Beloit College > Chemistry > Nanochemistry

Chemistry plays a significant role in the emerging interdisciplinary fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology. The nanoscale refers to materials with dimensions on the scale of nanometers (a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of a meter). Control of the material world at the scale of atoms and molecules can produce materials with fundamentally different properties and behavior and has been touted as the next technological revolution. Some questions we will consider include: What nanotechnology already exists? What makes nanomaterials special? How can they be prepared? What tools can be used to study such materials? Three class periods and one laboratory period per week. (U) Offered in even years.

Prerequisite: Previous chemistry or physics background. No specific course is required but you should have experience doing and recording laboratory work.


Fall 2023 Nanochemistry Livingston

 First Half

Aug 29 Class: Nanochemistry Basics
Aug 31 Lab: Electrochromic Prussian Blue Thin Films. See using our multimeters.
Sept 5 Class: Consumer Products
Literature reports
Sept 7 Lab: Octadecanethiol Monolayer on Silver
Sept 12 Class: Metal Nanoparticles
Literature reports
Sept 14 Lab: Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles
Lab: Sodium Borohydride Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles
Lab: Microwave-assisted Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles
Sept 19 Class: Nanowires
Literature reports
Sept 21 Lab: Synthesis of Nickel Nanowires. See using our multimeters. You should be able to complete the synthesis portion of the lab today, and leave samples for XRD.
Sept 26 Class: Photonics
Literature reports
Sept 28 Lab: Continue Nickel Nanowires on the same page as your earlier work for this experiment but include a new date. Every group will extract nanowires from the disc. All groups will prepare a sample for free nanowire XRD and prepare a labeled SEM sample. You will also perform visible microscopy. Measure lengths in SEM images using ImageJ. Your notebook should indicate where you measured.
Oct 3 Test
Oct 5 Class: Semiconductors, Metal Oxides, and Piezoelectricity
Lab: Start Hydrothermal Growth of ZnO Nanorods - Synthesis (10 minutes). Leave the prepared tubes next to the oven for inspection.
Oct 10 Class: Carbon Nanotubes
Literature reports
Oct 12 Lab: Hydrothermal Growth of ZnO Nanorods

 Second Half

  MIDTERM BREAK
Oct 24 Class: Polymers and Block Copolymers
Literature reports
Oct 26 Lab: PDMS Soft Lithography. We will be performing the CD and DVD version of this lab.
Oct 31 Class: Quantum Dots
Literature reports
Nov 2 Lab: Synthesis of Cadmium Sulfide Nanoparticles. Purpose and method due today. Lab report due Monday.
Nov 7 Beloit and Beyond (No class)
Nov 9 Class: Photovoltaics
Literature reports
Nov 14 Lab: Titanium Dioxide Raspberry Solar Cells
Nov 16 Lab: Synthesis and Characterization of lead perovskite films. Purpose and method due today.
Nov 21 Test
Nov 23 Thanksgiving
Nov 28 Class: Electrons and Magnetism
Literature reports
Nov 30 Lab: Synthesis of an aqueous ferrofluid.
Dec 5 Class: Societal Implications
Literature reports
Dec 7 Lab: Cleanup (empty counters and drawers and make sure everything is labeled.

Texts

Ludovico Cademartiri and Geoffrey Ozin, Concepts of Nanochemistry, Wiley-VCH (2009), ISBN 978-3-527-32597-9
Nano History, International Institute for Nanotechnology, Northwestern University

Literature Sources

Choose a recent (published since the course started) nano article that you understand from Nanoletters or ACS NANO or ACS Applied Nano Materials or Nanoscale Advances (or from another journal with prior approval.) Focus primarily on a figure or two in the paper and be familiar with the experimental section. Be sure to check for supplementary information (movies and the experimental section may be located there). By end of Wednesday email to claim a paper by including a link to the paper. Papers that have been selected will be posted in this syllabus. In class, present the figure(s) in a short oral report and answer questions about the experimental details. Test questions in this course will be drawn from these student selected papers, so for the rest of the class your presentation is a practice test.

Primary journals for this courseOther available sourcesPlaces to find references to articles
American Chemical Society
Nanoletters
ACS NANO
ACS Applied Nano Materials

RSC and NCNST
Nanoscale Advances

Nano Research (Springer)
Journal of Nanoparticle Research (Springer)
Nanoscale Research Letters (Springer)
Some articles in
Nature Nanotechnology
Nanoscale (Royal Society of Chemistry)
Applied Materials and Interfaces (ACS)
Materials Today (Elsevier)
Be sure to use the original reference in these news reports but the summaries might be useful and they are a good way to find interesting articles
Materials News (Materials Research Society)
Nanotechnology news stories (PhysOrg)
Latest nanotechnology articles (AZoNano)

Basis of evaluation

Accommodations

If you have a disability and need accommodations, contact Learning Enrichment and Disability Services (LEADS) located on second floor Pearsons (north side), 608-363-2572, learning@beloit.edu or make an appointment through joydeleon.youcanbook.me to get an Access Letter. We can then discuss how your learning needs may be appropriately met. You can also apply for free peer tutoring through the Portal (student life tab, then tutoring forms on the left).

Last modified August 24 by Corbin Livingston

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