ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY

CHEMICAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING DIVISION MONDAY MORNING SEMINAR SERIES

 

SPEAKER:           Mercouri G. Kanatzidis

Northwestern University and Argonne National Laboratory

 

TITLE:                  The Quest for Porous Semiconductors

 

TIME:                   11:00 am

                             (Refreshments will be available starting at 10:45 am in front lobby)

 

DATE:                  October 15, 2007  

 

PLACE:                Building 200, Auditorium

 

HOST:                  Chris Marshall

 

Abstract:  Mesostructured materials are inorganic/organic assemblies that are composed of an intimate nanoscale combination of organic and inorganic components. The organic component controls the long range periodicity of the system, while the inorganic component is continuous and provides stability and structural integrity. Recent advances in the design and synthesis of mesostructured and mesoporous materials with non-oxide frameworks will be presented. An emerging class is that of the chalcogenides where all possible pore arrangements known for silica can be realized. A wide variety of open-framework non-oxidic mesostructured solids with controllable and regular pore structure and interesting electronic and ion-exchange properties has now been achieved including elemental metals and aerogels. The special molecular chemistry that leads to organized non-oxidic mesostructures having a variety of compositions, pore sizes and semiconductor band gaps will be discussed. Also reviewed are recent developments in mesoporous elements such as germanium.  The research goals for mesoporous semiconductors are to create scaffolds with new physical phenomena that derive from the combined characteristics of long range porosity and electronic and optical properties. The substantial progress made in developing and generalizing a synthetic methodology for this fascinating class of non-oxidic frameworks will be presented.