Templating inorganic materials with block polymer thin films and catalyzing military jet fuel to liquefied petroleum gas
Date
2016
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Nanometer-scaled materials have instigated an explosion of investigations into their applications as sensors, energy harvesting tools, memory devices, and catalysts. Researchers are intensely focused on the ability to tailor the size, shape, and geometric spacing because performance is inherently tied to nanomaterial structure and assembly. Block polymers thin films, which self-assemble at the nanometer scale, are well-studied systems that can be used to synthesize and orient such nanomaterials. Therefore, to meet the demands of next-generation devices, it is important to develop block polymer composite thin films that the material scientist can manipulate to meet specific performance metrics (e.g., catalytic activity, optical reflectance, or magnetic coercivity to name a few). Herein, two templating methods were used to order inorganic material with block polymer thin films. The first method exploited the polymer-nanoparticle interactions to selectively incorporate gold nanoparticles within a specific domain of a poly(styrene-b-isoprene- b-styrene) triblock polymer thin film. The second method used a self-assembled poly(styrene-b-ethylene oxide) block polymer thin film to selectively absorb metal precursors into a hexagonal pattern. In both cases, inorganic nanoparticles were positioned according to the self-assembled morphology of the block polymer. In an unrelated thrust, a fuel converter unit was designed and built around a fuel converting catalyst that was previously developed with the research group. The fuel converter improved upon existing efficiency while minimizing system cost, size, and complexity. Furthermore, the converter was confirmed to be of substantial interest to commercial solid oxide fuel cell researchers and engineers that were interviewed as a part of the National Science Foundation I-Corps program. Recommendations for future work on the fuel converter and the block polymer composites are discussed.