Publication date: 27th June 2014
I will touch upon a recent direction of research in our group, namely that of gels and aerogels manufactured from a variety of nanoparticles. This has recently proven to provide an opportunity to marry the nanoscale world with that of materials of macro dimensions which can be easily manipulated and processed, whilst maintaining most of the nanoscale properties. The materials carry an enormous potential for applications. This is largely related to their extremely low density and high porosity providing access to the capacious inner surface of the interconnected nanoobjects they consist of [1]. I will report on a) enzyme encapsulated QD hydrogels as a multi-functional platform in the development of optical biosensors [2], b) the electrocatalytical activity towards the oxidation of ethanol of a freestanding palladium nanoparticle aerogel with extremely high electrocatalytic current density and good durability [3], and c) colloidal nanocrystals embedded in macrocrystals and their application in a colour conversion LED with good robustness, photostability, and color purity [4].
[1] a) J.L. Mohanan, I.U. Arachchige, and S.L. Brock, Science 307, 397 (2005), b) N. Gaponik, A.-K. Herrmann, and A. Eychmüller, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 3, 8 (2012). [2] J. Yuan, N. Gaponik, and A. Eychmüller, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 52, 976 (2013). [3] a) W. Liu, A.-K. Herrmann, D. Geiger, L. Borchardt, F. Simon, S. Kaskel, N. Gaponik, and A. Eychmüller, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 51, 5743 (2012), b) W. Liu, P. Rodriguez, L. Borchardt, A. Foelske, J. Yuan, A.-K. Herrmann, D. Geiger, Z. Zheng, S. Kaskel, N. Gaponik, R. Kötz, T.J. Schmidt, A. Eychmüller, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 52 9849 (2013), c) A.-K. Herrmann, P. Formanek, L. Borchardt, M. Klose, L. Giebeler, J. Eckert, S. Kaskel, N. Gaponik, A. Eychmüller. Chem. Mater. 26, 1074 (2014). [4] a) T. Otto, M. Müller, P. Mundra, V. Lesnyak, H.V. Demir, N. Gaponik, and A. Eychmüller, Nano Lett. 12, 5348 (2012), b) M. Müller, M. Kaiser, G.M. Stachowski, U. Resch-Genger, N. Gaponik, A. Eychmüller, Chem. Mater. 26, 3231 (2014).