Living organisms grow precisely controlled assemblies of inorganic crystals using organic substrates. This observation has inspired the strategy of using synthetic organic templates for the growth of tailored inorganic thin films. It has been previously shown that monomolecular organic layers floating on supersaturated aqueous subphases (Langmuir monolayers) select the structure...
Oxide surface structures play a key role in many technological processes, including catalysis, thin film growth, and layered structures, and a thorough understanding of surface structures and surface structure dynamics is required in order to better engineer materials systems for these processes. This research works towards understanding these fundamental principles...
Substrate-mediated delivery involves the immobilization of DNA, complexed with nonviral vectors, to a biomaterial or surface that supports cell adhesion. Cells cultured on the substrate are exposed to elevated DNA concentrations within the local microenvironment, which enhances transfection. As surface properties are critical to this delivery approach, self-assembled monolayers (SAMs)...
Granular matter and living cells represent two extremes of what have come to be regarded as complex systems - systems characterized by a richness in global behavior that is not easily deduced from the interactions of their individual parts, even when those interactions are simple and well understood. On the...
The self-assembly of quantum dots (QDs) in thin solid films is an important area of nanotechnology with many relevant applications. In the present thesis, three problems related to the growth and self-assembly of QDs are investigated.
In Chapter 1, a new instability mechanism for the formation of QDs associated with...
The current trend of ceramic nanotechnology has motivated an ever-increasing need to achieve exquisite control over size, shape, and spatial confinement for functional oxide architectures, in an equivalent manner demonstrated for semiconductors. However, the unique nature of ceramics has posed major challenges for most traditional nanofabrication technologies, putting the development...
A critical challenge in improving the quality of life for spinal cord injury survivors is to restore the capacity to grasp and manipulate objects. While progress has been made to restore hand function by using functional electrical stimulation (FES) to activate muscles, providing the means to control the multiple degrees...
Motivated by performance requirements of future medical stent applications, experimental research addresses the design of novel TiNi-based, superelastic shape-memory alloys employing nanoscale precipitation strengthening to minimize accommodation slip for cyclic stability and to increase output stress capability for smaller devices. Using a thermodynamic database describing the B2 and L21 phases...
This dissertation demonstrates how self-assembly can direct nanoscale ordering and optimize electronic properties of organic semiconductors, as well as organic-inorganic hybrids. In excitonic solar cells, controlling the ordering and interfaces between electron-transporting (n-type) and hole-transporting (p-type) domains is crucial. In addressing this challenge, hybrid nanostructures were designed by mineralization of...
The work presented in this dissertation focuses on ceramic anode materials for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). The primary goal was to characterize the anode and relate the electrochemical behavior to the microstructure. The anode that was most extensively studied in this work was a composite of Gd0.10Ce0.90O1.95 (GDC) and...