Description:
Reference #: 1679
The University of South Carolina is offering licensing opportunities for Core-shell SDAs.
Background:
Nanocomposites can exhibit characteristics superior to that of their individual components. Nature has evolved ways to control the architecture and placement of multiple materials elegantly through biomineralization of nanoparticles (NP), however, bottom-up nanocomposite synthesis remains limited. Inorganic nanocomposites from structure directing agents (SDAs) and multiple NP-types are normally limited to random NP-mixtures.
Invention Description:
This process enables a sequence-controlled placement of materials using a specific class of structure directing agents. Five specific material sequences are used to demonstrate the generalization of the direct self-assembly of mesoporous heterostructures.
Potential Applications:
solar cells, rechargeable batteries, supercapacitors, and fuel cells
Advantages and Benefits:
The composite heterostructure products of this process are directly formed by self-assembly which is an advantage over most heterostructure synthesis techniques. Furthermore, heterostructures generally require extended multi-step processes and extensive re-optimizations for each new material, whereas this process is streamlined and more time efficient.