Designing Nanoparticulate Systems

Nanoparticulate materials provide attractive building blocks for designing materials with tunable properties. In this presentation, the inter-relationships of structure and processing of nanoparticulate systems on their physico-chemical properties will be examined. The nanoparticulate systems that will be presented include examples from three broad material categories: polymers, ceramics and metals. Specific systems that will be discussed are cellulose nanocrystals (polymer), silicon carbide, (ceramic) as well as palladium (metal). Processing conditions will be varied over a broad range of temperature conditions from ambient to 1850oC, depending on the system of interest. The changes in chemical, electrical, optical and mechanical properties in selected systems as a consequence of the evolving morphology during processing will be contrasted. The implications of the structure-property-processing relationships for designing novel materials for applications such as separations, sensors, optics, electronics, armors and microsystems will be explored.