Studying the surface properties of organic modified transition metal oxides. (R-3503)

Materials performance in various applications strongly depends on physico-chemical surface properties. It is for this reason that organic surface modification is widely applied in materials research. The interest in efficient modification methods, specifically designed for transition metal oxides, is rapidly increasing due to their broad chemical and corrosive stability. Organosilylation and organophosophoric acid grafting are the best known methods for surface modification of transition metal oxides. Recently, a new method, based on the reaction of Grignard reagents with pretreated titania surfaces, has been developed jointly by UA and VITO. Although the various surface modification methods result in the grafting of organic functional groups on the surface, little is still known about the obtained physico-chemical surface characteristics in relation to the applied grafting methodology and the influence thereof on the interaction of probe molecules with these modified materials. This project aims at elucidating the impact of the grafting methodology and the type of functional organic group on the physico-chemical properties of the obtained organic surface layer and its interaction with probe molecules. To obtain the necessary insights, synthesis and in-depth complementary (in-situ and hyphenated) characterization techniques will be correlated to quantum chemical calculations of large model systems.

Keywords:transition metal oxides

Disciplines:Chemical sciences, Pharmaceutical sciences

Project type:Collaboration project