Lieberman This project aims to develop ways to use chemically patterned surfaces as templates for the growth of nanoscale particles. Microcontact printing in a self-asssembled monolayer will be used to anchor the growth of multilayer materials. The particles will be detached from the substrate by severing easily cleaved bonds that have been synthesized into the anchoring self-assembled monolayer, leaving intact the chemically patterned surface for further use - a ditto machine for generating particles. The goal is also to be able to generate novel particle topographies and to make copies of particles in solution. Initially, the materials focus will be on layered metal phosphonates consisting of stacked sheets of metal phosphonates covalently linked by densely packed organic pillaring groups where a cycle of delamination and regrowth could lead to exponential amplification of the nanoparticles similar to processes known to occur in biochemical systems. The integration of research themes together with a focus on educational themes that emphasize chemistry and public policy for non-science majors will be developed and tested as supporting materials to be incorporated into the chemistry curriculum. %%% This research and education involving fundamental investigations of materials chemistry is directed at technological applications in several environmental areas to illustrate materials chemistry in practice - in industry, government, and the courts - to show students how it is used in the real world. ***
