Abstract

Nanotechnology has shaped the research and development in various disciplines of science and technology by redefining the interdisciplinary research. It has put the materials science at the forefront of technology by allowing the researchers to engineer materials with properties ranging from electronics to biomedical by using materials as diverse as ceramics to just plain carbon. These exceptional properties are achieved by minimizing the dimension of particles in such smaller domains that the boundary between the individual atoms, ions or cluster of particles is very small. This results in a change in conventional properties of particles from continuum physics to quantum physics and hence the properties of nanoparticles can be tuned based upon their size, shape and dimensionality. One of the most apparent changes upon decreasing the particle size is the increase in surface area to volume ratio. Thus nanoparticles possess greater tendency to interact with the environment in which they are present and similarly the environment can affect the properties of nanomaterials. The environment here is described as the immediate solid, liquid or gaseous material in immediate contact with the external surface of the nanoparticles. In order to control the physico-chemical properties of nanoparticles it is important to control the surface characteristics of nanoparticles and its immediate environment. The current thesis emphasizes the role of tuning the surface of nanoparticles and/or the environment around the nanoparticles to control their properties.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2010

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Seal, Sudipta

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Department

Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0003189

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0003189

Language

English

Release Date

August 2010

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Engineering and Computer Science, Engineering and Computer Science -- Dissertations, Academic

Included in

Engineering Commons

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