Nuclear Magnetic Resonance—Characterization of Self-Assembled Nanostructured Materials

Abstract

Self-assembly has been widely used for the preparation of novel nanostructured materials. To both accelerate the dynamics of this processing route and develop new nanostructures, it is critical to understand the attendant interfacial interactions that occur in solution between the different precursor components, and how such molecular level interactions affect nanostructured ordering. Extensive discussions of experimental techniques for characterizing nanoscale materials, such as small-angle X-ray or neutron scattering, high-resolution electron microscopy, and surface force microscopy can be found elsewhere. [1] This review will focus on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods, which are sensitive to local chemical environments and provide complementary information on the molecular scale, in contrast to other analytical techniques. The first section provides a brief introduction to fundamental NMR principles and their applications. It is followed by examples to illustrate how NMR can be used to derive information related to long-range ordering on the nanometer scale, the molecular conformation on a sub-nanometer scale, and their correlation to interfacial binding.

Electrochemical synthesis and stabilization of cobalt nanoparticles

“…Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements were carried out to provide information about the dynamics of the NPs system in addition to structural information, which is useful to understand the interfacial interaction that occurs in solution [12] The 1 H-NMR spectra were collected on a 300 MHz NMR spectrometer (Bruker, Swiss).…”

A direct surface silyl modification of acid-synthesized mesoporous silica

“…This shows that only a monolayer of silane grafts onto the silica wall of the nanochannels rather than multilayer formation. 15 After ethanol extraction, the unmodiÐed as-synthesized mesoporous samples still contain some carbon. Their carbon content is about 8% (Table 1).…”

Dendrite‐Like Self‐Assembly of Magnetite Nanoparticles on Porous Silicon

“…Hierarchical assembly of nanoparticles is very important for the development of bottom‐up approaches in technology. The self‐organisation of nanoparticles has been studied extensively and the preparation of novel nanostructured materials is an emerging topic in the field of advanced materials 1. The self‐assembly of nanoparticulate materials strongly depends on interparticle interactions, particle size distribution,2 and particle shape 3.…”