SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION, AND APPLICATIONS OF METAL OXIDE NANOMATERIALS
Dr. Amanda Tiano, Research Scholar, National Institute of Aerospace
June 15, 2015, 1:00 pm, NIA, Rm 137
Abstract:
Nanomaterials have attracted significant research focus due to their advantageous and unique properties (i.e. electronic, magnetic, optical, and mechanical) as compared with their bulk counterparts. Metal oxide nanostructures are of particular interest, as they are robust and display high chemical and thermal stability, while offering a diverse array of fascinating properties, rendering them as ideal candidates for many applications such as catalysis, sensing, electronic, energy storage and even medicine. In this talk, I will discuss methods to reliably control the size, morphology, composition, and crystallinity of the metal oxide nanostructures by varying the synthetic parameters. In this way, one can tailor the properties of a nanomaterial for a specific application. One example I will discuss the use of rapid cooling rates and the use of surfactants in a molten salt synthesis to generate faceted octahedra of strontium ruthenate (SrRuO3), which resulted in a 4-fold enhancement of their activity towards methanol oxidation with respect to smooth rounded particles. In addition to SrRuO3, I will present the synthesis of other metal oxide nanostructures such as the yttrium manganese oxides (YMnO3 and YMn2O5) and the magnetic spinel ferrites (MFe2O4 where ‘M’ is Mg, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, and Zn) and the ability to reliably tune their properties for a variety of applications.
Bio:
Dr. Amanda Tiano is a Research Scholar at the National Institute of Aerospace, working in the Advanced Materials and Processing Branch (AMPB) at NASA Langley. Her current work focuses on the dispersion and purification of boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) to enable the fabrication of BNNT nanocomposites. Prior to working at NIA, she received her Ph.D in Chemistry from Stony Brook University in 2013, where she studied the development of large-scale syntheses for novel nanomaterials.