Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Functional Nanoporous Polyamide Aerogels, Malik Adnan Saeed

Doctoral Dissertations

"Aerogels are low-density materials consisting of 3D assemblies of nanoparticles with high open porosities and surface areas. Inspired by the extraordinary mechanical strength of polymer crosslinked aerogels, our recent attention is focused on inexpensive multifunctional isocyanates reacting with a variety of aromatic, organometallic and inorganic monomers. Three such systems discussed here are:

(A) Polymeric aerogels synthesized via a room temperature reaction of an aromatic triisocyanate with pyromellitic acid. Using solid-state CPMAS ¹³C and ¹⁵N NMR, it was found that the skeletal framework was a statistical co-polymer of polyamide, polyurea and polyimide. Stepwise pyrolytic decomposition followed by reactive etching …

Sol-Gel Assembly Of Metal Nanostructures Into Metallic Gel Frameworks And Their Applications, Xiaonan Gao

Theses and Dissertations

The advent of nanoscience and nanotechnology has sparked many research forefronts in the creation of materials with control over size, shape, composition, and surface properties.^1,2 However, for most of the applications, nanoscale materials need to be assembled into functional nanostructures that exhibit useful and controllable physical properties. Therefore, numerous efforts on the assembly of nanoparticles (NPs) using organic ligands, polymers and polyelectrolytes have been reported.^3,4 However, the interactions between NPs are mediated by intervening ligands, which are detrimental to charge transport and limit the thermal stability. Hence, developing a new method to produce solid …