SOLID STATE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY

Introduction to the solid state reactions, electrical, optical, magnetic and thermal properties of inorganic materials, general principles, experimental procedures, co-precipitation as a precursor to solid state reactions.
Preparative methods of inorganic solids-crystallization of solutions, glasses, gels and melts, vapour phase transport methods, electrochemical reduction methods, preparation of thin films, growth of single crystals, high pressure and hydrothermal methods.

Laue method, Bragg method, Debye-Scherrer method of X-ray structural analysis of crystals, Miller indices, identification of unit cells from systematic absences in diffraction pattern, structure of simple lattices and X-ray intensities, structure factor and its relation to intensity and electron density, phase problem; procedure of X-ray structure analysis.
Cryo-electron microscopy, electron diffraction and neutron diffraction (brief idea).

Semiconductors: Influence of doping on band gap, applications, p-n junction, photovoltaic cell and solar conversion.
Optical properties: Optical reflectance, photoconduction-photoelectric effects, principle of LED, LCD.
Superconductivity: Meissner effect, critical temperature and critical magnetic field – type I and II superconductors, ternary oxides- structure of 123 oxides (Y-Ba-Cu-O), BCS theory of superconductivity, Cooper pair electron.

Emergence in nanotechnology, types of nanomaterials, zero dimensional, one dimensional, two dimensional, advanced nanomaterials.
Fabrication methods- bottom up and top down approach, solution phase and vapor phase synthesis,
Physical methods- physical vapour deposition (evaporation, sputtering and plasma processing methods), chemical vapour deposition, epitaxial growth method, ball miling, lithography.
Chemical methods- sol-gel process, reduction method, self-assembly method, coprecipitation, microemulsion, solvothermal, microwave synthesis, evaporation, template synthesis, sonochemical synthesis, radiation assisted synthesis, chemical etching.
Biological methods- synthesis using microorganism, biological templates, plants and plant extracts.

Properties of nanomaterials: Structural properties, electronic properties, magnetic properties, electrical properties, optical properties, mechanical properties. Surface energy controlling the different properties of nanomaterials.
Stabilization of nanoparticles: Electrostatic and steric stabilization of nanoparticles, quantum confinement effect, nanocatalyst.
Carbon nanomaterials- fullerenes, graphenes, nanotubes.
Applications and social impact- Energy-solar photovoltaics, solar thermal collectors, fuel cells, hydrogen storage, defense, nanomedicines.