Chemistry of Nanomaterials

Aim

This course will cover synthesis of nanomaterials and their applications in research and industry. Special focus will be on inorganic nanomaterials used for heterogeneous catalysis and here concepts that are used to evaluate the performance of heterogenous catalysts will be covered. Focus will also be placed on soft nanomaterials, and their applications. Here, principles (intermolecular forces, thermodynamics and kinetics) that govern self-assembly of soft materials will be covered.

After finishing the course, the student should be able to:

• Describe synthesis methods of inorganic nanomaterials, their characterization, and their use in industry.
• Describe the concepts of reaction mechanism, activation energy, reaction orders, and rate laws.
• Describe the basic concepts on the structure and properties of soft matter systems.
• Describe the interactions that govern the stability and dynamics of soft matter.
• Describe the use of soft matter in industrial applications.

Content

The course will consist of two parts: one covering the materials chemistry of inorganic nanomaterials, and one covering soft matter.

Inorganic nanomaterials

• Overview of synthesis methods of inorganic nanomaterials, their characterization, and their use in industry.
• Heterogeneous catalysis over inorganic nanomaterials: concept of reaction mechanism, activation energies, reaction orders, rate laws.
• Experimental demonstration of how to find activation energies and reaction orders for real reactions and catalysts.
• Elementary derivation of rate laws and prediction of rate orders from given reaction mechanisms.
• Elementary demonstration of how hypotheses for reaction mechanisms can be developed with support from computational and experimental methods.

Soft Matter

• Basic concepts on the structure and properties of soft matter systems
• Interactions that govern the stability and dynamics of soft matter
• The role of soft matter in industrial applications