| Nanotechnology has emerged as one of the most exciting new and developing fields in science today. New nanoscale materials and devices such as nanoparticles, nanocomposites, nanowires, and nanosensors could revolutionize the 21st century in the same way that the transistor and Internet led to the information age. One key component in developing these new technologies is to assemble individual atomic and molecular building blocks into larger structures with fundamentally new properties and functions. Nature is very efficient at assembling multi scale building blocks such as proteins, lipids, and minerals into nanostructured materials such as bone, teeth, diatoms, eggshells, seashells, cell membranes, and DNA. Surfactant and colloidal building block can also be assembled into different nanoscale materials and devices by utilizing hydrophobic/hydrophilic and other surface interactions. Using these concepts, this dissertation focuses on the syntheses and applications of nanostructured particles assembled from multi scale building blocks. Important factors in the synthesis of the particles include particle size, particle morphology, pore size and pore structure. Five different types of nanostructured particles assembled from different multi scale building blocks are demonstrated in this work: (1) Spherical metal/silica mesoporous particles with high surface areas and controllable pore sizes, pore structures, and metal content are synthesized from surfactant, silicate, and metal building blocks for catalytic applications; (2) Mesoporous hollow spheres with controllable pore sizes and pore structures are synthesized from surfactant, silica, and polystyrene building blocks; (3) Spherical mesoporous carbon particles with controllable pore sizes and pore structures are templated from silica particles assembled from silica and surfactant building blocks; (4) Spherical mesoporous, microporous, and bimodal carbon particles are synthesized from sucrose and silica building blocks and tested for hydrogen storage applications; and (5) Sub-micrometer sized mesoporous silica particles are prepared from the high energy ball milling of mesoporous silica xerogels assembled from silica and surfactant building blocks. These examples demonstrate the feasibility, efficiency, and flexibility of assembling nanostructured particles tailored for specific applications from different multi scale building blocks. |
