Engineering nanomaterials with enhanced functionality

Abstract: This thesis deals with the engineering of novel nanomaterials, particularly nanocomposites and nanostructured surfaces with enhanced functionalities. The study includes two parts; in the first part, an in situ sol-gel polymerization approach is used for the synthesis of polymer-inorganic hybrid material and its exceptional transparent UV-shielding effect has been investigated. In the second part, electrodeposition process has been adapted to engineer surfaces and the boiling performance of the fabricated nanostructured surfaces is evaluated.In the first part of the work, polymer-inorganic hybrid materials composed of poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) and zinc compounds were prepared by in situ sol-gel transition polymerization of zinc complex in PMMA matrix. The immiscibility of heterophase of solid organic and inorganic constituents was significantly resolved by an in situ sol-gel transition polymerization of ZnO nanofillers within PMMA in the presence of dual functional agent, monoethanolamine, which provided strong secondary interfacial interactions for both complexing and crosslinking of constituents.In the second part of the work, nanoengineering on the surface of copper plates has been performed in order to enhance the boiling heat transfer coefficient. Micro-porous surfaces with dendritic network of copper nanoparticles have been obtained by electrodeposition with dynamic templates. To further alter the grain size of the dendritic branches, the nanostructured surfaces underwent a high temperature annealing treatment.Comprehensive characterization methods of the polymer-inorganic hybrid materials and nanoengineered surfaces have been undertaken. XRD, 1H NMR, FT-IR, TGA, DSC, UV-Vis, ED, SEM, TEM and HRTEM have been used for basic physical properties. Pool boiling tests were performed to evaluate the boiling performance of the electrodeposited nanostructured micro-porous structures.The homogeneous PZHM exhibited enhanced UV-shielding effects in the entire UV range even at very low ZnO content of 0.02 wt%. Moreover, the relationship between band gap and particle size of incorporated ZnO by sol-gel process was in good agreement with the results calculated from the effective mass model between bandgap and particle size. The fabricated enhanced surface has shown an excellent performance in nucleate boiling. At heat flux of 1 W/cm2, the heat transfer coefficient is enhanced over 15 times compared to a plain reference surface. A model has been presented to explain the enhancement based on the structure characteristics.