Engineering Nanoparticle And Nanoring Patterns For The Study Of Molecular Crystallization Under Nanoconfinement

ENGINEERING NANOPARTICLE AND NANORING PATTERNS FOR THESTUDY OF MOLECULAR CRYSTALLIZATION UNDER NANOCONFINEMENTbySUNXI WANGAugust 2013Advisor: Dr. Guangzhao MaoMajor: Chemical EngineeringDegree: Doctor of PhilosophyThis dissertation focuses on generating the inorganic nanoparticle/organicnanorod hybrid nanostructures by the strategy of nanoparticle induced molecularcrystallization developed by us. We synthesize the gold nanoparticles withdifferent sizes and functional groups and then fabricate the nanohybrids with fattyacid nanorods by spin coating method. Atomic force microscope monitors thetopography of the hybrid nanostructures to help understand the underlyingmechanism of the crystallization process. This successful self-assembled methodcould be used to fabricate nanohybrids based on seed-mediated nucleation. Alsothe novel "nano-flasks" have been generated by particle lithography method,which could be served for nanoconfining drug crystals and be used in high throughput screening applications. Both nanoparticles (convex) and nanoringpatterns (concave) serve as two different systems for molecular crystallizations.