| The research presented in this thesis details the fabrication of ordered porous materials with designed chemical, physical, and optical properties. Colloidal crystals, which are ordered arrays of uniformly sized polymer spheres, were utilized as templates for the preparation of macroporous inorganic and hybrid organic/inorganic materials. Materials prepared by this technique have valuable properties that derive from both their structure and composition.; Uniformly ordered macroporous materials exhibit photonic stop bands in their optical spectra, which are particular ranges of light wavelengths that cannot propagate through the material. These stop bands are manifested as brightly colored reflections and an optical filtering ability of the materials. One area of research focused on designing macroporous materials with tunable optical and photonic crystal properties. These properties were modified in predictable manners by tailoring the pore size, filling the pores with fluids of various refractive indices, and altering the composition of the solid wall material. In addition, photonic stop bands were utilized to control the emission characteristics of macroporous photoluminescent materials. This research may be beneficial for materials applications involving chemical sensors, optical filters, inorganic pigments, improved control of photochemical reactions, and light-directing or other photonic devices.; The large pore sizes, highly accessible surfaces, and compositional variability that can be realized with macroporous materials makes them useful as chemically functional porous solids. Synthetic techniques for the fabrication of macroporous materials with sorption and catalytic properties were the topics of additional research covered in this thesis. Attachment of thiol functional groups to porous metal oxide networks produced materials with heavy metal ion adsorption capability, whereas incorporation of polyoxometalate clusters into macroporous materials yielded materials with catalytic activity.; A method for the preparation of periodically structured hybrid materials based on polyoxometalate clusters is also presented. This research project involved the synthesis of organically modified polyoxometalates and their utilization as molecular building blocks for the creation of network structures. A certain degree of control was exerted over the crystalline architecture of self-assembled network structures by using polyoxometalates with well-defined bonding sites and variable reactivity as molecular building blocks. This allowed the creation of various network and open-framework structures. |
