Mechanics of Materials Commons^™

Synthesis And Consolidation Of Metal Oxide Nanocrystals Via Nonthermal Plasma, Austin Cendejas

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Nonthermal plasmas offer a unique nonequilibrium environment that has been leveraged in a wide variety of applications in the fields of material processing, lighting, and waste management to name a few. In all of these cases, the plasma serves as a source of high energy electrons, ions, reactive gas species, and radicals that interact in several ways with surfaces brought into contact with the plasma. Specifically, nonthermal plasmas have been shown to be very successful in achieving continuous, high-throughput, monodisperse nanocrystals of a wide variety of materials. The crystallinity of nanoparticles synthesized in nonthermal plasmas can be attributed to the …

Multifunctional Polydopamine Nanomaterials For Biomedical And Environmental Applications, Hamed Gholami Derami

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Polydopamine (PDA), a synthetic and organic material, has emerged as a promising materialplatform for various applications in energy, environmental, and biomedical fields. PDA, formed by self-polymerization of dopamine, is rich in catechol and amine groups, which facilitate covalent conjugation and/or other non-covalent interactions with organic and inorganic materials. It is highly biocompatible, biodegradable, has broadband light absorption spectrum and excellent light-to-heat conversion efficiency. Also, it is easy to synthesize and functionalize. The combination of excellent characteristics of polydopamine-based nanomaterials, make them a promising adsorbent agent for environmental wastewater treatment and photothermal agent for biomedical applications. In the first half of …

Defect Chemistry And Ion Intercalation During The Growth And Solid-State Transformation Of Metal Halide Nanocrystals, Bo Yin

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Abstract of the Dissertation

Defect Chemistry and Ion Intercalation During the Growth and Solid-State Transformation of Metal Halide Nanocrystals

Semiconductor metal halides as light-sensitive materials have applications in multiple areas, such as photographic film, antibacterial agents and photocatalysts. One focus of this dissertation is to achieve novel morphologies of ternary silver bromoiodide (AgBr1-xIx, 0

For the silver halide system, we demonstrate that the anion composition of AgBr1-xIx nanocrystals determines their shape through the introduction of twin defects as the nanocrystals are made more iodide-rich. AgBr1-xIx nanocrystals grow as single-phase, solid solutions with the rock salt crystal structure for anions compositions …

Functional Bio-Nano Hybrids Through A Precise Control Of Interfacial Interactions At The Nanoscale, Sirimuvva Tadepalli

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

During the course of evolution, proteins have evolved to perform exquisite functions including structural support, signal transduction, actuation, sensing, catalysis, trafficking, gating, light-harvesting, charge transfer, molecular recognition, self-assembly, self-organization, or combinations of two or more of these functions. A precise control and manipulation of the structure and function of proteins is conceivable with the advent of nanotechnology, which has facilitated the integration of nanomaterials with functional biomolecules to realize bio-nano hybrids with synergistically enhanced functionalities.

At the genesis of bionanotechnology, a paucity in the fundamental understanding of the bio-nano interfaces is a grave impediment to the progress of the field. …