The Nanomaterials Chemistry Group at Chemical Sciences Division, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory conducts fundamental research related to synthesis and characterization of nanoscopic materials as well as ionic liquids for fundamental investigation of separation and catalysis processes. This group also conducts the applied research related to the applications of nanomaterials in advanced scintillators for radiation sensing, catalysts for fuel cells, radioactive tracers for medical imaging, novel electrodes for energy storage, and sensing devices for biological agents. Extensive synthesis capabilities exist within the group for preparation of mesoporous materials (oxides and carbons), low-dimensional materials (e.g., quantum dots and nanowires), sol-gel materials, inorganic and hybrid monoliths (e.g., membranes), and nanocatalysts. Solvothermal, ionothermal, templating synthesis, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and atomic layer deposition (ALD) methods are extensively utilized in the group for tailored synthesis of nanostructured materials. An array of techniques for characterizing physical and chemical properties related to separation and catalysis are in place or are currently being developed. This research program also takes advantage of the unique resources at ORNL such as small-angle x-ray scattering, small-angle neutron scattering at the High Flux Isotope Reactor and Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), structural analysis by a variety of electron microscopes (SEM, TEM, STEM, HRTEM) and powdered X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. A wide variety of other facilities for routine and novel techniques are also utilized including the Center for Nanophase Materials Science. Computational chemistry tools are employed to understand experimental results related to separation and other interfacial chemical processes and design better nanomaterials and ionic liquids. Commonly used methods include first principles density functional theory (DFT) and mixed quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) techniques.

The Nanomaterials Group specializes in:
Synthesis and characterization of mesoporous materials for separation, catalysis,
        and energy storage/conversion
Synthesis of advanced scintillating materials for radiation detection
Synthesis and characterization of radioactive nanoparticles for medical applications.
Synthesis of low-dimensional materials
Ionic liquids for separation and energy-related applications
Molecular imprinting for separation and sensing
Computational chemistry for separation and catalysis

Facilities:
Synthesis laboratories
Atomic layer deposition reactors
Chemical vapor deposition reactors
Graphitization Furnaces
Powdered X-Ray Diffraction
Raman, fluorescence, UV-Vis-NIR absorption spectroscopies
Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy
Scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with EDS
Thermal gravimetric analyzer (TGA)
Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC)
Gas and liquid chromatography systems (GC and HPLC)
Hiden Intelligent Gravimetric Analyzer for gas and vapor sorption under various
        temperature and pressure
Gas sorption surface area and porosimetry analyzer (BET)
Tapping-mode atomic force microscope with confocal optical microscope attachment
Plasma etching system
Catalyst testing reactors
Dip and spin coating systems
Fiber drawing system
Inhouse computing resources: 16-CPU Linux cluster and 4-CPU Linux workstation. Additional CPU time from the National Center for Computational Sciences at ORNL

Material characterization by:

BET	XRD	SAXS	SANS
FTIR	Plug-flow reactor	Solid State NMR	Raman
TGA-MS	DSC	AFM	UV/VIS
TEM / STEM / z-contrast microscopy			HRTEM

For more information, contact Sheng Dai at (865) 576-7307.

                Provided by Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Chemical Sciences Division          
                                                     Rev:   November 2006