role of the microelectronics industry in the drive for miniaturization.

Surface/volume relationships and quantum confinement effects in nanomaterials.

Classifications of nanomaterials.

Solutions, colloids and suspensions.

Micro- and Nano-Lithography

Clean room processes used for making patterns needed for electronic materials.

Top-down vs. bottom up methods.

Optical lithography.

Electron-beam lithography.

Scanning probe lithography.

Types of resists and their exposure modes.

How semiconductors, diodes, and transistors work.

Moore’s Law.

Self-Assembled Monolayers (SAMs)

Building patterns and changing surface properties with molecular building blocks.

How and why molecules spontaneously form ordered structures on surfaces.

Where do Miller Indices come from?

Low Miller Index Planes and surface adsorption sites for Au.

Thiol and silane self-assembly.

Applications of SAMs in surface modification and molecular electronics.

Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene

What are they? Where do they come from? Do they come in peace?

Their fundamental physical properties and electronic applications.

Analytical techniques used in their characterization: scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy.

Exam #1

Science Library Primer

Web of Science, SciFinder Scholar, Google Scholar, using Endnote with MS-Word.

Dynamic Ranges of Common Microscopy Methods

Optical microscopy.

Electron microscopy.

Scanning probe microscopy.

Importance of vibration isolation in microscopy.

Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM)

A proximal probe is used to image, characterize and/or manipulate atoms and molecules.

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)

The optical lever detection mechanism.

Instrument design & basic principles.

Types of AFM cantilevers and tips.

Contact, intermittent contact, and non-contact modes.

Effect of the contamination layer on “real world” surfaces on each AFM imaging mode.

Force calibration plots.

Imaging artifacts.

AFM image analysis.

Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM)

Classical Theory vs. Quantum Mechanics.

Quantum tunneling theory.

Instrument design & basic principles.

Height mode vs. current mode.

STM in air, liquid and ultra-high vacuum.

Imaging artifacts:

Atomic resolution in graphene vs. graphite.

Image analysis.

Electrochemistry in Nanoscience

The fundamentals of electrochemistry.

Glass pH electrodes.

The electrode/electrolyte interface.

The electrical double-layer.

Modes of mass transfer to electrodes.

Cyclic voltammetry.

Unwanted types of voltage changes.

Faradaic vs. non-Faradaic current.

Linear vs. radial diffusion.

How the electrochemical behavior of isolated and arrays of nanoscaled electrodes distinguishes them from larger electrodes.

Carbon nanotube electrodes.

Isolated nanoelectrodes vs. nanoelectrode arrays.

Exam #2

Final Exam: The final exam will be composed of an oral presentation of a recent literature topic related to nanoscience or nanotechnology (see list below for available topics). An important part of your presentation will be submission of a brief abstract designed to elicit interest in your talk. Examples of recent abstracts will be given in class. Your presentation should incorporate information from at least three recent peer-reviewed articles (year 2006 to present) that are related to your chosen subject. This exercise is an opportunity for you to explore a topic that interests you. As part of your presentation, you must submit two sample test questions based on the information you will present.

Remember that your overall goal for any oral presentation is to teach the audience something new about a subject that is of great interest to you. The path you take prior to presenting that new information will make a huge difference in how effective you are. Be sure that your introductory material suits the audience (i.e. more background for a departmental seminar, less for a conference seminar in a focused session). As part of the groundwork, you should put things in perspective in order to aid the listener who is not an expert in your field. You may follow this outline:

1. Introduction - Start at an appropriate level. Know your audience and have at least one slide explaining why your topic should be of interest to them.

a. Explain the impetus for the work - What is the scientific problem you are concerned with? How does your presentation’s focus relate to previous work? Does this data present an incremental increase in knowledge, or a new direction? What are the “real-world” applications of such systems?

b. Theory - how does it work? What are its physical properties?

2. Results and Discussion - present and discuss your new data. Provide experimental setup information as needed.

3. Summary and/or Future Directions - what are the overall contributions to knowledge provided by your work? Does this new data support current theory or indicate the need to revise theory? What are the next steps? You should conclude with a slide acknowledging those who helped with your presentation.

If your focus is an analytical technique, be sure to provide the class with a brief overview of the fundamental operating principles, sensitivity, operating environments, types of samples, advantages/disadvantages, etc. If your focus is a type of nanoscaled material or biological system, explain the basics at a level appropriate for undergraduate science majors who are outside of that field. Plan for your talk to last 30 minutes, with additional time for questions. Consider this “practice” for your future talks.

It’s okay to “borrow” figures from articles or websites, but the source must be cited on the slide.

Every slide should have a title. Every slide should deliver a key message.

Remember that the slides are there to guide you along your chosen path, not for you to read to the audience or for the audience to read in-depth explanations. So, keep the writing short and designed only to remind you of your key points. You are the focus of the talk and the slides are there to demonstrate your points; “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

Possible topics in nanoscience.

Solar energy conversion using nanoparticles	Kelvin probe microscopy
Single molecule conduction measurements	Nanotechnology education
Quantum dots (synthesis, or physical properties)	Electron probe microanalysis (EPMA)
Supramolecular self-assembly	Aerogels
Temperature programmed desorption (TPD)	Inorganic nanowires
Microcontact printing	Particle lithography
Graphene (synthesis, or physical properties)	Two-dimensional nanosheets
Graphene nanoribbons	Dip-pen nanolithography
Nanoscaled field emitters	Reactive ion etching (RIE)
Nanocages	Corrosion prevention with nanoparticles
Block copolymers	Molecular electronics: single electron transistors
Scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM)	Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM)
Scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM, protein surface charge mapping)	Scanning Thermal Microscopy (SThM)
Colloids	DNA templated materials synthesis
Microcontact printing	Nanogrinding

Academic Honesty: We expect students at the University of Georgia to adhere to the highest standards of academic honesty and integrity. The UGA Student Handbook discusses the University regulations regarding student academic conduct. Please familiarize yourself with these regulations. All work presented by you in this course is expected to be your own best effort, unless you are specifically instructed to work with other students on a particular problem. Copying of the work of others, and particularly plagiarism, which is the use of the work of others without proper credit or citation, will not be tolerated. The penalty for plagiarism or other academic dishonesty can include a judicial hearing and possible assignment of an F grade in the course, or even expulsion in extreme cases.