Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Engineered Coating Of Natural Fibers And Oil-Water Interfaces With Self-Assembly Of Clay Nanotubes, Abhishek Panchal

Doctoral Dissertations

Taking into consideration two different types of surfaces, this dissertation proposes techniques to coat the surface of natural fibers and oil-water interfaces by spontaneous self-assembly of halloysite clay nanotubes. The material of choice, halloysite clay, is a widely available natural resource and can be used after minimal processing. In regards to chemical composition, halloysite clay resembles aluminosilicate mineral kaolin; physically, a defect in the crystal structure ordering causes the sheets of kaolinite to roll into halloysite nanotubes. The dimensions of halloysite nanotubes are dependent on the source, but generally vary from 200 nm to 3 µm in length, 100-150 nm …

Role Of Rigidity And Flexibility Of Functional Groups Within The Interior Of Supramolecular Assemblies And Their Implications, Oyuntuya Munkhbat

Doctoral Dissertations

Engineering of supramolecular assemblies at molecular level renders functional nanomaterials that present explicit response to certain environmental changes. Systematic structure-property correlation studies will unravel the fundamental design constraints of these functional nanomaterials that fulfill the emergent need. This dissertation will primarily focus on understanding the role of rigidity and flexibility of functional groups within amphiphilic assemblies and employing this basic concept in drug delivery and diagnostics applications. Supramolecular assemblies formed by amphiphilic dendrimers and polymers are preferred for this study as they exhibit high thermodynamic stability and structural flexibility. The role of aromatic interaction on the unimer-aggregate dynamic equilibrium was …

Atomic Layer Deposition Prepared Nanostructured Materials For Various Catalytic Reactions, Xiaofeng Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

"Atomic layer deposition (ALD) has been widely used for thin film coating and metal nanoparticles (NPs) preparation. In this report, the applications of ALD prepared nanostructured materials in catalysis were examined.

Highly dispersed Pt monometallic catalysts with different substrates and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) supported Pt-Co bimetallic catalysts were synthesized by ALD for selective hydrogenation of α, β-unsaturated aldehydes to unsaturated alcohols (UA). Pt/MWCNTs showed the highest selectivity of UA in selective hydrogenation of citral, as compared to Pt/SiO₂, Pt/ALD-Al₂O₃, and Pt/γ-Al₂O₃. After adding Co, the highest selectivity was achieved …