Author Description

The work outlined in this dissertation expounds novel chemical approaches to the functionalization of silicon and metal oxide surfaces. Firstly, direct covalent attachment of dye molecules to silicon surface was achieved based on the stable Si-N bond formation through the reaction between protonated nitrogen atoms from the pyrrole structure of dye molecules and chlorine modified silicon surface. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the physical and chemical properties of resulting dye-functionalized silicon surface can be tuned by self-metalation, thus making the wide range of applications possible by design. Secondly, a novel approach utilizing a two-step chemical procedure was developed to introduce desired organic functionality onto the surfaces of metal oxide nanomaterials with morphology preservation of brittle nano-features. Gas-phase exposure of prop-2-ynoic acid was carried out onto surfaces of different metal oxide nanomaterials (ZnO nanorods, CuO nanowires, TiO2 nanoparticles, and CeO2 nanoparticles) to achieve the morphology-preserving functionalization of metal oxide nanomaterials in the first step. The second step utilizes the created alkyne functional group for post-modification that introduces any pre-designed functionality to the surface via "click" chemistry with azides (R-N3).