Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Fabrication Of Gold Nanoraspberry Arrays By Soft Lithography, Christy Yu-Qing Xie

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Nanostructures and nanoparticles have garnered increasing interest over the past decade due to their unique properties and applications. These properties include localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) and allow for surface modification. We can tune these properties depending on the nanoparticle’s size, shape, and geometry.

This work aims to fabricate plasmonic platforms through patterning gold nanoparticles (raspberries) by microcontact printing, a simple and cost-effective soft lithography technique. This is done through large-scale patterning using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) stamps to pattern an adhesion template and spatially guide the adsorption of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs).

Sol-Gel Synthesis And Spectroscopic Characterization Of Titanium Dioxide Doped With Copper And Iron, Erin L. Jacoski

Chemistry Senior Theses

A source of bioavailable iron in open oceans stems from aerosols, increasing phytoplankton growth and the sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide. These aerosols contain semiconductors, like titanium dioxide, which is known to increase the bioavailability and can trigger photoreduction of Fe3+. Recently, it is suspected that other metals in the aerosols also influence the release of iron. In this work, the effects of doping with iron and copper on the physical characteristics of titanium dioxide nanoparticles, since the photocatalytic potential of titanium dioxide depends on its structure and metal content (anatase vs. rutile), were explored. Titanium dioxide nanoparticles were prepared …

Towards Semiconductor Nanorods With Nickel/Iron Cocatalyst., Kehinde Ayorinde

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The adverse effects associated with the utilization of fossil fuels has led to the need to provide an alternative cleaner energy. Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction via water splitting provides a renewable pathway to generating energy. Our photocatalyst system includes a semiconductor component (CdSe/CdS core/shell nanorods) to capture light and an attached metal (cocatalyst) for the hydrogen evolution reaction. Platinum is an effective metal catalyst for this reaction due to strong proton binding energy that easily facilitates the reduction of water to produce hydrogen gas. However, due to the high cost of platinum, there is a need to find a less …