Behavior of metastable nanomaterials
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The interplay between structure and function is a central pillar of materials science. Developing and understanding methods for manufacturing new materials is key to engineering devices with desired performance. In this thesis, we explore the control of surface properties in nonequilibrium shapes and phases of metallic nanomaterials. First, we look at a simple system of copper nanoparticles. Here we demonstrate a schema for varying the shape of particles in inert gas condensation. We report one of the first syntheses of (100) face-centered cubic nanocubes made through this vapor phase method and show through both experiment and molecular dynamics modeling that shape is primarily modulated by atomic deposition rate. In the second part of the thesis we move away from the simple copper case and look at mixing two components to engineer functionality. Silver is a cheaper, more earth-abundant alternate to platinum for catalyzing the alkaline oxygen reduction reaction; however, its performance is still lagging. We show that by mixing silver and copper together, we can obtain a thin film catalyst whose activity is greater than the sum of its parts for Cu-rich compositions. In this work, we leverage x-ray diffraction and x-ray absorption spectroscopy to study the phase behavior of this Cu-Ag bimetallic system. We show that these catalysts are two-phase materials with increased metastable solid solubility in the constituent phases, from which the minority, Ag-rich phase provides the enhanced activity
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2020; ©2020 |
| Publication date | 2020; 2020 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Wette, Melissa Rachel |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Clemens, B. M. (Bruce M.) |
| Thesis advisor | Clemens, B. M. (Bruce M.) |
| Thesis advisor | Bent, Stacey |
| Thesis advisor | Cargnello, Matteo |
| Degree committee member | Bent, Stacey |
| Degree committee member | Cargnello, Matteo |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Melissa Rachel Wette |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Materials Science and Engineering |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2020 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2020 by Melissa Rachel Wette
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Also listed in
Loading usage metrics...