Hardness of Deposited Silica Nanoparticle Thin Films — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

Instructions

Student presentations must have a faculty sponsor.

Abstracts must include a title and a description of the research, scholarship, or creative work. The description should be 150-225 words in length and constructed in a format or style appropriate for the presenter’s discipline.

The following points should be addressed within the selected format or style for the abstract:

A clear statement of the problem or question you pursued, or the scholarly goal or creative theme achieved in your work.
A brief comment about the significance or uniqueness of the work.
A clear description of the methods used to achieve the purpose or goals for the work.
A statement of the conclusions, results, outcomes, or recommendations, or if the work is still in progress, the results you expect to report at the event.

Presenter photographs should be head and shoulder shots comparable to passport photos.

Additional Information

More information is available at carthage.edu/celebration-scholars/. The following are members of the Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Committee who are eager to listen to ideas and answer questions:

Jun Wang
Kim Instenes
John Kirk
Nora Nickels
Andrew Pustina
James Ripley

Hardness of Deposited Silica Nanoparticle Thin Films

Name: Yana Astter
Major: Chemistry and Biology
Hometown: Johnsburg, IL
Faculty Sponsor: John Kirk
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Independent research
Funding: Carthage College Student Research Grant

Abstract

Nanotechnology has a demonstrated applicability to a wide range of fields including environmental monitoring, medical diagnostics, and identifying compounds in a laboratory setting. This research presents the development of a sensor structure primarily composed of silica nanoparticles that will be used for detecting organic compounds in water. These developed silica nanoparticle crystals can also be used in photonics, chemical separations, and filtration. The physical properties of pure silica nanoparticle crystals have been analyzed in depth. These crystals are typically only loosely held together until treated with high-temperature sintering. This process fuses particles together, forming interparticle siloxane bonds. However, sintering is also known to produce cracks in the films as particles shrink from the formation of internal siloxane bonds. New evidence suggests that a well-packed colloidal crystal, in the form of a thin film, can be made resistant to dispersion by altering the deposition process. The goal of this work is to form these silica nanoparticle films with crystalline packing and compare the effect of deposition and sintering on its hardness. The crystals were formed by either vertical evaporative deposition or spin-coating of silica nanoparticles from an ethanolic solution onto a glass substrate. Some samples were exposed to calcining and sintering, while others acted as a control. Film thickness was adjusted in the evaporative deposition by the concentration of nanoparticles in solution, while for spin-coating, the number of coats was adjusted. The impact of heat treatment and deposition method on the hardness of deposited silica crystals were then measured by nanoindentation.