Åbo Akademi University

FUNCTIONAL POROUS MATERIALS

The synthesis and characterization of new materials with tailormade properties is one of the most important areas in science today. This is a truly interdisciplinary field where chemistry, physics and biology meet. The vast application areas of these materials include ceramics, coatings, catalysis, separation, biomedical applications and construction materials. The aim of the FPM-group is to get an understanding of the different steps involved in materials processing, nucleation and growth of the particles, processing of the sols into desired shapes, and functionalisation of the materials, and thus to be able to design materials for specific applications.

The synthesis and characterisation of silica, alumina and transition metal based materials have been of special interest for us during the last years. The ability to control the porosity and pore size with the aid of surfactants and polymers makes these materials extremely interesting as catalysts, bioactive matrixes and adsorbents. The mechanism of formation of these inorganic-organic composite materials has been studied in order to be able to carry out much of the functionalization as a onestep synthesis. Furthermore, casting techniques are also used in the preparation of materials that are difficult to synthesize using conventional sol-gel processing.

Publications

Morphology control

We are also aiming towards a parallel morphological control of the synthesized materials, including the direct synthesis of non-porous and porous films, fibres, and monoliths. For the porous materials, means for a direct control of the pore structure on multiple length scales have been developed for a rational design of hierarchically
structured materials.

Applications

Application areas of current interest include bioactive, especially osteo-conductive, materials, controlled drug release, electro-optics, non-fouling surfaces, macro-molecular separation, and solgel based binders.

From nanometers to centimeters

Due to the wide range of dimensions of interest, the diameter of molecular precursor clusters is a few nanometers, while that of fully developed particles typically lie in the micrometer range, a wide range of characterisation techniques are needed. At the department we have access to several different techniques for the determination of key properties, such as particle size, morphology, chemical composition, rheological properties, surface charge, surface energy, sorptive properties etc. Access to complementary techniques is readily achieved through our large number of collaborators in Finland and abroad.

Last updated August 7, 2009 by Matti Hotokka.