ABSTRACT CTS-9624841 The goal of this research is to develop methods of generating silica-based ceramics in the form of porous bulk gels or as thin membrane films that have well-defined porous morphologies and pore chemistries. This work develops sol-gel routes to the synthesis of hybrid organic/inorganic materials that can be converted to porous ceramics by the total or partial removal of the organic component of the hybrid materials through pyrolysis or solvent extraction. Hybrid materials incorporate organic constituents either as molecularly well-dispersed solid solutes in the silica- ceramic network or as phase-segregated mesoscopic or macroscopic domains are formed and used as precursors to microporous ceramics or to mesoporous and macroporous ceramics, respectively. Methods that selectively remove non-covalently bonded organic polymers from hybrid the materials and leave covalently bonded organic ligands on the porous silica networks are also developed. These molecular templating approaches are used to generate well-defined porous films with several specific goals: polymerizable organic ligands (e.g., through free radical, ionic, or elimination mechanisms) are incorporated as molecular, templates for the generation of porous thin films that exhibit high degrees of pore connectivity and orientation; metal-chelating organic templates are incorporated, together with particular metals or metal ions, in the synthesis of hybrid thin films that are used to form porous ceramic membranes that exhibit high thermal stability, selective transport characteristics, and/or catalytic activity; organic ligands exhibiting specific molecular recognition properties are incorporated into hybrid materials such that, after a porous thin film is formed from them, the organic ligands are localized preferentially on the surface of the porous network and hence can be used in the development of porous matrices for chemical sensing applications. Education developments include the revision an d improvement of specific aspects of the undergraduate and graduate chemical engineering curricula, including the establishment of an individualized instruction program for at-risk undergraduate students in chemical engineering the establishment of undergraduate research programs, especially for students from underrepresented ethnic groups, and the development of cross-disciplinary, industrial and federal (National Laboratory) collaborations that will expose students to aspects of the fields of chemistry, materials science, and microfabrication. A major component of this educational plan is the implementation of an undergraduate research program whose main goal is the preparation of students from underrepresented groups for entry into graduate school. This is done in cooperation with several minority educational programs already in place at the University of New Mexico to enhance the access of minority students, especially members of New Mexico's relatively large Hispanic and Native American communities, to research careers.
